The Last Llanelli Train (Paperback)

by Robert Lewis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Welsh author Lewis holds nothing back in this unflinching noir, his second novel to feature PI Robin Llywelyn to be made available in the U.S. (after 2008's Swansea Terminal). A former debt collector who once had hopes of joining the police, Llywelyn now spends his days drinking and lurching from one moment to the next. In debt to a loan shark, Llywelyn hopes for a significant payday from a new client, Mrs. Dixon, who suspects her husband of marital infidelity. Mrs. Dixon's demand that the evidence of same be captured on videotape dramatically increases his expenses. In keeping with his preference to deal with immediate problems without weighing future consequences, Llywelyn goes further into debt by borrowing thousands of pounds from a shylock. While the plot line is serviceable, the book's power lies in Lewis's evocative prose coupled with the warts-and-all portrayal of Llywelyn, who knows that he's on a self-destructive path, but is unable to turn aside. (June)
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From Booklist
So you think you’re a noir connoisseur, perfectly comfortable with the idea that life starts out bad and gets worse. Well, here’s the acid test. Robin Llewellyn is a private eye in Bristol, England, but he has little time for sleuthing, what with the round-the-clock boozing and manic gambling. We pick up his story just when he seems on the verge of a big score: a woman has hired him to entrap her husband with a hooker and collect the blackmail. Easy money, except Llewellyn can’t stay sober long enough to arrange the sting and avoid the crooked cops and lowlife loan sharks eager to claim pounds of his flesh. There is a macabre I Love Lucy element to this three-day bender: we see the train wreck coming, just as we do when Lucy concocts yet another doomed scheme, but we can’t take our eyes away from the screen (or page), uncomfortable as it is. Lewis gets the voice so spot-on, it’s almost too much. With little of the humor one finds in, say, Charlie Williams’ Deadfolk (2004), there’s nothing left except noir without artifice, distilled to its bitter essence. Care for a sip? --Bill Ott

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852428902
• ISBN-13: 978-1852428907
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,879,946 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars enthralling, June 7, 2009

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In Bristol, England as he becomes middle aged, private investigator Robin Llewellyn drinks at the nearby pub whose regulars are losers like him. Alcohol allows him to sit in the present and not muse sadly how far he has fallen not from his dreams but with the firm he inherited and hide from his lack of a future. He once planned to be a cop, but settled on debt collecting and now earns money mostly exposing errant spouses as professional expertise at divorces has become his specialty when he gets work that is.

Currently he owes an arm and a leg and a few thousand pounds to a vicious loan shark, who will soon demand remittance. Robin has a wealthy new client, Mrs. Dixon, who he plans to bilk for more than he is worth. She wants him to prove her businessman husband is cheating on her. Mrs. Dixon demands Robin do what he must to video her spouse with his latest floozy. He knows what he must do as he arranges a tryst between the husband and a hooker that he will film. The problem is to arrange and tape takes planning that denotes future; something Robin cannot do. Even he is aware that he is imploding, but cannot change anything even his clothing.

Llewellyn is an unlikable sordid soul who is so sleazy that he fails to gain any empathy from enthralled readers even with one foot on a banana peel and the other already in the cesspool. The story line is fast-paced but almost irrelevant as in some ways THE LAST LLANELLI TRAIN is a character study of someone on the brink of self destruction. Told by Robin who is fully aware of what he is doing to himself but unable to think ahead of the consequences of his behavior. Sobering and gritty yet filled with a dark humor, readers will appreciate Robert Lewis' discerning look at a man slowly subconsciously killing himself.

Harriet Klausner