The Hitman Diaries by
Danny King
pbk out May 03
(Serpent's Tail)
at £6.99
Ian Bridges wants to meet a nice girl and settle down. Unfortunately he's
a hitman who mainly meets women he's about to murder. This humorous
premise forms the basis of The Hitman Diaries.
It's at its funniest in the early chapters and whenever Ian has a date. (He
has the unhappy knack of picking monosyllabic females.) There are
paragraphs which made me laugh out loud and numerous droll oneliners
– for example, he only has a few days to familiarise himself with his next
victim's routine 'so I had to make sure the time we spent together was
quality time.' Later he takes on an apprentice, Craig, who is soon 'sitting
his hitman finals.' As you do. Some of the plot twists are genuinely
surprising and work well in a blackly comic way, but I was unconvinced
by the sections where Ian converses with the dead and a couple of the
scenes were too dark to fit comfortably into a comical book.
Danny King is a genuinely funny man with a flair for observing life's
more uncomfortable moments so if you're looking for a politically
incorrect read that'll make you both wince and smile, read all about the hitman and her.
The Hitman Diaries by
Danny King
