22 used & new from £0.01
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
The White Room
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

The White Room (Paperback)

by Martyn Waites (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


8 new from £0.01 14 used from £0.01
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback (New edition) £6.99 £6.29 26 used & new from £0.01

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Born Under Punches

Born Under Punches

by Martyn Waites
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £4.37
Candleland (A&B Crime)

Candleland (A&B Crime)

by Martyn Waites
5.0 out of 5 stars (1) 
White Riot

White Riot

by Martyn Waites
4.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £5.49
The Mercy Seat (Donovan)

The Mercy Seat (Donovan)

by Martyn Waites
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £5.49
Little Triggers (Stephen Larkin)

Little Triggers (Stephen Larkin)

by Martyn Waites
3.3 out of 5 stars (3)  £6.29
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 389 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd; paperback / softback edition (7 Jun 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0743248228
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743248228
  • Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,250,601 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description

Newcastle, 1946. 19-year-old Jack Smeaton returns from the trenches, his hair turned white by the trauma of WWII. He seeks solace in socialism, falling under the spell of the young T. Dan Smith, visionary future leader of the city council, architect of tower blocks and sculpted concrete. Meanwhile, the future of Monica Blacklock, victim of a childhood of abuse, seems unremittingly bleak. A chance encounter with a handsome young man on the banks of the river Tyne looks set to change her life for the better. But handsome, psychopathic Brian Mooney has plans for Monica. In fact, Brian has plans for lots of people...A masterfully contrived fusion of fiction and real life crime, THE WHITE ROOM is a gripping tale of passion and violence, desire and revenge, spanning four tumultuous decades.

About the Author

Born and raised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Martyn Waites now lives in Essex with his wife and two children. He has turned his hand to many professions: market trader, bar manager, stand-up comic and professional actor, a career he now combines with writing. Most recent TV appearances include a benefit fraud advertisement and The New Adventures of Robin Hood on Channel 5! Martyn is Writer in Residence at Huntercombe Young Offenders' Institution in Oxfordshire. BORN UNDER PUNCHES is his fourth novel.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The White Room
48% buy the item featured on this page:
The White Room 4.0 out of 5 stars (3)
The Mercy Seat (Donovan)
15% buy
The Mercy Seat (Donovan) 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£5.49
Speak No Evil
13% buy
Speak No Evil 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
£5.49
Bone Machine (Donovan)
12% buy
Bone Machine (Donovan) 3.5 out of 5 stars (2)
£6.29
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not all white, 4 Sep 2004
Lauded by the broadsheet critics and the likes of Ian Rankin no less, ex-pat Geordie, Martyn Waites is touted as the next big thing in British noir. His fifth novel offers a guided tour around the mean streets of Newcastle; from post-war privation to 1960s boom. The only real boom heard back then was the sound of T Dan Smith tearing the old town down. This Trotskyist chancer who ended up running the council, is just one of many period politicians and pop stars who populate this stylised tale of abuse, corruption and slaughter.

Having factual and fictional characters rubbing shoulders is a gamble. The worthy but dull hero, Jack Smeaton, frankly isn't as interesting as the real-life great and good he mixes with in the book. Waites also takes a huge risk invoking the spirit of Michael Caine when sharp-suited psycho, Ben Marshall returns to his native north east after several years strong-arming in Soho. Raising Caine as directly as he does only reminds the reader that Get Carter definitely has the better lines.

The inevitable clash between Smeaton's ethics and Marshall's grave new world ends not with a bang or even a whimper but more of a glum shrug. Waites is on surer ground with the tragic composite that echoes Scotswood's notorious child killer, Mary Bell. Mae Blacklock's almost tangential story is the sad, dark heart beating at the centre of this book; evil is something learnt, meted out by generations of remorseless instruction. Grim up north? Bloody grim.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
4.0 out of 5 stars Waites' Returns In Style, 26 Jun 2007
By Andrew W. Edgeworth - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The White Room (Paperback)
09/06/2007

`The White Room' by Martyn Waites



Martyn Waites follows on from the highly successful `Born Under Punches' with a work of similar sonority that is written with his same infectious style. `The White Room' is a tale of raw, brutal lives in post-war Newcastle which seizes the mood of a city suffering from a lack of identity in the years following World War II. Although the synopsis is slightly mis-leading the novel is another book that has twists and turns at every corner and like his previous novel leads to a crescendo of crude, gripping sub-plots which leaves no taboo subject untouched. It reads like a cross between some of Elmore Leonard's early work (such as Swag) and has the same raw, untouched realism of the film `Get Carter'. It paints a picture of tough urban life in a hard city and Waite's' again hits home the harsh message of making the best of situations without hope. It focuses on half a dozen characters (which epitomise the people of a region struggling to cope in post-war North-East England) and quickly flits between their plights to result in an action filled finale which is as violent as it is compelling. All in all, a gripping read, and although not quite as punchy as his debut novel, it is still a thrilling piece of work.

6 out of 10, ****

By Andy Edgeworth
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
5.0 out of 5 stars British Ellroy, 3 Sep 2004
By A Customer
This writer just keeps getting better. Imagine a novel where real life characters like disgraced Labour politician T Dan Smith and (thinly disguised) child killer Mary Bell come to life. Like James Ellroy does with LA in the fifties, Waites is doing it with Newcastle in the Sixties. Along with David Peace, he must now be Britain's best crime writer. Not for the faint-hearted, but a brilliant slab of noir. I loved it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject









i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.