truecrime [Paperback]

Jake Arnott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2005

“Funny, fast, witty, and brutal.”—David Bowie

Jake Arnott’s brilliant trilogy of criminal life in England forms a kind of Godfather-like history of Britain’s gangland, spanning 40 years. The first, The Long Firm (1999), caught everyone by surprise and was adapted into a TV series broadcast in the United States on BBC America. The New York Times said it was “a great read from start to finish.” The sequel, He Kills Coppers (2001), was likewise lauded.

The third, truecrime, revisits his first triumph, bringing back Harry Stark, an underworld boss on the lam. Harry is rumored to be laying low on Cyprus, the law having given up its pursuit, but someone is looking who isn’t concerned with the niceties of extradition, somebody who has as much use for the rules as Harry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Talk about antiheroes: the three narrators of this novel of London's gritty underworld are set on murder, revenge and larceny. Tony Meehan is a washed-up crime journalist currently ghosting the memoir of Eddie Doyle, "[j]ewel thief, bank robber, known associate of most of the major gangland faces," who's just out of prison after serving time for his role in a heist of £15 million in gold, most of which was never recovered. Julie McClusky, the daughter of a murdered gangster, has become a middle-class actress—but she's also searching for her father's killer under the guise of working on her boyfriend's movie about London criminals. Shady businessman Gary "Gaz" Kelly has always modeled himself on "[v]illains and gangsters. The Kray Twins. Harry Starks. Flash bastards. Legends." Unlike the Kray Twins, Harry Starks is Abbott's creation (last seen in 2001's Long Firm); he's the supposed mastermind of the bullion theft, the possible key to the whereabouts of the gold and Julia's number one suspect. When Starks is spotted at Ronnie Kray's funeral, the search for him begins in earnest, and that search, as well as the crimes uncovered in its wake and committed during its progress, dominate the rest of the book. Arnott's plotting is intricate and his prose hard-edged, made more so by his atmospheric use of Cockney and slang and his close-up look at frightening but human villains.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The shadowy underworld is bathed in limelight in this sly, postmodern denouement to the trilogy begun with The Long Firm (1999) and He Kills Coppers (2001). It is the mid-nineties now, and evocations of bitter gangland violence have become the trendiest stimulant since espresso. Closeted mass-murderer Tony Meehan ghostwrites gangster tell-alls that he terms "truecrime" in sardonic allusion to Orwell's denatured dystopia. Actress Julie sorts through her own crime-family matters with alienation conned from Brecht, even as her bourgeois filmmaker beau affects street mannerisms while producing Scrapyard Bulldog, a Tarantino-esque smash-and-bash carefully calculated to meet the public's forlorn craving for gritty authenticity. In the book's most diverting episodes, lowlife drug dealer Gaz Kelly adapts to high-fashion felony with knavish ease, emerging as an outlaw celebrity. The three narratives are finally linked via archvillain Harry Starks, but plot is incidental to cultural commentary that ranges from smart to glib. This is best read by Brit-pop enthusiasts in the seedy halflight of what has gone before. A much more effective American analog is Percival Everett's Erasure (2001). David Wright
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 346 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime (December 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569474079
• ISBN-13: 978-1569474075
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,917,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting and deftly written criminal drama, November 13, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: truecrime: a novel (Hardcover)

True Crime by Jake Arnott is a riveting novel of suspense, following Harry, a wanted London gangster, and his return to his old hometown. Most of Harry's old contacts are dead or behind bars, but one ruthless individual has focused upon Harry and will let neither rules nor conscience stand in his way. True Crime is confidently recommended as an exciting and deftly written criminal drama, heavy with suspense and featuring a protagonist who doesn't play by the good guy rules either.

2.0 out of 5 stars Beneath the glitter, not all that great, July 27, 2006

By 

Sirin (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: truecrime (Paperback)

Arnott is hyped as a crime writer with a wickedly origial satirical streak. This leads to some rather bizarre (and hypocritical marketing). For example, Arnott satirises the glamourising of crime and violence in the British media, yet his books are puffed by David Bowie who declares 'Whenever Arnott has a new book out, I drop everything, knowing that the next two hours are going to be pure gangland bliss'. Er, exactly.

I find that in his writing Arnott slips up the social satire (which is laid on pretty thickly - public schoolboys going mockney, ghostwriters wooing criminals to publish their memoirs, that sort of thing), the style, which still doesn't present a convincing British rival to the best of American fiction, and the plot, which was implausible and failed to get the pages turning in my case.