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Review
"'A bizarre mixture of Chandleresque elegance... and naked brutality' Dally Telegraph 'Hellishly bleak and moving' New Statesman 'He writes beautifully, and his sincerity cannot be faulted' Evening Standard 'Raymond writes with a stomach-churning exactness about murder, madness and mutilation' The Times 'Superb... an English Chandler... only better' Dally Mall 'A mixture of thin-lipped Chandleresque backchat and of idioms more icily subversive' Observer 'Raw-edged, strong and disturbing stuff' The Scotsman"
Product Description
A man?s corpse is discovered in a Rotherhithe warehouse, chopped up, boiled to avoid identification, and bundled into five Waitrose carrier bags. Our nameless narrator from A14 - the ?Unexplained Deaths? division of the Met - is put on the case. Operating, as usual, with his wit and sheer nerve in place of adequate resources and contacts, the narrator?s investigations uncover much more than the murderer. As he probes a world of horror in South London, a terrible secret from his own past emerges. ?A bizarre mixture of Chandleresque elegance... and naked brutality? Daily Telegraph ?Hellishly bleak and moving? New Statesman ?Superb... an English Chandler... only better? Daily Mail
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First Sentence
I knocked at a second-floor flat in a dreary house, one of two hundred in a dreary Catford street. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I knocked at a second-floor flat in a dreary house, one of two hundred in a dreary Catford street. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Raymond's novels are brutal but have a feeling of authenticity about the world of crime. Although he is very clever he is nowhere near the out-of-the world narratives of many other crime writers. Yes he is tough but hi aggression is kept within acceptable limits, at least for me. Occasional problems with the first person narrative as in the beginning of the novel. Also if you are describing how much you are your own man then this can seem like boasting and may affect the reader's response to the narrator.
Excellent books and well worth collecting the whole set.
Excellent books and well worth collecting the whole set.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Dark crime of the highest order, a British James Ellroy.
20 April 1999
The Devil's Home on Leave is the first of Derek Raymond's Factory novels. The series is a grim view of London's criminal underground and a policeman who understands it completely. The sergeant works for a small division of the force that deals with whatever the Serious Crime Unit deems to be too low-profile: vagrants, prostitutes - the forlorn and the forgotten. The sergeant investigates the revolting murder of a man with only his memoirs as a guide, the killer having reduced the corpse to unidentifiable fragments.
This is a common theme in the Factory novels, a victim who is ignored by the system but who is brought to life by either a diary, recorded thoughts or the memories of close friends. The sergeant is never named but his depth of feeling for the victim is almost painful to read. The novels are never really whodunnits, more the gradual gathering of evidence and uncovering of the chain of events. These books gripped me, they have a savage beauty. Their tone is depressing but there are some lighter moments when the sergeant takes time to deconstruct the masks that many of his witnesses wear or give his thoughts on the nature of policework. Buy it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
the best
4 Aug 2007
Format:Paperback
Fantastic noir writer, a madman himself, his works are wonderful stories of depravity, violence and a nameless detective who is a tough, brilliant man who sins often and devotes himself to the destruction of evil.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The Details in the Devil
16 Nov 2008
Format:Paperback
This second entry in the "Factory" series is very different from the first. The perspective of the 'unnamed' Sergeant, seems to come from a different place than it did in the first. Maybe it's the tortured side of his private life that wasn't mentioned in the first (or did it happen after the first) that seems to change his perspective. Raymond (or Robin Cook) does a great job of breaking down the walls between the 'classes' probably because he grew up on one side but lived most of his life on the other. He especially seems to have a great handle as to what it was to grow up in Northern Ireland during the worst of "The Troubles".
Once you get past the gory details of the first murder and into the mystery itself, the story is very compelling. Like the best thrillers, things just lead one into the other and the complications all make sense. Especially the Cambridge connection with the Russian trade mission.
The unnamed Sergeant is all Raymond, you can hear the snide laughter in the background every time he takes on "Authority". The interview that he is forced to go to with the promotion board is hilarious as he tries to get out of it and then purposely cocks-it-up. The men on the Board are so thick headed that none of them get the idea that he doesn't want a promotion and just think he's being 'cheeky'. It's past funny when he goes to interview a high level minister for breaking the "Official Secret's Act" who complains to him:
"Shouldn't I be interviewed by some one at a higher level than Sergeant?"
"Well, you'll just have to get used to dealing with me"
"I'm used to being addressed as Sir"
"Well I don't have time for that now"
And then the Minister threatens to call the Sergeant's higher ups even though the guy knows they both know he's guilty. Doesn't matter, one has to keep up appearances and expect the lower classes to know their place. It's almost like, 'you know who we are and even if we are traitors we expect to be treated respectfully and with kid gloves'. It's all very English and "Bob's your Uncle" type stuff. Great Read.
Zeb Kantrowitz
Once you get past the gory details of the first murder and into the mystery itself, the story is very compelling. Like the best thrillers, things just lead one into the other and the complications all make sense. Especially the Cambridge connection with the Russian trade mission.
The unnamed Sergeant is all Raymond, you can hear the snide laughter in the background every time he takes on "Authority". The interview that he is forced to go to with the promotion board is hilarious as he tries to get out of it and then purposely cocks-it-up. The men on the Board are so thick headed that none of them get the idea that he doesn't want a promotion and just think he's being 'cheeky'. It's past funny when he goes to interview a high level minister for breaking the "Official Secret's Act" who complains to him:
"Shouldn't I be interviewed by some one at a higher level than Sergeant?"
"Well, you'll just have to get used to dealing with me"
"I'm used to being addressed as Sir"
"Well I don't have time for that now"
And then the Minister threatens to call the Sergeant's higher ups even though the guy knows they both know he's guilty. Doesn't matter, one has to keep up appearances and expect the lower classes to know their place. It's almost like, 'you know who we are and even if we are traitors we expect to be treated respectfully and with kid gloves'. It's all very English and "Bob's your Uncle" type stuff. Great Read.
Zeb Kantrowitz
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