Tangled Web UK Review March 2007
Smoked by
Patrick Quinlan
hbk out March 06
Published by Headline
at £10
An uproarious pulp thriller with plenty of soul. Smoke Dugan, explosives expert for hire, is
in hiding in Maine, on the run after ditching his employers and taking off with $2.5 million in
cash. His girlfriend, Lola Bell, knows nothing of his nefarious past. Hit-man Denny Cruz
tracks Smoke down and plans to get at him through Lola. Little does Cruz know that good-
looking Lola is a skilled martial arts practitioner and no easy push-over. The mayhem that
ensues throws together low-life gangsters, Lola's uptight, librarian flatmate and a couple of
porn merchants with an unpleasant line in sexual violence. In the vein of Elmore Leonard,
this is a classic and very funny gangsters-losing-control story complete with car chases,
explosions, casual and bloody violence, and vivid characterisation. Quinlan writes dialogue
that bites and includes at least one odd-couple love story. Hard to believe this is a debut
novel. A name to watch.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
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