Dizzy City: A Novel [Paperback]

Nicholas Griffin (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Steerforth Press (2007)
• ASIN: B002F1CHXK
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'The Sting' meets 'All Quiet on the Western Front', August 27, 2007

By 

Bartle B. Bull "Bartle B. Bull" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dizzy City: A Novel (Hardcover)

Just because Griffin's latest is set in New York City doesn't mean it doesn't have war on its mind. Most of the fiction I've read set during the First World War locates itself directly in the trenches, but Griffin is looking at different aspects of the war.

He takes a deserter, puts him down in Manhattan and then looks at the world of arms dealers and high society earners through the lens of a low-down gang of semi-sophisticated con artists. I say semi-sophisticated because every time you think one of them is up to something sharp, the plot will turn and you'll figure out there's a more aggressive shark swimming close by.

Old-fashioned, enjoyable, page-turning story-telling, a meeting of `The Sting' and `All Quiet on the Western Front', this is a fast and absorbing read. The characters - especially Ben Cramb, unforgettably intense and compelling - combine with the exciting plot and exotic locale to provide the best New York historical fiction for decades - more literary than "Billy Bathgate", more exciting than "The Alienist".

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grifting along..., December 10, 2007

By 

Stephen E. Adams "cloudislands.com" (Lopez Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dizzy City: A Novel (Hardcover)

"Dizzy City" is the first novel I've read by Nicholas Griffin and it proved to be a fine story, indeed. Set during the First World War, it follows a shifting cast of shifty characters, each determined to perpetuate the big con. No one is quite who he seems to be, which makes the set pieces of historical perspective even more striking in their verisimilitude.

Griffin writes a tight narrative, using short passages and a changing third person point of view that eventually allows the readers to understand (and even empathize) with all of the principals in "Dizzy City."

This turned out to be a real find--a page-turner with literary and historical weight.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dizzy with Delight, September 1, 2007

By 

A. Fitzgibbons "Fitz" (London, England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dizzy City: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a top notch novel, and Griffin, like a fine wine that Ben Cramb might use to seduce a mark, gets better and better as the years go by. As in all his books, the characterisations are fantastically strong but in Dizzy City you really sense that a huge amount of thought has got into each plot twist and turn. You will want to take your time reading Dizzy City. It's worth savouring every page, as it's that good. Let's hope that we don't have another four years to wait for Griffin's next effort. It's too much to expect him to bang out a book of this quality every nine months a la Lee Child,Stuart Woods or Tomas Otto but there's a shortage of historical novelists with his range and talent.