Torso by
Denise Danks
pbk out November 99
(Gollancz)
at £9.99
I met Denise Danks for the first time at Dead On Deansgate and promised that I’d read one of her books - at least one of her books - and those obliging people at Tangled Web duly send this, her latest following the very well received Phreak. And, I can tell you, the world loves a label to hang on someone: female noir, computer noir and so on. This one is a bit of a departure for Danks, not least because it is her first outside the Georgina Powers series. How many times I’ve wondered if authors should get of the groove of a series and here’s Danks doing just that and doing it very well. Its born out of Danks time in California - and there could be a film based on her script as well - and involves characters playing out the end game of their lives” in a society which is both strangely puritanical and paranoid.
Danks dissects this through the complex relationship of her two central characters - an English couple cut loose in the craziest of places. Enjoying - if that’s the right word - sex by proxy they pick up this years must-have accessory a stalker and it all goes pear shaped from there. Dialogue, plot twists, nasty detail, weird sex -Danks has it all. Well worth your money.
Torso by
Denise Danks