Everybody Smokes in Hell [Hardcover]

John Ridley (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Knopf; First Edition edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0676790208
• ISBN-13: 978-0676790207
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,815,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for the timid, February 28, 2001

By 

Victor Gischler (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everybody Smokes in Hell (Paperback)

Ridley's novel is savagely funny and delightfully gritty, a quick and nasty romp with a cast of characters not even a mother could love. A sexy but deadly femme fatale. Gansta drug lords. Weasle-like record producers. Just basically folks you're NOT going to have over for Thanksgiving dinner. EVERYBODY SMOKES IN HELL is a bloody, hilarious, raw smack in the face.

But one of the novel's flaws stems from the side-show qualities of its characters. Freakshows might generally intrigue us, but they don't usually offer us anyone to cheer for. A clearly sympathetic protagonist (even a gritty one with a dark side) would have stuck another star onto the rating -- really, I'd say I'd give this novel 3.9 stars instead of four, but that wasn't an option.

Still, Ridley is one of the small but growing group of writers who are raising noir violence to new and exciting levels.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AMERICAN TO THE BONE, November 3, 2002

By 

G.Helmer (Greeley HIll, Ca., USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everybody Smokes in Hell (Paperback)

NOBODY does America like John Ridley. These are not the sugared down moral tales they're feeding you on prime time. Nor are the characters well adjusted homeowners, working in airconditioned offices during the heat of the day. These are wicked, wicked tales, happening in savage places, where one bad move leads to another. But John RIdley's writing saves it from being just another bleak trip to the underside. BRILLIANT WRITING. Alternately vicious and dazzling, Americans will recognize the landscape. Will know it best as home sweet home.

(Tip of the day, John: The Coen brothers should be making the movies.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven, September 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Everybody Smokes in Hell (Paperback)

Fast-paced, humorous, pleasantly nasty, brilliantly plotted, yet unconvincing. The characters seemed contrived and unevenly developed. One character near the end of the book, a female casino worker in Las Vegas, seemed to appear out of nowhere; I was never sure who she was or what she was doing in the book. I found myself skimming some sections of interior monologue/exposition. The street language seemed overdone. Overall, the book could have used some more editing, but I don't want to give the wrong impression with all this. The plotting was absolutely brilliant and I would recommend the book to anyone who likes black humor with their red meat crime fiction.