City Of Lies by
Roger Jon Ellory
hbk out September 06
Published by Orion
at £9.99
Born in 1965, Ellory was arrested at the age of 17 for poaching. He has had
various jobs, including playing guitar in a band called the Manta Rays. As in his own
life, so in his writing, he does not wish to be pigeonholed as a crime or thriller writer. He
simply wants to tell a good story about humanity and life. This novel is certainly not a
standard genre story.
John Harper, writer of one obscure novel, has settled as far from New York as
possible, and is working as a reporter in Miami. His world is suddenly turned upside
down, when his aunt, Evelyn, rings up to tell him his father has been shot and is dying.
The strange thing is that Evelyn always led him to believe that both his parents were
dead. Harper travels to New York, where he confronts Evelyn, and meets up with a
family friend from the past called Walt Freiberg. Freiberg seem to have an unusual
interest in John, and throws him into close association with the attractive Cathy
Hollander. Harper discovers his father has been shot while trying to stop a heist in a
liquor store. But the whole matter becomes more complicated when he learns that a
police detective, Frank Duchaunak, is investigating what has happened. Frank intimates
that there is more to the shooting than meets the eye, and says he already knows a lot
about Harper's father. The sinister Ben Marcus is also interested in his father's state of
health, and what Harper is going to do about it. It gradually emerges that his father,
'Lenny' Bernstein, was involved with a lot of shady characters, and Harper is drawn into
his world, even though he is warned off by the dying man. The situation he finds himself
in even throws doubt on his understanding of his mother's death as a suicide.
In an interview, Ellory talks of creating a linear thriller where consecutive images
overlap one another, and detail, new points about the plot. We do move from confusion to
clarity at roughly the same rate as our hero, John Harper, does. Though sometimes the
reader will want to scream at him that it is obvious his father is an old-time gangster, and
his profession as a journalist would surely make it more easy for him to see that than is
implied. Still, the story is related in a tough and gritty manner suited to its theme, and
rolls inexorably towards a classically violent American ending involving several innocent
victims, whose avoidable deaths emphasises the nastiness of our baddies. Ellory also
speaks in the same interview about wishing to write a great story in a literary style that is
'uncommon in this genre'. Some writers may wish to take issue with him on that point,
and his style is sometimes a little self-conscious. At several points he eschews the use of
the definite and indefinite articles for no apparent reason. The reading of those passages
becomes jarring – rather like driving a good car over potholes. But when he moves into
dialogue passages, the tale soars and flows beautifully. These quibbles are minor issues,
as the book as a whole is an intriguing and compelling read. His books have been called
brilliant and breathtaking, they have been shortlisted for prizes, and there is no doubt that
'City of Lies' carries on in the same vein.
(
Ian Morson
Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger)
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City Of Lies by
Roger Jon Ellory
