Mike Ripley & Maxim Jakubowski (eds) - Fresh Blood
Do-Not Press Pbk Original (1 899344 03) £6.99
The reappearance of Jim Driver's Do-Not Press on the UK publishing scene could never be anything
other than welcome and is doubly so now that they seem to be setting their sights on
creating a crime list to match the innovation and imagination of No Exit Press and the
"Mask Noir" imprint of Serpent's Tail. As the blurb on the back of Fresh
Blood says, "There are no bodies in the library, few conventional
policeman and no neat moral endings." If we can add to this no courtroom drama,
no barrister on a large advance eager to describe the stomach of the British judicial
system to us over 400+ pages, no continuation of the never-ending search for the UK John
Grisham we can be guardedly optimistic that Bloodlines is one
to watch. As a defence of policy Fresh Blood would stand up well in court. The list of contributors amounts to a Martian's guide to UK crime fiction over the last decade. Although maybe a little late to coincide with the crest of the wave the book rides, it documents it well. Most of these writers , however varied in style, have a shared aim in that they intend to bring UK crime fiction into the late twentieth century. The stories they tell are not intellectual puzzles. From Stella Duffy's David Goodis-like portrayal of sexual pleasure/revenge to Mike Ripley's characteristically drink sodden, appropriately moral avenging Angel - the authors' aim is to describe the real world and to entertain. Harvey's late night Nottingham, Ian Rankin's Fife pub - these are places we can recognise or we can believe are maybe just around the corner. If you have an interest in fiction in the British Isles you should get this book, and, with a previously un-translated snippet of Derek Raymond included, who could resist?
REVIEW
John B Spenser - Quake City
Do-Not Press Pbk Original (1 899344 02 0) £5.99
As an antidote/alternative to the
life-on-the-streets tone of Fresh Blood John Spencer's Quake City
ploughs a different furrow. In contrast to Spencer's contribution to Fresh Blood,
Quake City follows its own adrenaline fed, punch line driven way towards its own
kind of science-fiction reality. We are in the future. Los Angeles is an island, broken
off the West Coast by a major earth tremor. Holograms are current. There is a major
European war of unification and everything anyone would need to know about you is stored
on your credit card. Charley Chase P.I. is thrown into a case involving realty, black
holes, the FBI and the CIA. With just a beaten up car and a healthy taste for bourbon
Charley sets about the case manfully. This is a fast, entertaining book. Hooked on Chandler, Spencer never loses a chance to doff his cap when it's offered and that's no bad thing. At less than 150pgs though it's too short! (RL)
