The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still

Aberystwyth Noir #6

by Malcolm Pryce

In the latest hilarious Louie Knight mystery, Aberystwyth’s only Private Detective is faced with a case that is literary out of this world

Aberystwyth’s mayoral election campaign is underway, and Louie Knight receives a visit from a mysterious stranger called Raspiwtin asking him to track down a dead man. Twenty-five years ago Iestyn Probert was hanged for the notorious raid on the Coliseum cinema, but shortly afterwards he was seen boarding a bus to Aberaeron. Did he evade the hangman’s noose? Or is it possible that he was resuscitated by aliens? Now, as strange lights appear in the sky above Aberystwyth, Probert has been sighted once again. But what does Raspiwtin want with him? And why does Louie’s investigation arouse interest from a dark-suited man in a black 1947 Buick?

This is the sixth book in the Louie Knight series.

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Humor, Mystery, Fantasy, Noir, Science Fiction

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Malcolm Pryce is a British author, mostly known for his noir detective novels.

Born in Shrewsbury, England, Pryce moved at the age of nine to Aberystwyth, where he later attended Penglais Comprehensive School before leaving to do some travelling. After working in a variety of jobs. including BMW assembly-line worker in Germany, hotel washer-up, "the world's worst aluminium salesman", and deck hand on a yacht in Polynesia, Pryce became an advertising copywriter in London and Singapore. He is currently resident in Oxford.

Pryce writes in the style of Raymond Chandler, but his novels are incongruously set on the rainswept streets of an alternate universe version of the Welsh seaside resort and university town of Aberystwyth. The hero of the novels is Louie Knight, the best private detective in Aberystwyth (also the only private detective in Aberystwyth), who battles crime organised by the local Druids, investigates the strange case of the town's disappearing youths, and gets involved in its burgeoning film industry, which produces What The Butler Saw movies.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aliens. Maybe.
Men in Black. Maybe.
Hallucinogenic icecream. Definitely.
Absurdity; triple scoop.
Aberyswyth's only PI bashed over the head? Yep.

Must be a Louie Knight novel mystery!

Yes, another in the spoof noir detective series where the mean streets of Aber are over run with iniquity and sin and Louie Knight takes the most preposterous cases imaginable. In this case, finding a man hung for murder last seen catching a bus to Aberaeron...

It's silly and it's equal parts in love with Philip Marlowe and West Wales seaside towns and maudlin philosophising. What's not to like?

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seems to be the final book in the Louie Knight/Aberystwyth Noir series, asit was first published in 2011 and I can't find any more titles. All of the usual characters, with the exception of Myfanwy, are involved somewhere in this tale. Once again the book is mainly set in the alternate Aberystwyth, with a side trip to the escalators of Shrewsbury.
Louie Knight being the only PI in Aberystwyth, has a knack for bizarre cases. This was no exception, he was tasked with finding a missing man, Iestyn Probert. The only problem is that he was hung for murder, but was subsequently seen getting on a bus for Aberaeron. How could such a thing happen, and could it be linked to supposed visitations by aliens?
There is plenty of philosophising, and at times the storyline dips into absurdity, but maybe that it what kept me turning the pages.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pryce's usual high standard of philosophical crime noir all set in a time warped Aberystwyth. I'd advise anyone new to the series to start at the beginning and you've got a lovely series of books to wend your way through, armed with a cup of tea (not necessarily laced with Jack Daniels) and a slice of battenburg. One of a kind and one of the best. Recommended.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still is the sixth book in the Louie Knight series. Pryce has really hit his stride with the series now. The principal characters - Knight, Calamity, Sospan, Eyeore - are all well established and the slightly surrealist rendering of Aberystwyth and its surrounds is fully realised. I thought the first half of this book was excellent and I was sure it was going to be a five star review. The story grabs one's attention, there is a hefty dose of humour which made me laugh out loud, and the prose is vivid and engaging. Throughout the book, Pryce weaves in a fair bit of philosophical rhetoric which elevated the story beyond a parody of both PI novels and Welsh culture. The second half of the story wanders off course a little. The plot, I felt, becomes over-complicated with its various threads and subplots, and I found myself often turning back a few pages to re-read passages to try and get a clearer sense of what was going on. I'm still not sure I really understood all of it. This was a shame as the book is inventive, clever and genuinely funny in places.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I think the first question that needs to be asked is 'Why have I not read any of Pryce's books before?' I only picked this up to met one of the tasks on a reading challenge and my god I am so glad I did. It is funny, dark, satirical, over the top, silly, surreal and tense and reminds me of the 1990 Dick Tracey movie with its combination of Hitchcock style detective and humour that you find yourself laughing at even though you're not entirely sure you should be. Pryce has thrown his detective, Louie Knight, into the world of aliens (possibly) and Men in Black (maybe) with a healthy does of local legend and hallucinogenic ice-cream (as you do), following the not subtle destruction of his desk by the town Mayor. I absolutely loved this and can't wait to try the rest in the series.

[Dan Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you watch those UFO mystery shows on obscure digital channels? Me neither. But I do know (from a trailer, honest), that “the European Roswell” happened just outside Aberystwyth. Pryce takes this as the premise for another funny, insightful, and enjoyable romp through his own mythical Aberystwyth. Louie Knight is more hard-boiled, and quicker with the smart retorts, than ever, taking the Scully role as the arch sceptic. No spoilers here, but, as ever with Louie, the Truth is out there. ‘There’ being somewhere off the A44.

[Hermien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. The first four books in the series were definitely the best.

[Alyson Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this. Mad as a box of frogs on acid and I loved it ❤

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable 6th & final? adventure with Louie Knight, private eye, around Aberystwyth & its wild hinterland, with a cast of colourful & grotesque Welsh characters & the unforgiving natural environment of Cardigan Bay & the Mawwdach estuary. I know this area quite well, thanks to my friend, a teacher of English, a local resident in the fleshpots of deepest, darkest Borth; even if you don't know the rugged nature of the coastal badlands of Pryce's pen-portrait, you can taste the salty flavour of its windy & woe-begone hills & valleys, edging down into the ever-changing sea. Pryce's wonderfully-rich, satirical humour elevates his whole canon into something, for me, quite unique in comic-crime writing; laugh-out-loud moments are as common as serious reflections on the human condition with Pryce's splendid grasp of punchy dialogue extracting the juices from every relationship that drive the narrative on to its grandstand climax. A brilliant read for all fans of detective noir!...though titular Aberystwyth was never as lively as this when I visited...though the freshly-fried chips from the fish-&-chip shop near the Prom, were the best I've ever had!

[Bron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I've mentioned in a previous review that this series seems to get darker and sadder as it goes on. This one is full of existential anguish and the pain of the human relationships we can't live without. Louie Knight, private eye, is hired to find a resurrected dead man, someone that the mayor really doesn't want him to find. He gets caught up in a tangle of murder, alien visitors and secret government departments. He finds and loses the woman he loves.

How do you describe the Aberystwyth series? Take a classic private eye film, mix it with a bit of the wild west, add a good dollop of folklore, some quite deep philosophy, an old fashioned 'souvenir of Wales' picture book, give it a good stir and set it down in a reasonably modern Welsh seaside resort that happens to be home to the oldest Welsh university. You're in Aberystwyth, an Aberystwyth where history has taken a few different twists and turns from the ones we read about in text books. I used to be a student at Aberystwyth. It's a lovely place, but I remember there were days when you could step out onto the prom and it would feel just like Louie Knight's world.

[Ernest Mathijs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lived in Aberystwyth for five years, and these books bring me back - one of the best times in my life - and this series captures exactly what the town is about. This volume, sixth in the series, is the most philosophical, but it retains its madcap situations, folkloric touch, deadpan humour, noir plot twists and mood, an crazy frames of reference (a bit X-Files, a bit Utopia, a bit Casablanca, some Greek tragedy, and some Michael Palin - combining Monty Python and his travel writing). Marvellous.

[Mike Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plots just keep getting wackier! Aliens and resurrection? Weird!
Sixth in the series and the usual mix of humour and Noir and Louie getting hit over the head; he really should take to wearing a crash helmet around town :-)
A new shadowy organisation to take the place of the Druids, aliens, old cars and psychotropic ice cream... all in a day's work for our hero!

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

No, I'm never going to finish this. The premise was interesting and sounded fun, but the characters soon sucked all life from it, and not a lot happened. It might be quite fun, I don't know, but to do so, it would have to improve markedly.

[David Crespin · Rating 4 out of 5]

highly entertaining

[Rich Meyrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

As weirdly riveting as all the other Aberystwyth. I really hope Louie Knight will return one day!

[Paul Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another brilliant story, that had me gripped from the start all the through the book.

[Harri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarre and wacky and just a really good read

[Sally Grady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Silly and funny detective tale set in deepest most boring Wales.

[Paul Shepherd]

Not my kind of read, but liked the coverage of the local area, which I know well

[Mike Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't quite enjoy this one as much as some of the others, but it's still really good fun.

I'm sad that I've finished this series of books. They made me smile.

[Gary Meades · Rating 2 out of 5]

On paper (pardon the pun), I should have loved this, but I didn't. Found it hard to engage with and really didn't enjoy it very much. Nothing wrong with the book, it just wasn't for me...

[Martin Boyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of the Aberystwyth noir series: Chandler in small-town Wales with a tongue very firmly in his cheek, these novels are written to enjoy, to chuckle at, to delight at outlandish - outrageous even - and far-fetched plots. (And this one is more far-fetched than ever.)

You'll either enjoy or hate. I'm definitely in the former camp when I'm in need of an easy read.

[Anastassia Dyubkova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Вот он и наступил, тот день, когда Аберистуит остановился, что бы это ни значило.
На сей раз Малколм Прайс не стал размениваться по мелочам и рассказал нам об инопланетянах (чего, в принципе, можно было ожидать, исходя из названия книги: не просто так автор назвал шестую часть цикла именно так, а не иначе, здесь явная аллюзия на фильм, как, впрочем, и в случае с предыдущими книгами). Было ощущение, что именно эта книга - самая странная из всей серии, но нельзя сказать, что в плохом смысле. Зато приятно было осознавать, что заданный в самом начале темп не изменился, а степень абсурдности, пожалуй, ничуть не уменьшилась.
Что мы имеем здесь, помимо истории о прилетавших в Аберистуит инопланетянах, получившей впоследствии название "валлийский Розуэлл"? Выборы нового мэра (причём это какой-то экзистенциальный выбор между худшим и наихудшим: один из кандидатов - какая-то валлийская версия Ленни из стейнбековской "О мышах и людях", а второй - наш старый знакомый Ирод Дженкинс), очередное расследование, свадьбу, галлюциногенное мороженое. Словом, ничего особенного. Из того, что особенно впечатлило - исторический факт про американского преступника Джорджа "Большого Носа" Пэррота. Честно говоря, я сначала грешным делом подумала, что рассказ о нём - очередной плод воображения Малколма Прайса, который способен выдавать откровенно странные идеи, но оказалось, что как раз это правда. Джорджа Пэррота и правда линчевали, а потом сделали из него пару ботинок. После этого понимаешь, что, возможно, Прайс не всегда перегибает палку, выстраивая свои сюжеты, потому что в реальности действительно случаются вещи и похуже того, что он придумывает.
Строго говоря, единственное, что плохо в последней книге его цикла про детектива Луи Найта - собственно, то, что она последняя. Потому что к этому миру всё-таки привыкаешь. И если, читая первую книгу, думаешь: "чёрт, да что они там все курили, как вообще можно было такое придумать", то чем дальше, тем больше начинаешь от всего этого кайфовать, и расставаться с этой интересной альтернативной реальностью в итоге совсем не хочется. Думаю, в Аберистуит Прайса я вернусь ещё не раз, когда мне снова захочется сбежать из своей жестокой реальности. А пока буду утешать себя тем, что, может быть, с новым мэром после окончания шестой книги в городе всё наладится. В конце концов, не зря же всё сложилось именно так, как сложилось, а не иначе.

P.S. А ещё у оригинальных британских изданий очень классные обложки. :)

[Isabel (kittiwake) · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘I don't want to be a killjoy, but aliens in silver suits? Looking humanoid? Why would they look like us if they were from a different star system?'
‘I don't know. Maybe they just disguise themselves to look like us so as not to frighten us, the same way people who shoot ducks have whistles that sound like duck calls.'
‘Don't you think it's odd, though, that these super-advanced beings from another star system keep crashing their saucers?'
She began to lose patience with me. ‘They don't keep crashing -'
‘Yes, they do! It seems to happen a lot. How can they master the intricacies of inter-stellar flight and then hit a tree?'
‘You're making assumptions.'
‘Yes, I'm assuming there is probably a simpler explanation located in the realm of human psychology. People have been seeing strange visions throughout history; once upon a time they attributed it to the Devil or his works; now we live in a more rational scientific age and people are embarrassed to profess belief in the Devil -'
‘Not in Ystrad Meurig, they aren't.'

The mayoral election is approaching, and current mayor Preseli Watkins gets his brother Ercwleff to chop Private Eye Louie Knight's desk into firewood, to punish him for sticking his nose into the mayor's business in a case that hasn't even started yet. Back in 1965 the the Ystrad Meurig UFO incident took place in the same week as the raid on the Coliseum Cinema, which resulted in the execution of Iestyn Probert for the murder of a police officer who was run over by the getaway car, and now a man called Raspiwtin asks Louie to investigate reports of the reappearance of the hanged man and its connection with a UFO sighting by a local farmer, which leads Louie into yet another relationship with a girl in a stovepipe hat.

This interesting story is one of the best in the seres, with Louie and his assistant Calamity unsure whether they are investigating real aliens or are being misled by government misinformation.

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Malcolm Pryce’s alternative world is one of the odder in contemporary fiction, in that he has opted for a version of Aberystwyth that for some may be hard to distinguish from the actual place – except for the maniacal druids who seem to want to take over the world and similar quirks. But then his parody is not of Aberystwyth, but of crime noir, hard boiled loner detective fiction – so the richness of the series depends on knowing your Dashiell Hammett and his ilk. (Each of the books also relies on a weak pun linked to a notable film, but that is a different story.)

In this, the sixth of his Louie Knight tales, the tone seems also to turn grim (not that noir parodies are necessarily all sunshine and laughter) in part, I suspect, because the criminal focus of the tale is local political power (and the occasional alien) rather a crazed delusional figure more suited to a Bond story than Hammett; this book is closer to the noir fiction Pryce seems to love to the point of parody. This is also the second of the series where Knight’s semi-requited regular love interest has disappeared so he, in the sense that he seems no longer yearning for and defending the always-in-danger Myfanwy, seems also to have become a slightly more unsympathetic character although for the most part that hardening is redeemed by his increasingly avuncular relationship with Calamity Jane, who seems to have become more enigmatic as the series has progressed, but remains a marvellous source of the arcane and an excellent character foil for Louie.

The major challenge (dare I say weakness) of the book is the lack of action, or at least too much action off set meaning that much of the narrative needs to be carried by character exposition, which given that so much of the story depends on events over 20 year previously is understandable but not really the basis of a compelling noir tale. In short – not Louie’s best outing.

[Suzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought a signed copy of this actually in Aberystwyth. Which was nice.

Six books in and it still feels like the appeal of this series is closer to a horrible fascination, but somehow you can't stop reading them despite the unintelligible plots, unpronounceable names and desperately bleak outlook.

This time it's alien landings, resurrections, a smattering of domestic violence and the race to become mayor, although as always it's Louie and Calamity who really make the book for me, and in this have some nice scenes together which also appeals to my Louie/Calamity 'shipping heart. (What, she's 18 now, it's fine.)

[Alexander Kasbohm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the first book of the Aberystwyth series a couple of years ago and thought it was a terrible mess of bad plotting and terribly obvious jokes. You can see the punchlines coming towards you on the promenade of Aberystwyth for miles, waving and shouting, only to collapse in a heap of dust, once they reach you. But I liked the basic premesis of an Alternative Wales with magic and druids and a misplaced hard boiled detective. So I gave this one a try and have to admit it is pretty good. Pryce learnt how to deliver a good joke and more subtle humour, the Plot is decent and there are some moments of real beauty in his writing. Well done.

[Zareen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last novel in the Louie Knight Private Eye series. The other titles amuse me in the series as well.

A mixture between unbelievable & unfortunate events confront Louie & his assistant Calamity. He is the only Private Detective in Aberystwyth. It is very zany, a highly entertaining novel. I enjoyed reading it as it was light.

I read the first in the series but don’t remember it at all. I am debating about reading another in the series. ABERYSTWYTH Mom Amour is listed on the literary atlas/wales.

Belongs to the Aberystwyth Noir series of novels.

[David Grieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another slice of surreal noir set in the badlands of Aberystwyth. In turns funny, philosphical and thought provoking and always entertaining. The big question is whether aliens really did land in Ystrad Meurig and resurrect a local criminal and what bearing that has on the current mayoral race, to be decided by human cannonball and a prize fight. And that's just the start. Wonderful stuff.

[Richard Hein · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, aliens invade Aberystwth, Louie investigates a supposed resurrection and Sospan serves the rarest of ice creams. Brilliant dialogue as only Malcom Pryce could do. Read the series in order to inhabit the world of Aberystwth. If you are fan a fan of noir and Monty Python-esque comedy, you will love this book!