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Punchline
They say everyone has a novel in them. Luca Pope had five, until they were stolen from him.
Luca Pope would normally be pleased to see his novels on bookstore shelves, especially if it were his name on the covers. Five novels bearing five different author names, and he has no idea how it happened.
He sets out to track down and corner the plagiarists, to extract answers and confessions - if they'd just stay alive long enough to oblige. Urged on by a sense of righteous outrage and an inner voice named Hodges, Luca departs his career of salaried apathy to pursue the life which has been brazenly stolen from him: successful novelist … or failing that, serial killer.
WARNING: This book contains strong language
Luca Pope would normally be pleased to see his novels on bookstore shelves, especially if it were his name on the covers. Five novels bearing five different author names, and he has no idea how it happened.
He sets out to track down and corner the plagiarists, to extract answers and confessions - if they'd just stay alive long enough to oblige. Urged on by a sense of righteous outrage and an inner voice named Hodges, Luca departs his career of salaried apathy to pursue the life which has been brazenly stolen from him: successful novelist … or failing that, serial killer.
WARNING: This book contains strong language
276 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 26, 2011
13 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
P.A. Fenton
5 books9 followersI was born in Sydney waaaay back in the seventies, and have spent most of my adult life in London with my wife. We woke up one day to discover we had children, so rather than let them grow up believing the sun to be the stuff of fairy tales, we legged it back to Australia.
I write books which fall somewhere between comedy (dark) and mystery; though some would argue they've been smeared thinly across both with an absurdity spatula.
When I'm not working or writing, I spend my time trying to convince my kids I know more than they do. I only have a small window for this, and it's closing fast.
I write books which fall somewhere between comedy (dark) and mystery; though some would argue they've been smeared thinly across both with an absurdity spatula.
When I'm not working or writing, I spend my time trying to convince my kids I know more than they do. I only have a small window for this, and it's closing fast.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 28, 2013
Very much disliked this book. The premise sounded really good and I couldn't wait to read this book. Then I got 25% of the way through the book and NOTHING HAD HAPPENED. Wait, that's not true. Luca lost his job, got drunk, got drunk, got drunk and then he whined, bitchedand moaned ABOUT his job and that he lost his job.
There was way too much description that had nothing to do with the story. Who gives a shit if the carpet in someones hallway looks the same as that of offices? It did not ADD to the story.
Someone elses review mentioned not enough dialogue, I agree. Thankfully dialogue comes in the form of "......" cause I skimmed the pages until I found the " " areas and don't feel like I missed out on ANYTHING in the book.
Please remember, this is MY OPINION only.
There was way too much description that had nothing to do with the story. Who gives a shit if the carpet in someones hallway looks the same as that of offices? It did not ADD to the story.
Someone elses review mentioned not enough dialogue, I agree. Thankfully dialogue comes in the form of "......" cause I skimmed the pages until I found the " " areas and don't feel like I missed out on ANYTHING in the book.
Please remember, this is MY OPINION only.
October 2, 2011
Sorry. No. Didn't like it. Couldn't identify with any of the characters and found the lack of dialogue contributing to my dislike of the main character. Luca comes across as self-absorbed and a bit whiny. I found myself not caring very much about the plagiarism and wishing that he would pull himself together and get on with his life.
October 1, 2019
BOHICA: Bend Over, Here it Comes Again
It was time to “ditch the childish dream of making it as a writer and embrace the job that paid wages.” (LOC 28)
“Whether or not you like your job is immaterial—being fired is like being stamped defective.” (LOC 100)
The beginning definitely captured my attention. It was witty and smart. Story had a promising start, but really tapered off with the character’s constant BS. I didn’t even know who this character was. All I know was that he was whiny, sniveling, little b#tch.
DID. NOT. LIKE. IT.
It was time to “ditch the childish dream of making it as a writer and embrace the job that paid wages.” (LOC 28)
“Whether or not you like your job is immaterial—being fired is like being stamped defective.” (LOC 100)
The beginning definitely captured my attention. It was witty and smart. Story had a promising start, but really tapered off with the character’s constant BS. I didn’t even know who this character was. All I know was that he was whiny, sniveling, little b#tch.
DID. NOT. LIKE. IT.
December 26, 2018
Awesome read! Absolutely hilarious-- had me laughing, literally, out loud while alone reading this.
April 24, 2012
It seems I’m forever making disclaimers about books written by friends but it’s important to establish that I NEVER let that sort of subjectivity influence what I write. No, the only subjectivity involved is ‘Did I enjoy the book and, if I did, why?’ If I don’t like a book, I don’t read beyond the first few pages. Life’s too short. So my comments here are just a record of my reactions as I read this book and my critical reflections after I’d finished it.
First then, the general points. It’s a crime/mystery novel but, as well as ticking the boxes the genre requires, the author also manages to parody it and sometimes offer a wry commentary on its conventions. It’s intriguing, funny, clever and has that essential page-turning impetus.
I hesitate to say much about the circumstances in which the protagonist finds himself and how he reacts to them because, with such a layered construction, the slightest lapse on my part could be seen as a spoiler. The first person narrator is a writer who discovers that his books are on the shelves of bookshops but each credited to a different author and none of them to him. His feelings when he finds the first of these plagiarised novels are sensitively observed and beautifully described – except that words such as ‘sensitive’ and ‘beautiful’ don’t convey the baseness of some of his responses. This is the sort of spare writing advocated by Elmore Leonard.
Sometimes, though, when the pace is hurtling along and we want to know how a particular situation will be resolved, the narrator’s reflections, associations and digressions tend to slow progress. They’re always very entertaining but Fenton has piqued our curiosity and that needs to be satisfied, so we’re eager for the old ‘what happened next?’. On the other hand, one of the many revelations which form the book’s dénouement suggests that this digressive tendency might perhaps be indicative of … no, that might be a spoiler.
The plotting is careful and the characters’ actions, while sometimes extreme, are always plausible and played out in very real settings, conveyed by witty observations of telling details, and the wise-cracking narrator sees the humour in every situation. In fact, Fenton places him in several scenarios which might be seen as typical set-pieces in the crime genre. The difference here is that, while definitely a master of the one-liner, he’s not your run of the mill, hard-nosed Private Eye, but a ‘normal’ person walking the ‘ordinary’ streets of Clapham.
I’m forcing myself to resist quoting some of the situations he finds himself in and how he reacts to them. They’re very funny, but conveyed in terms which show that Fenton’s choice of title was deliberate. He sets up some gags, yes, but he invariably takes them an extra step or adds a twist which intensifies them. And they’re all very carefully written. Look, for example, at the writer’s dismissive attitude to wannabes:
“Yeah, right. Everyone has a novel in them. Almost everyone is capable of sexual intercourse too, more or less, but no one likes to watch ugly people fuck.”
And, while it’s funny that he’s nearly knocked out by a dominatrix brandishing a latex dildo, it’s even better when she says “And do you want to know where it was just a few minutes ago?”
If you don’t like rude words or a high body count, skip over some bits, but if you like to be drawn into a book, intrigued by questions of who and why, entertained and made to laugh, this is for you. It’s great writing. Why it wasn’t snapped up by a mainstream publisher is a mystery.
First then, the general points. It’s a crime/mystery novel but, as well as ticking the boxes the genre requires, the author also manages to parody it and sometimes offer a wry commentary on its conventions. It’s intriguing, funny, clever and has that essential page-turning impetus.
I hesitate to say much about the circumstances in which the protagonist finds himself and how he reacts to them because, with such a layered construction, the slightest lapse on my part could be seen as a spoiler. The first person narrator is a writer who discovers that his books are on the shelves of bookshops but each credited to a different author and none of them to him. His feelings when he finds the first of these plagiarised novels are sensitively observed and beautifully described – except that words such as ‘sensitive’ and ‘beautiful’ don’t convey the baseness of some of his responses. This is the sort of spare writing advocated by Elmore Leonard.
Sometimes, though, when the pace is hurtling along and we want to know how a particular situation will be resolved, the narrator’s reflections, associations and digressions tend to slow progress. They’re always very entertaining but Fenton has piqued our curiosity and that needs to be satisfied, so we’re eager for the old ‘what happened next?’. On the other hand, one of the many revelations which form the book’s dénouement suggests that this digressive tendency might perhaps be indicative of … no, that might be a spoiler.
The plotting is careful and the characters’ actions, while sometimes extreme, are always plausible and played out in very real settings, conveyed by witty observations of telling details, and the wise-cracking narrator sees the humour in every situation. In fact, Fenton places him in several scenarios which might be seen as typical set-pieces in the crime genre. The difference here is that, while definitely a master of the one-liner, he’s not your run of the mill, hard-nosed Private Eye, but a ‘normal’ person walking the ‘ordinary’ streets of Clapham.
I’m forcing myself to resist quoting some of the situations he finds himself in and how he reacts to them. They’re very funny, but conveyed in terms which show that Fenton’s choice of title was deliberate. He sets up some gags, yes, but he invariably takes them an extra step or adds a twist which intensifies them. And they’re all very carefully written. Look, for example, at the writer’s dismissive attitude to wannabes:
“Yeah, right. Everyone has a novel in them. Almost everyone is capable of sexual intercourse too, more or less, but no one likes to watch ugly people fuck.”
And, while it’s funny that he’s nearly knocked out by a dominatrix brandishing a latex dildo, it’s even better when she says “And do you want to know where it was just a few minutes ago?”
If you don’t like rude words or a high body count, skip over some bits, but if you like to be drawn into a book, intrigued by questions of who and why, entertained and made to laugh, this is for you. It’s great writing. Why it wasn’t snapped up by a mainstream publisher is a mystery.
June 30, 2012
"Punchline" is hip, flip and an enjoyable comedic thriller. Luca Pope loses his job, but after the initial prospect of blowing his severance pay on getting drunk, there is the distinct advantage on offer of devoting himself to his ambition to become a published novelist. Until the jolt of seeing his book on the shelves of a bookshop, with another man's name on the spine. Now Luca being more the kind of guy who would spend his severance pay on a blowout rather than ensuring it saw him through until landing a job, fails to form a plan of attack to marshal and strategise his response and thus is set in motion an uproariously meandering set of events.
Luca is engaging company. He has a waspish tongue, a healthy cynicism and an opinion on any and everything. Though engaged on a sort of noirish thriller quest, he is absolutely British and modern in his worldview and a lousy layman detective. He fizzles and crackles with understandable indignation at most things in the world, seeing what has befallen him and a couple of sustained setpieces are really, fall off the sofa funny (maybe don't read this in the bath? But then it's an e-book so you probably wouldn't be anyway). The first is a scene that takes place in a dominatrix's workplace, when he'd unwittingly turned up to conduct a discussion on provenance and ownership of literature. The second is a phone conversation conducted in public with a hit man on the other end of the line and having to speak in improvised code which really shows off Fenton's skills as a comic writer.
I did have a couple of small reservations about the book as it hurtled towards its denouement. The first concerned the plot itself which I felt just ran out of steam as we approached the final showdown. The tying up of plot threads left me a tad unsatisfied, with the twist being radical and yet not being afforded any undue emphasis from the throughline it had overthrown. This is in part I think to my second reservation, that of the story centring around a writer. This may be personal to me as an author myself, but I do wonder whether readers are as concerned with literary and publishing crimes and misdemeanours as we writers certainly are. In the end this was about a guy who had his manuscript plagiarised and permitted the playing out of writerly revenge fantasies (Dan Brown fans may not warm to this book). The satire concerning submitting manuscripts, rejections, wannabe author judgements about other authors, while eminently recognisable to me, were not remarkable enough to be any different from any writer's forum or blog you may care to scour. I think if you're going to make this the main thrust of your novel, then you really have to go so much further out there with it.
Having said that, the less frenetic reflexive meditations on writing and the writer did remind me of Paul Auster's "New York Trilogy". This together with the great narrative voice (which reminded me of Christopher Brookmyre) and the rich vein of comedy running throughout, absolutely still makes "Punchline" a very enjoyable and recommended read.
Luca is engaging company. He has a waspish tongue, a healthy cynicism and an opinion on any and everything. Though engaged on a sort of noirish thriller quest, he is absolutely British and modern in his worldview and a lousy layman detective. He fizzles and crackles with understandable indignation at most things in the world, seeing what has befallen him and a couple of sustained setpieces are really, fall off the sofa funny (maybe don't read this in the bath? But then it's an e-book so you probably wouldn't be anyway). The first is a scene that takes place in a dominatrix's workplace, when he'd unwittingly turned up to conduct a discussion on provenance and ownership of literature. The second is a phone conversation conducted in public with a hit man on the other end of the line and having to speak in improvised code which really shows off Fenton's skills as a comic writer.
I did have a couple of small reservations about the book as it hurtled towards its denouement. The first concerned the plot itself which I felt just ran out of steam as we approached the final showdown. The tying up of plot threads left me a tad unsatisfied, with the twist being radical and yet not being afforded any undue emphasis from the throughline it had overthrown. This is in part I think to my second reservation, that of the story centring around a writer. This may be personal to me as an author myself, but I do wonder whether readers are as concerned with literary and publishing crimes and misdemeanours as we writers certainly are. In the end this was about a guy who had his manuscript plagiarised and permitted the playing out of writerly revenge fantasies (Dan Brown fans may not warm to this book). The satire concerning submitting manuscripts, rejections, wannabe author judgements about other authors, while eminently recognisable to me, were not remarkable enough to be any different from any writer's forum or blog you may care to scour. I think if you're going to make this the main thrust of your novel, then you really have to go so much further out there with it.
Having said that, the less frenetic reflexive meditations on writing and the writer did remind me of Paul Auster's "New York Trilogy". This together with the great narrative voice (which reminded me of Christopher Brookmyre) and the rich vein of comedy running throughout, absolutely still makes "Punchline" a very enjoyable and recommended read.
October 26, 2011
I've left it a few days after finishing the book before doing my review, but I am still having troubles getting my head round it.
Story was really odd. I don't think I ever really read the blurb, or if I did it was just the first line of it. I just didn't expect the way the plot turned. And funnily enough, instead of picking up my kindle and thinking along the lines of "oooh I wonder if there will be an end to the suspense and we will find the culprit" it was more like "I wonder what weird thing is going to happen to Luca today". I just thought it brought a different experience to the usual books. I thought it was great !
I absolutely loved the way the story was told as well. You're so inside Luca's head, and the story really is told like it is from his point of view. Found it really interesting knowing what goes on in a bloke's head, even though it was in obviously unusual situations!
A totally recommended read if you want to try something different. Bit of suspense, bit of humour and lots of weirdness make a wonderful mix !
Story was really odd. I don't think I ever really read the blurb, or if I did it was just the first line of it. I just didn't expect the way the plot turned. And funnily enough, instead of picking up my kindle and thinking along the lines of "oooh I wonder if there will be an end to the suspense and we will find the culprit" it was more like "I wonder what weird thing is going to happen to Luca today". I just thought it brought a different experience to the usual books. I thought it was great !
I absolutely loved the way the story was told as well. You're so inside Luca's head, and the story really is told like it is from his point of view. Found it really interesting knowing what goes on in a bloke's head, even though it was in obviously unusual situations!
A totally recommended read if you want to try something different. Bit of suspense, bit of humour and lots of weirdness make a wonderful mix !
September 14, 2014
I downloaded this via Kindle Deals & Steals, it was free. Usually, some of those free self published books on kindle are really not well written or edited. But the blurb for this one looked interesting so i downloaded it. I was in the middle of another book, but once i read the first page I just couldn't stop, the old book set aside, i had to finish this one.
The main character development, the way we see him change, in first person! - superb. Well written. Good plot. A bit unbelievable, bit hey, it is a work of fiction. Recommended.
The main character development, the way we see him change, in first person! - superb. Well written. Good plot. A bit unbelievable, bit hey, it is a work of fiction. Recommended.
October 2, 2011
This was a fast paced and action packed story. We are drawn into the main character's endeavour to find out who had 'stolen' the five books he has been trying to get published. The plot, as always, thickens, the characters are funny and the dialogue in places a scream. I loved this book. I look forward to more from Paul Fenton
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January 31, 2014UNREADABLE
I mean literally unreadable. The formatting. is so seriously messed up that I can't read this book. Pages are repeated, which is bad enough, but maybe half a dozen pages in was the first of the skipped pages.
Stay away.
I mean literally unreadable. The formatting. is so seriously messed up that I can't read this book. Pages are repeated, which is bad enough, but maybe half a dozen pages in was the first of the skipped pages.
Stay away.
December 28, 2023
Someone is stealing Luca's novels and getting them published under a variety of names. Can he discover who is at the bottom of the mystery and why are the "authors" getting killed.
A interesting and fun story with some nice twists
A interesting and fun story with some nice twists
April 15, 2015
I was lol, seriously.
May 4, 2013
Fantastic
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews