or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
33 used & new from £1.68
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
King Suckerman (Five Star)
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

King Suckerman (Five Star) (Paperback)

by George Pelecanos (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.97 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.02 (38%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 4 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Thursday, February 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
19 new from £2.69 12 used from £1.68 2 collectible from £5.99
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 9 used & new from £20.71
Paperback £13.91 £14.17 Order it used
Mass Market Paperback £5.81 £6.01 2 used & new from £6.01

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Discover the writers, meet the cast and explore much more in The Wire Store

Frequently Bought Together

King Suckerman (Five Star) + The Sweet Forever (Five Star) + The Big Blowdown (Five Star)
Total RRP: £25.97
Price For All Three: £16.04

Show availability and delivery details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Sweet Forever (Five Star)

The Sweet Forever (Five Star)

by George Pelecanos
4.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.01
The Big Blowdown (Five Star)

The Big Blowdown (Five Star)

by George Pelecanos
4.9 out of 5 stars (9)  £6.06
Shame The Devil

Shame The Devil

by George Pelecanos
4.1 out of 5 stars (8)  £5.59
A Firing Offense (Five Star Paperback)

A Firing Offense (Five Star Paperback)

by George Pelecanos
3.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.99
Nicks Trip (Five Star Paperback)

Nicks Trip (Five Star Paperback)

by George Pelecanos
4.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £6.37
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Serpent's Tail; New Ed edition (7 Sep 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1852427345
  • ISBN-13: 978-1852427344
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 18,726 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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

Product Description

Guardian

‘If Curtis Mayfield were a novel this would be it’

Kirkus Reviews

‘This book smokes’
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

King Suckerman (Five Star)
67% buy the item featured on this page:
King Suckerman (Five Star) 4.3 out of 5 stars (7)
£4.97
The Big Blowdown (Five Star)
17% buy
The Big Blowdown (Five Star) 4.9 out of 5 stars (9)
£6.06
Hard Revolution
6% buy
Hard Revolution 4.9 out of 5 stars (9)
£5.58
Nicks Trip (Five Star Paperback)
5% buy
Nicks Trip (Five Star Paperback) 4.7 out of 5 stars (3)
£6.37
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Why Shaft was cool, 11 July 2008
You know that bloke you really hated at school, the one who was great looking, good at sports, funny, got all the girls, (including the one you had been secretly in love with for 3 years), AND hung out with the popular and beatiful crowd?
Well he's just written a book and guess what it's very cool, slick, street wise, funny and even moving in places.

The story watches the worlds of an eclectic crowd of 'hip dudes' collide in the last dying carefree days of the seventies set against the skyline of post race riot Washington DC.

We have a collection of out of towners looking for a quick score and a whole load of trouble, a couple of old school friends hitting their late twenties and looking for more meaning in life than their current headonistic life styles. An italian TV adict who wants to be Al Pacino and his weary business manager and a gang of Bikers.

All this is set to a cool 70's soundtrack, charactors don't just stick the hi-fi on they 'slide' a Hendrix 8 track cartride into the Pioneer. They don't just get in the car but 'drop into the bucket of a '73 Firebird' The book is packed with 70's reference points much relating to Black and drugs culture, the movies of the time (especially the Blaxsploitation films) and the generally morally eroded era of pre HIV America.

The book is highly readable though often violent and a little disturbing in very much a (and quite deliberately) Tarintinoesque way. It's a light weight though gritty throwaway kind of book. It can be finished in a couple of sittings without too much mental flexing and yet still leave you with a smile and a bit to think about.

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


 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars 'A song about friends and money and a drug deal gone wrong', 10 Nov 2009
By Bill (Cornwall, UK) - See all my reviews
King Suckerman is the second in Pelecanos' DC Quartet, and now the plot centres on Dmitri Karras, who was only a young child at the end of The Big Blowdown. Although it's not necessary to have read the earlier novel, having done so will lend an air of poignancy and foreboding to the action, as events seem to push Dmitri down the same road taken by his father.

In other respects King Suckerman is different from its predecessor. It's shorter, funnier and faster, and doesn't lose impetus by painting in the back-story to the main protagonists. It's reminiscent of Elmore Leonard's best work, and Pelecanos shares Leonard's eye for detail; when he describes a young hoodlum's loping stride across a hot, dusty yard, the rayon shirt sticking to his back in the Maryland heat, one hand half-curled and the other holding the sawn-off shotgun, you can see and feel the moment. The dialogue owes a lot to Leonard too, fizzing and crackling off the page. The violence, when it comes, is shocking - far bloodier and more explicit than in Leonard's novels.

Occasionally the detail gets in the way, as Pelecanos appears to name-check every rock, soul and prog band from the mid-1970s. But just as I was beginning to get irritated with this, I found myself ticking off the LPs which I once had, and suddenly I was back in the period, in my stacked heels, patched flares and cheesecloth shirt.

Pelecanos really cares about his characters, even the worst of them, and he makes you care about them too. It's this compassion that really enfuses his fiction - that, and the sense of place, the detailed portrayal of a sprawling American city; the same qualities that elevated The Wire (for which Pelecanos wrote many of the scripts) above all other TV crime dramas.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars More plot, less violence please!, 23 Nov 2002
By J. Mcgregor "jiy126" - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
I was quite disappointed with this book, as I much enjoyed The Big Blowdown by the same author. He has real talent and style, but dilutes it in this novel with excessive graphic violence and tasteless characterisation. When you can write as well as Pelecanos, there's no need to overdo how bad some of his bad guys can be. We already get the picture.
King Suckerman is set in late seventies Washington DC, where everyone did drugs and lived their lives to their own personal soundtrack. On almost every page, a character is depicted selecting or listening to some sort of music, be it Uriah Heep, Isaac Hayes, Led Zepplin or the Bee Gees. Initially, I found this a bit annoying, as if Pelecanos was desperate to show us what a wide and eclectic musical taste he has. Gradually though, it becomes a part of the narrative that you'd miss if it was dropped, and helps to give the novel a distinct flavour. The plot is straightforward, and it's the development of the characters that takes precedence. I left the book wanting to learn more about both them (those that survive!) and the world they inhabit.
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
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it and weep
The best book ever written? Probably, were it possible to quantify such things. With this book, even more than normal, Pelecanos will take you in, chew you up and spit you out... Read more
Published on 3 July 2007 by Danny Sigma

5.0 out of 5 stars Tarantino.. eat your heart out !1
Fanatastic entertainment. Anyone who enjoyed Pulp Fiction should read this.. it's got the same reckless,knowing, funny, hip feel to it and is just a brilliant read. Read more
Published on 26 April 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant
Initially I hated this book,the cultural references were too knowing and just a bit too clever.As the book progressed however I came to love the references and the book. Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars Bad Muthas, Bikers and Superfly soul
Blaxploitation with a Real Right soundtrack. If you are into the crime genre you'll like it, if you are into the blaxploitation, pulp fiction sort of thing you'll love it. Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2000 by lyndon@chloe83.freeserve.co.uk

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.