Cardiff Dead [Paperback]

John Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2001

A page-turning mystery as funny as it is darkly atmospheric.

Returning to the same territory that made his short story collection so compelling, John Williams explores the dark side of city life-the prostitutes, the drug dealers, the crooked businessmen and the people just watching life, trying not to let it pass them by.

It's 1999 and Charlie Unger is dead. Once a champion boxer, then the heart and soul of a band called the Wurriyas, his death draws together the other members of the band, long since broken up after their one hit faded. Mazz makes his way up from England, nervous about facing Charlie's daughter Tyra since things ended badly between them years before. As Mazz tries to reconcile with her, the two of them dig into the suspicions that surround her father's death, unraveling a mystery that is connected to the very city itself.

A brilliant portrait of a city poised on the brink of change, a story about the possibilities of righting past wrongs-Cardiff Dead is a gritty, thrilling tale written straight from the heart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Welsh noir, anyone? In this poignant tale of Cardiff lowlifes (to coin a Welsh phrase, "if anything green still grows in my valley it must be marijuana") by Cardiff native Williams (Five Pubs, Two Bars and a Nightclub), Mazz, a disillusioned over-the-hill rock guitarist, returns home. It was in Cardiff, at 19, that Mazz's promise blossomed momentarily when he and his friend Charlie Unger formed a band called the Wurriyas. They were good, made a record. Mazz wrote a hit song. The dreams got as far as London, then faded out. Now Charlie former lightweight champion of the world is discovered in his hotel room five days after he died, apparently of natural causes. Or did he? Mazz wants to find out because Charlie was his friend, but also because, as with everything else in the lives of people he knew back then, no one cares why it all went to hell. Cardiff is changing. There's a lot of construction: out with the old, make big money on the new. Anyone who stands in the way of progress gets plowed under. Was that what happened to Charlie? Mazz's search for answers leads him to beaches, prostitute hangouts, boardrooms and boxing gyms. The mystery is incidental to the story of Mazz's struggle to come to terms with his past and make a new life for himself, but Williams ties it all together in the end. Besides some effective passages in the present-day narrative, the flashbacks that run throughout chronicling the rise and fall of the Wurriyas are generally the most compelling parts of the book.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* What's puzzling about Williams' latest is why it works so well. A book full of contradictions, it's a murder mystery and a nostalgic look at lost youth, a tale of corruption, danger, and passion, a love story full of recrimination and guilt, an account of successful urban renewal in Cardiff, a noir thriller packed with laugh-aloud humor. In Williams' capable hands, these disparate elements come together perfectly in a story that's as heart-wrenching as it is gripping and oppressive. Aging hippie musician Mazz was a member of the successful ska band the Wurriyas in the 1970s. The band broke up after its one hit single, "Lick 'Em Down," and its former members have taken distinctly different paths in life. The event that brings them back together is the death, possibly in suspicious circumstances, of their former leader, Charlie Unger. As Mazz and his mates visit old haunts, unearth long-buried passions, and reassess their accomplishments, they begin to see themselves in a new, perhaps more truthful, light. The only downside to this sparkling little gem of a book is that the slang and Cardiff-speak may be a puzzle to non-Brits. Otherwise, it's nearly perfect. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (August 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582341451
• ISBN-13: 978-1582341453
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,784,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Brilliant, November 26, 2001

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cardiff Dead (Paperback)

In his third work of fiction, Williams returns to the colorfully seedy neighborhood and characters of Butetown in Cardiff, as seen previously in his collection Five Pubs, Two Bars, and a Nightclub, for a crime novel that draws heavily upon the themes of his first novel, Faithless. That story featured Jeff, former punk saxaphonist who is drifting along trying to figure out what to make of his life in the wake of punk. Here, we have Mazz, guitarist for hire and former leader of a Welsh one-hit-wonder ska band from 1981, the Wurriyas. It's now 1999, and Mazz is making his way back to Cardiff for his bandmate Charlie's funeral, where he will encounter everyone from the "good old days" (including a number of characters who appear in Five Pubs, Two Bars, and a Nightclub).

Was Charlie's death an accidental cocaine overdose, or is there something more to it? And what about the mysterious disappearance of Emyr, formerly the Wurriyas' skinhead drummer, and now a brooding alt-rock god? Mazz ends up getting involved in both questions, but only in a meandering way, because what he's really wondering is how his life has gotten so off track, and what-if any-changes he can make. Mazz's struggle with the past is inexorably tied to that of Tyra, his former bandmate, girlfriend, and Charlie's daughter. Williams propels their story with flashbacks to the early '80s showing the formation of the band, their rise and fall, and the relationships between them all. Initially it's a little hard to feel too much sympathy for hard-drinking Mazz, who seems to be able to pull any woman he wants, but as the novel progresses, it becomes sad how these are the only things he can try and fill his emptiness in. What he really wants, he's not made for, and perhaps saddest of all, he knows it.

This is a great book, mixing crime, pulp, tragedy, grim humor, surfing, ska, urban renewal, nostalgia, and desperation. All the characters pop from the page, especially vivid are lesbian singer turned pimp Bobby, and laid-back former footballer turned surfer bum Colonel. Contrary to at least one review, there is very little slang in the book, and it's quite easy to understand from the context. A brilliant look at non-tourist Cardiff. in addition to his his two books mentioned above, also check out Williams' non-fiction tour of American crime writing, Into the Badlands.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, April 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Cardiff Dead (Hardcover)

This book stands up well alone but if you have ever been to Cardiff or Wales or have some Welsh relative then this book is for you. Like the best selling Cardiff East by Peter Gill and Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve by Dannie Abse, the story is all there but with the added reality of being writen in and around a real sometimes obscure place just adds to the majesty of the work. It is argued that the Welsh founded America and in particular pennsylvania and set the foundations for what is now the greatest nation in the world. It is tantilizing and intriging to go back and see where it all began. Buy this and enjoy, I did!