- Taschenbuch: 160 Seiten
- Verlag: Barrington Stoke (Educational) (23. August 2007)
- Sprache: Englisch
- ISBN-10: 1842994999
- ISBN-13: 978-1842994993
- Größe und/oder Gewicht: 19,4 x 13 x 1,6 cm
- Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 5.0 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (1 Kundenrezension)
- Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 492.077 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)
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Pearce's ex needs to pay back twenty grand by midnight - or she's dead. Unless Pearce can stop the kill clock...A fast and furious underworld thriller by a master of Scottish noir. Barrington Stoke specialise in books for reluctant, struggling and dyslexic
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Format:Taschenbuch
Actually I'm doing something quite uncomplicated - write a review to tell that I think KILL CLOCK is a terrific novella. I'm not a fan of its author; I just happen to like the trim, well-written stuff he comes up with, and would rather read an unwritten story by Allan Guthrie than a published novel with 500+ pages by many other crime fiction writers. Why?
As a reader, you get pulled into Guthrie's stories like a summer person into a sudden snow scene: sorry, no gloves. After a bit, you want out. Seriously. But then this is not stupid daytime TV, where you can just switch to a sunny stretch. This is prose that prefers to be exposed, that challenges the cold - and in doing so makes numb readers' skeletons rattle with something way beyond chill.
Characters are battered, emotions are raw, and rawness is what makes the tag NOIR get to you here. KILL CLOCK features Gordon Pearce, a character Guthrie kicked into a muddy stream of events in his debut novel, TWO-WAY SPLIT. (It pays off big time to read that one. Trust me. The whole thing about becoming a fan is fake, you just get hooked instead and that's that).
Pearce is that kind of guy who most of the time remembers that being halfway nice is OK, and not an uncontrollable annoyance like some nervous tic. He went through much crap and has placed hard times behind him, just in order to embrace with stoic demeanor some new trouble.
Pace is Guthries forte. Hours, minutes, seconds seem to move back and forth and bounce. Time is nasty, and so present in this tight prose that it appears to belong to the cast like a fully developed character.
KILL CLOCK is fast, but doesn't plot too far ahead. The story (roughly 70 percent tough misery, 17 percent nihilism and a kick of 13 percent of what could possibly pass as smudged goodness) unfolds with simplicity, and drags the reader along. Pearce and his crippled dog get involved in an ex-girlfriends catch 22 (serious threat, loan shark, dead of night deadline, two shaken, fatherless children - that kind of thing). Reluctantly he makes it his mission to help, but things quickly spin out of control in a fusion of night and nastiness; even a second, less battered Ex of Pearce fails to get things off the dark track. Guthrie never makes the grave mistake to confuse misery with tragedy. He does not get too fancy about violence, but just makes sure all protective screens are removed: Noir pure. Neither becoming a fan, nor buying a pair of gloves lets the reader off the hook.
As a reader, you get pulled into Guthrie's stories like a summer person into a sudden snow scene: sorry, no gloves. After a bit, you want out. Seriously. But then this is not stupid daytime TV, where you can just switch to a sunny stretch. This is prose that prefers to be exposed, that challenges the cold - and in doing so makes numb readers' skeletons rattle with something way beyond chill.
Characters are battered, emotions are raw, and rawness is what makes the tag NOIR get to you here. KILL CLOCK features Gordon Pearce, a character Guthrie kicked into a muddy stream of events in his debut novel, TWO-WAY SPLIT. (It pays off big time to read that one. Trust me. The whole thing about becoming a fan is fake, you just get hooked instead and that's that).
Pearce is that kind of guy who most of the time remembers that being halfway nice is OK, and not an uncontrollable annoyance like some nervous tic. He went through much crap and has placed hard times behind him, just in order to embrace with stoic demeanor some new trouble.
Pace is Guthries forte. Hours, minutes, seconds seem to move back and forth and bounce. Time is nasty, and so present in this tight prose that it appears to belong to the cast like a fully developed character.
KILL CLOCK is fast, but doesn't plot too far ahead. The story (roughly 70 percent tough misery, 17 percent nihilism and a kick of 13 percent of what could possibly pass as smudged goodness) unfolds with simplicity, and drags the reader along. Pearce and his crippled dog get involved in an ex-girlfriends catch 22 (serious threat, loan shark, dead of night deadline, two shaken, fatherless children - that kind of thing). Reluctantly he makes it his mission to help, but things quickly spin out of control in a fusion of night and nastiness; even a second, less battered Ex of Pearce fails to get things off the dark track. Guthrie never makes the grave mistake to confuse misery with tragedy. He does not get too fancy about violence, but just makes sure all protective screens are removed: Noir pure. Neither becoming a fan, nor buying a pair of gloves lets the reader off the hook.
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3 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Fast and furious
27. Januar 2008
Format:Taschenbuch
I started my copy of Kill Clock the morning after I received it in the mail and read it from cover to cover in 45 minutes! This is one hot little Scotch bonnet of a novella: short, sharp, and shocking. (Though maybe not as shocking as that scene in Hard Man.)
All of Guthrie's great attributes are on full display here, with none of the drawbacks that made Hard Man a disappointment for me. (Yeah, Pearce is still pretty dumb sometimes, but he's smart in all the right ways.)
Gordon Pearce (from Hard Man and Two-Way Split) is back once again. Kill Clock takes place a few years after the events in Hard Man, with Pearce out for the evening with his three-legged dog, Hilda. It looks like another case of "teach a prick a lesson" and then head home, but his ex-girlfriend Julie shows up with her two kids and a sob story: she needs 20,000 by midnight or she's toast.
Kill Clock was written for "adult reluctant readers" (with a reading age of 8+) and the simplicity of the text is pure fire. At 150 pages of large text -- with no complex conversations or descriptive digressions -- keeping the story moving is the key here, and Guthrie follows through with a tight little tale that takes an old suspense plot and polishes it up bright and shiny. And yet there's room for Guthrie to insert little bits of insight on how some people change when you haven't seen them in a long time, and some people stay exactly the same. This extra spice wasn't necessary for Kill Clock to kick serious arse, but it boosts this little tale into a fine addition to any dark crime fan's library.
All of Guthrie's great attributes are on full display here, with none of the drawbacks that made Hard Man a disappointment for me. (Yeah, Pearce is still pretty dumb sometimes, but he's smart in all the right ways.)
Gordon Pearce (from Hard Man and Two-Way Split) is back once again. Kill Clock takes place a few years after the events in Hard Man, with Pearce out for the evening with his three-legged dog, Hilda. It looks like another case of "teach a prick a lesson" and then head home, but his ex-girlfriend Julie shows up with her two kids and a sob story: she needs 20,000 by midnight or she's toast.
Kill Clock was written for "adult reluctant readers" (with a reading age of 8+) and the simplicity of the text is pure fire. At 150 pages of large text -- with no complex conversations or descriptive digressions -- keeping the story moving is the key here, and Guthrie follows through with a tight little tale that takes an old suspense plot and polishes it up bright and shiny. And yet there's room for Guthrie to insert little bits of insight on how some people change when you haven't seen them in a long time, and some people stay exactly the same. This extra spice wasn't necessary for Kill Clock to kick serious arse, but it boosts this little tale into a fine addition to any dark crime fan's library.
1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Make sure you read Two-Way Split first!
26. Mai 2008
Format:Taschenbuch|Von Amazon bestätigter Kauf
Kill Clock is a short novella follow-on to Allan Guthrie's excellent debut novel, Two-Way Split. You have to read the prequel first, otherwise many of the setups will make little sense to you. Moreover, if you read in the reverse order, your enjoyment of the longer book will be ruined by several spoilers.
Kill Clock moves faster than Two Way Split. It's like those old merry go rounds we tried to jump on as kids: you'd better to be ready to get yanked and pulled right away! Heck, it moves faster than almost any book that in my last year of reading.
There's Guthrie's traditional hard people and hard violence. As usual, the local color is excellent and the dialog is razor sharp.
This book ended in a satisfactory manner for me (can't say some of it's characters would feel the same way), but it ended far sooner than I would have liked. I'm eager awaiting Guthrie's next work.
Kill Clock moves faster than Two Way Split. It's like those old merry go rounds we tried to jump on as kids: you'd better to be ready to get yanked and pulled right away! Heck, it moves faster than almost any book that in my last year of reading.
There's Guthrie's traditional hard people and hard violence. As usual, the local color is excellent and the dialog is razor sharp.
This book ended in a satisfactory manner for me (can't say some of it's characters would feel the same way), but it ended far sooner than I would have liked. I'm eager awaiting Guthrie's next work.
A Good Short Story That Has Inspired Me to Give the Author's Novels a Go
24. September 2011
Format:Taschenbuch
I love the fact that publishers are now publishing short stories as cheap stand alone books. If you're familiar with the Quick Reads publications, Kill Clock is a similar length. You can easily read this book in under an hour. With Kill Clock, it's an hour that will fly by. The tale starts off brilliant, with an ahole driver picking the wrong victim to bully and abuse for walking his three legged dog on a footpath as the idiot reversed his car without looking. That victim is a badarse named Gordon Pearce, and he very satisfactorily for the reader gives this jerk his comeuppance. Pearce is apparently a reoccurring character from some previous novels, but I had no problem following this story without having read those. I will certainly be checking out Guthrie's back catalogue as Pearce is a very interesting character indeed. As his dog Hilda, who not only lives with the burden of missing a leg, but also a girl's name being he's male.
After dealing with the rude motorist, Julie, a woman Pearce fell for years ago he conned ripped him off then disappeared asks him to hop in her car. Knowing the cops may well have been called by the car driver, or those that just enjoyed watching what was done to him, Pearce decides even though he doesn't want a thing to do with the woman, it's probably best he gets a ride out of the area. She tells him in between abusing her two rude little brats in the backseat, that their father owed an underworld figure 20 000 pounds, couldn't pay it and was given the ultimatum to kill someone else. He failed and is now dead, and Julie inherited the debt and her own clock deadline, which has passed. She wants his help. Pearce of course assumes she's conning him but doubt enters his mind when she's abducted, he's shot at and he's left with the brats and the guy on her phone tells Pearce if he doesn't pay the debt by the deadline she's dead.
It's a great quick tale, but some readers may find Julie's swearing at her children in the car pages a bit uncomfortable reading.
After dealing with the rude motorist, Julie, a woman Pearce fell for years ago he conned ripped him off then disappeared asks him to hop in her car. Knowing the cops may well have been called by the car driver, or those that just enjoyed watching what was done to him, Pearce decides even though he doesn't want a thing to do with the woman, it's probably best he gets a ride out of the area. She tells him in between abusing her two rude little brats in the backseat, that their father owed an underworld figure 20 000 pounds, couldn't pay it and was given the ultimatum to kill someone else. He failed and is now dead, and Julie inherited the debt and her own clock deadline, which has passed. She wants his help. Pearce of course assumes she's conning him but doubt enters his mind when she's abducted, he's shot at and he's left with the brats and the guy on her phone tells Pearce if he doesn't pay the debt by the deadline she's dead.
It's a great quick tale, but some readers may find Julie's swearing at her children in the car pages a bit uncomfortable reading.
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