Easy Money by
Jenny Siler
hbk out January 99
Published by Orion
at £9.99
Every now and again a reviewers lot is a happy one. Debut novel can be
hard going but this a cracker.
Written with a narrative drive which makes it a book I almost
literally couldn't put down (and I don't think I ever said that in a
review before), "Easy Money" has an authority that makes an immediate impact from the opening pages. With a hard edge, convincing characters and a good use of locations it is almost breathless in its execution. It almost reads like a kind of one woman `Thelma and Louise' road movie. The action set pieces, for example, are beautifully handled and very exciting. You can forgive the odd stylistic slip here and there.
The action starts in the outlaw world of freelance couriers. Allie is
given a straight forward "drop", the "easy money" of the title. Of course the drop goes wrong and people get killed. Allie is pitched into a nightmare where one false move is fatal. Siler refuses to take any easy options in her writing and in so doing breaths new life into a familiar plot. With the recent vogue for the word "noir" and along with Joe Quirk's Rush perhaps I can be so bold as to suggest we have a sub-genre here, namely "courier noir".
According to the cover biography Siler's own life and the many jobs
she's had have defined her and her writing. On the evidence of this
Siler must have one hell of a CV. I don't think the publishers are
going to get many people taking them up on their offer: "As good as
Deja Dead or your money back". And I didn't mention the word
"feisty" once...oh, shit.
Easy Money by
Jenny Siler