Detainees Hb [Hardcover]

Sean Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997

Antiques dealer John Palmer has seldom left the narrow-minded Irish town where he was born. And the cracks in his psyche are beginning to show. When an old acquaintance, Alan "Redser" McDermot, drags up memories of John's tortured past, John plans a comprehensive and meticulous act of revenge.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sean Hughes, a native of Dublin, is the bestselling author of SEAN'S BOOK, THE GREY AREA, and the novel THE DETAINEES. After becoming the youngest winner of the Perrier Award for Comedy at the Edinburgh Festival, he has gone on to perform critically acclaimed television series for Channel 4 and BBC2. He presently lives in London with a cat, dog and loud music. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 322 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684820811
• ISBN-13: 978-0684820811
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,626,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars gritty revenge, September 23, 2000

By 

sallyann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Detainees Hb (Hardcover)

I think l was hoping for a little more from this book. I felt it didn't live up to its cover expectations. It's a fairly interesting story of how a non-confrontational man, John, who has an odd relationship with his wife deals with the return of the bully from his childhood. The bully, Red, also happens to have had a relationship with John's wife. It's a case of David fighting back Goliath, which, more or less, achieves it's aim.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Wee Irish Revenge Thriller, May 11, 2000

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Detainees Hb (Hardcover)

Irish comic Hughes loses the comedy in favor of a fairly clever piece of revenge fulfillment. The jacket blurbs speak of it being "a riveting thriller and blackly comic novel" and being an "urban gothic" a la Welsh, Kelman, Amis, and Self. I don't really see any of that: it's entertaining, though not riveting, and takes a while to get going before it can really be considered as a thriller, and I didn't get any comedy--black or otherwise--from it. It's a pretty decent tale about an antique dealer outside Dublin with a psychologically messed-up wife, and what happens when an old bully moves back into town and into their lives. There is a great twist at the end, but other than that, nothing too memorable.