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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Renegade Justice, December 4, 2005
Simon Kernick has written a fast-paced novel about a good man doing ambiguous things for the right reasons. Sgt. Milne is a detective with the Metropolitan Police, and he supplements his meager income carrying out hits on criminals (as requested and compensated by other criminals). His conscience isn't bothered, especially given some of the bums he's asked to eliminate. After a big hit described in the first chapter, however, our narrator discovers that the victims seem to be honest civil servants. Now, he has to watch his moves carefully as he works with the same police force that is investigating his crime.
All while this is going on, Sgt. Milne is investigating the brutal murder of a street walker--eventually, these two stories converge into a satisfying, action-packed conclusion. Kernick has a nice, wry, and fast-paced style that suits the storyline and the main character. There are even a few laughs! The plot is nicely devised, and a lot of bad people get what's coming to them--although Milne is enforcing a renegade justice, it's quite appealing to see the criminals in this novel pay for their injury to society. Give it a go--you won't be disappointed!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb tightly constructed debut, February 27, 2004
London DS Dennis Milne is assigned to look into the death of an eighteen year old prostitute, Miriam Fox. She was found near a canal with her throat slashed. As Milne investigates, he becomes romantically interested in Carla Graham, manager of the hostel where Miriam lived. However, Carla is much more than she superficially appears to be. Of major concern to him is the ongoing investigation into a purported mob hit against three men- two of whom were custom agents. What worries Milne is that he was the hit man on the three killings. He did it for money but was told the men were hardened criminals who got what they had coming. Far from the typical British detective novel, Simon Kernick goes for true originality- a detective and a hit man. Kernick manages to pull it off admirably with superb characterizations that possess great depth and feelings. Kernick manages to achieve this by spending great care in the first half of the novel establishing these characters- especially Detective Milne, of course. The second half of the book is a violent tour de force where plot twists and surprises keep the pages turning as fast as possible. There is a great sense of control the author exhibits in plot progression and pacing. The writing style is slick. I cannot imagine he did not know exactly where the story was going. A superb debut.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kernick Has Proven He Has Learnt the Business of Writing, January 16, 2009
Kernick's debut novel is the fourth novel of his I have read and can tell you it's just as good if not better than the other three. The first of his I ever read was Relentless which was a Harlan Coben independent storyline style (average everyday guy suddenly has life in danger by a sudden event, must flee and work out what is going on to survive type reads). The second was Kernick's novel Severed, which was more of a David Morrell type novel (fast paced albeit a little unrealistic action thriller, well trained ex army guy who rights a wrong type reads). Deadline was completely different again, was an action novel but more along the lines of through the eyes of a policeman solving a crime type novel. What we've got here with the Business of Dying is a combination of the styles of Deadline and Severed rolled into the one lead character.
In this novel Detective Sergeant Dennis Milne long ago lost his faith that police following the rules made a huge difference. Sure he's put many through traditional police methods behind bars but the justice system has also seen a lot walk free due to technicalities or tainted evidence. Therefore he has no problem delivering his own justice while making a bit of money on the side by being paid to be an assassin. He only kills those who deserve it, at least he did until he found out his latest triple hit happened to be two customs agents and an accountant. Complicating matter is a witness which makes his associates on the hit man side of things a bit jittery. He knows his name is most likely going to be on a list if he doesn't get on top of this and figure out what, exactly is going on. However he's still got his day to day detective job and with that the homicide case of a likely teenage prostitute.
This is a very fast paced novel, terrifically written, especially when you remember this was his debut novel. Not many authors can successfully write across genres but I can tell you from reading four of his novels, that Kernick has more than proven, that he can. By the way you can also get this novel in a release called Die Twice: Two Crime Novels in One The Business of Dying and The Murder Exchange which may be a cheaper option.
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