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Rawhead
 
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Rawhead (Paperback)

by David Bowker (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Paperback (New edition) £6.99 £6.99 19 used & new from £0.01

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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Macmillan (20 Sep 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 033398949X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0333989494
  • Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,399,144 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
Struggling author Billy Dye agrees to ghost the memoirs of a Manchester gangster who then decides to cancel the project along with Billy. He hires his best hitman, Rawhead, to murder Billy but luckily Rawhead turns out to be an old schoolfriend who hides him away in an old dark house. And when the psychopathic Rawhead takes an interest in Billy's career, no-one - especially in the publishing world, is safe.

Product Description
A brutally funny novel of murder and revenge, with a gothic twist; Struggling author Billy Dye agrees to ghost the memoirs of Manchester gangster Malcolm Priest. But Priest soon wearies of Billy's big mouth and hires his best hitman to take the writer out. The assassin, Rawhead, turns out to be a schoolfriend Billy hasn't seen for twenty years, so he spares Billy's life and hides him away in an old dark house. After Priest learns that Billy is still alive, he lays a trap for Rawhead. As the violence escalates, Billy discovers that his old friend is a terrifying psychopath who will literally stop at nothing to protect him. And when Rawhead takes an interest in Billy's career, no one - not even in the publishing world - is safe...

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A violent, wickedly funny tour-de-force, 29 Sep 2002
By Mr. D. Bowker (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I don't normally like crime fiction, but this book isn't like any other crime thriller I've come across. It's subtitled 'a gothic gangster story' and that about sums it up. It's a good story, but what surprised me most about it is how funny it is. All the characters are really vividly drawn and the final showdown between Rawhead and a particularly nasty character called The Doll is something to relish. Excellent, but definitely not for the squeamish.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Lame Farce, 21 Sep 2004
By A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Rawhead (Paperback)
I'm always on the lookout for crime stories with a twist, and I'm always keen on those set outside London (such as John Williams' Cardiff books or John Harvey's Nottingham series). Alas, this Manchester-set mobster farce proved to be far too heavy-handed and baroque to be enjoyable. The story kicks off when little-read horror novelist Billy Dye (the last name is just a taste of the mostly lame humor) is granted an interview with gangster #1 Malcom Priest (again, har har on the name) for a glossy lad mag. Dye somewhat rashly (or perhaps as part of a subconscious death wish), writes the truth about the nasty gangster in his profile. Thankfully, his editor rewrites it into a fawning puff piece, temporarily keeping Billy alive (although it's no great save, since the only four people Billy seems to know are his hapless agent, his ineffectual publisher, an estranged girlfriend, and his drug connection). This leads to Priest asking Dye to ghostwrite his autobiography, and thus Billy gains access to the inner sanctum. It's all very serviceable, but no one's going to dislocate a jaw laughing at the stuff. After all this setup, the story is unleashed when Priest decides Dye is annoying and orders him killed. This seems to come out of nowhere, and it's a little strange that there's no particular inciting event that leads to this. Alas, the story relies on a huge contrivance to keep the annoying Dye aliveóit just so happens that the Priest's executioner extraordinaire ("Rawhead") was Dye's best chum from childhood.

From there, things just keep getting worse. Rawhead puts Dye into a safe house and starts unleashing revenge on his behalf, leading to some fairly nasty scenes of carnage. And for the rest of the book, it's hard to know who does more stupid stuff: Dye or the gangsters. Granted, it's all a farce, but Dye is truly unlikable, and as it becomes clearer that Rawhead is a psychopath, it's hard to root for him as well. As the book progresses, the only question is how fast all these people are going to die (not fast enough). It should be noted that there's a whole gothic texture the book. Dye and Rawhead bonded as youths over classic gothic lit, and these old ghost tales crop up throughout the second half of the story. It all ends up feeling rather gimmicky, and basically I couldn't read this book fast enough to be done with it. Plenty of people apparently like it though, cause there's a sequel out called "I Love My Smith and Wesson."

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