The Pilo Family Circus by
Will Elliot
pbk out January 07
(Quercus)
at £10.99
An astonishing book which combines vicious slapstick and relentless black comedy
with a breath-takingly vivid, visual style. Jamie is a young Australian leading an
interminably stifling existence as a concierge in Brisbane when he begins seeing
clowns. Soon the funny men are stalking Jamie and then they force him to audition
for the circus. Jamie makes it through the audition and joins the clowns in the
parallel universe of the Pilo Family Circus. No ordinary clowns these though, think
the Marx Brothers as extreme sports fanatics on crystal meth. And the Pilo Family
Circus is a Bosch nightmare, where ongoing vendettas among the different troupes
erupt into brutality and where the grotesque and the monstrous are run-of-the-mill.
Jamie finds that when he applies the greasepaint his dark side, the deeply
malevolent JJ, takes over – and JJ intends to kill Jamie. The richly drawn characters
leap off the pages snarling, biting, spitting and swearing. First-timer Elliott takes us
on a riotous gore-fest which is immensely entertaining, often hilarious and contains
not a little pathos. Completely unforgettable.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
; width=){kind=small}
The Pilo Family Circus by
Will Elliot
