Pecking Order [Import] [Mass Market Paperback]

Chris Simms (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 2005

A gripping psychological crime novel that follows the success of his first, Outside the White Lines.

Rubble lives in a caravan and works on a battery farm. Totally oblivious to the outside world, he spends his days disposing of the sick and injured chickens. One day a mysterious visitor arrives and sees Rubble’s childlike naivete combined with an ability to kill without compunction. Soon Rubble is employed on a sinister secret project.

Rubble’s only chance of realizing how he’s being cruelly used lies with the one person he confides in: a phone-line fortune-teller. But just how disturbing must her caller’s revelations become before she is prepared to take action? In this chilling thriller, Chris Simms plunges once again into the darkest reaches of human psychology: what it is that drives one person to kill another.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris Simms is a 31-year-old freelance advertising writer. He is married with two small children and lives near Manchester. Outside the White Lines was his first book.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Arrow (February 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099446847
• ISBN-13: 978-0099446842
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.2 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,229,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chris Simms has worked in airports, nightclubs, post offices and telesales centres. Along with nominations for Crime Writer's Association Daggers and the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year award, Chris has been selected by Waterstone's as one of their '25 authors for the future'.

Chris says he is drawn to books that give insights into unusual minds. The twisted desires of Frederick in John Fowles', The Collector, the tormented thoughts of Scobie in Graham Greene's Heart of the Matter, the violent urges of Francie in Patrick McCabe's Butcher Boy are all are books Chris states had an influence in shaping him as a writer. The idea for his debut novel, Outside the White Lines, came to him in the early hours of the morning while broken down on the hard shoulder of the M40.

His series of DI Spicer novels - psychological thrillers set very firmly in Manchester - follow the police detective's fortunes as he pursues mad, bad and deadly individuals through the city's ever-changing landscape.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Refreshingly different, July 31, 2007

By 

Helen Simpson (Leeds, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pecking Order (Mass Market Paperback)

Again (after reading 'Outside The White Lines') excellent characterisation from Simms. Especially Rubble, the chap who lives in a caravan on the battery farm where he works.
He's approached and 'hired' to do some undercover work and having always longed to be in the army, yet never been successful, he finds his new job thrilling and much more satisfying than wringing the necks of diseased or injured birds on the farm. His only worry is how long his new job will last!

It was a fascinating, if disturbing, insight into battery farming and threw up some interesting parallels between the lives of the chickens and those elderly and infirm in society. All too often we close our eyes to the plight of others, knowing that they are unhappy or lonely. Just as many of us never consider the conditions egg laying hens have to endure on battery farms. We know it goes on of course, and if pushed we think it's unacceptable, but five minutes later have moved on to thinking about something more pleasant.

Rubble is a character who could be described as sick, strange, sad, gullible and mercenary but I'm pretty sure you'll be unable to dislike him.