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Serpent Uncoiled
A missing mobster, a bizarre spiritualist society, and three deaths are all linked by a chilling forensic detail in this wry, witty, and utterly unique take on the classic private eye novel
Working as an enforcer in London's criminal underworld brought Dan Shaper to the edge of a breakdown. Now he's a private investigator, kept perilously afloat by a growing cocktail of drugs. He needs to straighten up and rebuild his life, but instead he gets the attention of his old gangland masters and a job offer from Mr. George Glass. The elderly eccentric claims to be a New Age Messiah, but now needs a savior of his own: he's been marked for murder. Adrift amidst liars and thugs, Shaper must push his capsizing mind to its limits, as he is stalked not only by a unique and terrifying killer, but by the ghosts of his own brutal past.
Working as an enforcer in London's criminal underworld brought Dan Shaper to the edge of a breakdown. Now he's a private investigator, kept perilously afloat by a growing cocktail of drugs. He needs to straighten up and rebuild his life, but instead he gets the attention of his old gangland masters and a job offer from Mr. George Glass. The elderly eccentric claims to be a New Age Messiah, but now needs a savior of his own: he's been marked for murder. Adrift amidst liars and thugs, Shaper must push his capsizing mind to its limits, as he is stalked not only by a unique and terrifying killer, but by the ghosts of his own brutal past.
465 pages, Paperback
First published August 4, 2011
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May 6, 2025
Dieses Buch vs. ein Schlangenbiss? Die Schlange gewinnt! 💀🐍⚰️
August 6, 2011
This is Simon Spurrier’s second novel published by Headline, whilst I was aware of him as a writer I haven’t read his previous novel Contact but I’ve heard decent things about it. I was really taken by the synopsis for A Serpent Uncoiled and thought I would give it a go. I’m so glad that I did, within a few pages I was completely hooked – I read it in a morning and even put off lunch so that I could finish it.
The book opens with private investigator Dan Shaper wrapping up a case at a brothel. Once he’s finished with the case he’s planning on taking some time off to detox (he keeps himself going by self-medicating in a terrifyingly precise manner) but he gets a call that pulls him straight into another case – detox must wait.
The new case initially seems pretty straightforward and standard crime thriller fare, there is a serial killer on the loose who has warned a future victim that he’s a target. The potential victim, George Glass, is far from standard. He claims to be over a thousand years old and some sort of spiritual Messiah complete with his own following of new age enthusiasts. Very quickly the plot moves on from feeling even remotely familiar as it twists through drug fuelled hazes, passing gangland mobsters and aura seeing hippies on the way. Time after time the reader is lead along with Shaper down dead ends, as Spurrier first flings out plot threads galore and then weaves them all back in together for the final reveal of whodunnit and both how and why.
I felt by the end of the first chapter that I had a pretty good idea of who Dan Shaper was. Very quickly however I started to realise that there was more to him than being a PI, he has a hard past that is never far away leaving him with contacts in both the police and London’s criminal underbelly that he doesn’t always want. He used to be a man who would solve any problem any way, he’s trying hard to leave that life behind but it’s insisting on clinging on. He’s a hugely engaging character, I initially couldn’t quite take to him but the more I read of him the more I understood him. I’m still not sure that I could say that I liked him, but I was most definitely rooting for him for the majority of the book.
The book is filled with interesting, well created characters who all have their part to play in the plot. I found Glass’ daughter Sandra very compelling, and loved the rather unusual criminal Coram family. I really wanted to love Vince, Shaper’s closest ally, but I didn’t like some of his actions towards the end of the book so ended up with mixed feelings towards him.
The book is written in a fast and intricate manner. The plot could have spiralled out of control and ended up confusing but Spurrier has a great handle on it from start to end. It is only as he starts weaving all of the story threads together that you realise that nothing is in the book by accident, everything is there for a reason and has its part to play. It’s an intelligent and entirely satisfying read, particularly as the solution plays out for both Shaper and the reader.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as I’ve already said I put off food for it which as my friends and family know is a big thing for me to say. I’m certainly going to be catching up with Contact and looking forward to whatever Simon Spurrier writes next.
The book opens with private investigator Dan Shaper wrapping up a case at a brothel. Once he’s finished with the case he’s planning on taking some time off to detox (he keeps himself going by self-medicating in a terrifyingly precise manner) but he gets a call that pulls him straight into another case – detox must wait.
The new case initially seems pretty straightforward and standard crime thriller fare, there is a serial killer on the loose who has warned a future victim that he’s a target. The potential victim, George Glass, is far from standard. He claims to be over a thousand years old and some sort of spiritual Messiah complete with his own following of new age enthusiasts. Very quickly the plot moves on from feeling even remotely familiar as it twists through drug fuelled hazes, passing gangland mobsters and aura seeing hippies on the way. Time after time the reader is lead along with Shaper down dead ends, as Spurrier first flings out plot threads galore and then weaves them all back in together for the final reveal of whodunnit and both how and why.
I felt by the end of the first chapter that I had a pretty good idea of who Dan Shaper was. Very quickly however I started to realise that there was more to him than being a PI, he has a hard past that is never far away leaving him with contacts in both the police and London’s criminal underbelly that he doesn’t always want. He used to be a man who would solve any problem any way, he’s trying hard to leave that life behind but it’s insisting on clinging on. He’s a hugely engaging character, I initially couldn’t quite take to him but the more I read of him the more I understood him. I’m still not sure that I could say that I liked him, but I was most definitely rooting for him for the majority of the book.
The book is filled with interesting, well created characters who all have their part to play in the plot. I found Glass’ daughter Sandra very compelling, and loved the rather unusual criminal Coram family. I really wanted to love Vince, Shaper’s closest ally, but I didn’t like some of his actions towards the end of the book so ended up with mixed feelings towards him.
The book is written in a fast and intricate manner. The plot could have spiralled out of control and ended up confusing but Spurrier has a great handle on it from start to end. It is only as he starts weaving all of the story threads together that you realise that nothing is in the book by accident, everything is there for a reason and has its part to play. It’s an intelligent and entirely satisfying read, particularly as the solution plays out for both Shaper and the reader.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as I’ve already said I put off food for it which as my friends and family know is a big thing for me to say. I’m certainly going to be catching up with Contact and looking forward to whatever Simon Spurrier writes next.
January 24, 2012
An impressive crime/thriller novel, well worth your time.
July 5, 2017
Simon Spurrier puts a fresh spin on the hard boiled Detective novel with A Serpent Uncoiled. His anti-hero Dan Sharper is a former mob enforcer turned private eye that gets hired by a mysterious millionaire George Glass to find out who is trying to kill him. Needless to say things get very weird very fast. This is a strong start to what could be a great series. Dan Sharper is an excellent character and there's a lot of open ended plot lines that could really be developed. Not sure if there's been a follow up - from what I can find online there hasn't - but I for one would certainly purchase another Dan Sharper adventure.
March 20, 2017
I don't often rate books 1 star, there is usually SOMETHING about it that I liked but to quote directly from the book, "This is utter bollocks".
February 20, 2012
Simon Spurrier has already carved out quite a career for himself in comics – first with the venerable British weekly 2000AD, before moving on to the big American comic publishers DC and Marvel; he’s currently writing an X-Men spin-off. He’s also written a number of licensed books for likes of the Warhammer universe and others. However he’s also branched out with his own crime novels, A Serpent Uncoiled being the second after Contract came out a few years ago.
If I say the Serpent stars Dan Shaper as a PI who walks the mean streets of London you are probably going to be thinking ‘oh same old, same old’ but Spurrier twists that cliché right around (the first of many twists on The Standard Detective Novel). Because Shaper is a PI for the Dark Side, an enforcer, a fixer, working for those shady inhabitants of Old London Town who can’t take their problems to legitimate investigators, never mind the police. The novel opens with an hilarious set-piece where Shaper is trying to catch the thief of the rather specialised Viagra substitute used by the madam of a brothel catering exclusively for geriatric clients. Shaper is not really evil himself – not so much black as a muddy grey. He cares for his pet iguana but gets no thanks for it. And Shaper has problems. Big problems. Something Very Bad happened in his past. To blot out the memories of that and keep himself sane he self-medicates on fistfuls of various drugs. However he can only go so far with this treatment and to prevent complete mental melt-down he has to regularly shut himself away in his flat to go cold turkey and detox.
He’s just about to start one of these come-down sessions when he is offered a job with a huge pay cheque – to investigate the threats on the life of one George Glass. Glass is one of a number of vivid, almost Dickensian characters that appear in the novel. He’s certainly not the sort of client that Sharper is used to dealing with – he’s old, rich and guru to a new-age cult. He also claims to be thousands of years old.
Sharper’s investigations are soon complicated by a nasty serial killer and the reappearance of the London crime family he used to work for. Sharper starts seeing… things and we can’t be sure if it’s real, chemical induced hallucination, or if pure madness has started kicking in. We have far East mysticism meeting East End gangsterism as Spurrier skips and slides between genres, bending noir crime, urban fantasy and graphic horror together. The novel’s plot develops to be as sinuous as the serpent of its title with many well-paced surprises along the way.
Spurrier has a singular prose style as this quote, the start of the first chapter, indicates:
London hacked up its lungs and glistened.
The november drizzle had held off for the first time in three nights, but the air seemed choked regardless: a clammy ambient moisture caressing slick bricks and grey, leafless trees. On ledges through Soho, pigeons sulked in moronic bedragglement, while brave smokers lurked in smoggy palls outside steaming pubs, muttering at the indignity. In doorways along oxford Street tramps clutched at dreaming dogs for warmth, and in Camden even the dealers – initially optimistic at the break in the rain – took to lurking near kebab shops and club queues, leeching excess heat, to mumble their mantras:
‘Skunk, hash, pills . . . skunk, hash, pills . . .’
At times it’s hard to see past the dazzling surface prose and the larger than life, almost grotesque, characters that show Spurrier’s comic book roots. But it’s not all like that – Sharper and some of his relationships are subtly drawn and deep down the novel has a real heart to it (if admittedly a little black). Overall it’s a bit of a heady brew, but if you get it down, the rewards are well worth it.
Without giving too much away the ending allows for more adventures with Sharper. If there are, I’ll be joining him. I think I’m addicted.
If I say the Serpent stars Dan Shaper as a PI who walks the mean streets of London you are probably going to be thinking ‘oh same old, same old’ but Spurrier twists that cliché right around (the first of many twists on The Standard Detective Novel). Because Shaper is a PI for the Dark Side, an enforcer, a fixer, working for those shady inhabitants of Old London Town who can’t take their problems to legitimate investigators, never mind the police. The novel opens with an hilarious set-piece where Shaper is trying to catch the thief of the rather specialised Viagra substitute used by the madam of a brothel catering exclusively for geriatric clients. Shaper is not really evil himself – not so much black as a muddy grey. He cares for his pet iguana but gets no thanks for it. And Shaper has problems. Big problems. Something Very Bad happened in his past. To blot out the memories of that and keep himself sane he self-medicates on fistfuls of various drugs. However he can only go so far with this treatment and to prevent complete mental melt-down he has to regularly shut himself away in his flat to go cold turkey and detox.
He’s just about to start one of these come-down sessions when he is offered a job with a huge pay cheque – to investigate the threats on the life of one George Glass. Glass is one of a number of vivid, almost Dickensian characters that appear in the novel. He’s certainly not the sort of client that Sharper is used to dealing with – he’s old, rich and guru to a new-age cult. He also claims to be thousands of years old.
Sharper’s investigations are soon complicated by a nasty serial killer and the reappearance of the London crime family he used to work for. Sharper starts seeing… things and we can’t be sure if it’s real, chemical induced hallucination, or if pure madness has started kicking in. We have far East mysticism meeting East End gangsterism as Spurrier skips and slides between genres, bending noir crime, urban fantasy and graphic horror together. The novel’s plot develops to be as sinuous as the serpent of its title with many well-paced surprises along the way.
Spurrier has a singular prose style as this quote, the start of the first chapter, indicates:
London hacked up its lungs and glistened.
The november drizzle had held off for the first time in three nights, but the air seemed choked regardless: a clammy ambient moisture caressing slick bricks and grey, leafless trees. On ledges through Soho, pigeons sulked in moronic bedragglement, while brave smokers lurked in smoggy palls outside steaming pubs, muttering at the indignity. In doorways along oxford Street tramps clutched at dreaming dogs for warmth, and in Camden even the dealers – initially optimistic at the break in the rain – took to lurking near kebab shops and club queues, leeching excess heat, to mumble their mantras:
‘Skunk, hash, pills . . . skunk, hash, pills . . .’
At times it’s hard to see past the dazzling surface prose and the larger than life, almost grotesque, characters that show Spurrier’s comic book roots. But it’s not all like that – Sharper and some of his relationships are subtly drawn and deep down the novel has a real heart to it (if admittedly a little black). Overall it’s a bit of a heady brew, but if you get it down, the rewards are well worth it.
Without giving too much away the ending allows for more adventures with Sharper. If there are, I’ll be joining him. I think I’m addicted.
July 1, 2011
A Serpent Uncoiled was my first encounter with author Simon Spurrier, but it's one I'll never forget. The book is Spurrier's second crime book after Contract published in 2007. In addition, Spurrier has written several licensed novels and writes as a graphic novelist for likes of Marvel, D.C. and 2000AD. And this last is apparent in his writing I think, because besides being wicked, witty, scary and mysterious, A Serpent Uncoiled is written in a very visual style. The story is almost filmic and it's very easy to picture what the places Dan visits look like or how he sees during his drug-induced hallucinatory episodes.
The book oozes plot, because Shaper's case is labyrinthine. Moving from what seems to be nothing more than a threatening hoax letter to the most frightening murder plot Shaper has ever encounter, the story keeps the reader on her toes. Every time I thought this time Shaper (and I) had figured out the real culprit, we'd turn another twisting corner and it would turn out I was wrong. But despite the numerous twists and turns and dead ends in the case, the plot never became too clever for its own good, rather Shaper's conclusions were logical based on the hard evidence and often backed up by his instincts, even taking into account that Shaper isn't always the most reliable of observers.
Shaper's world is weird and delusional, due to his emotional trauma and his resultant drug abuse. Shaper intuits his way through the case based on hunches derived from his drug-induced fata morganas. For someone completely sceptical of the New Age bollocks, as he calls them, Shaper gets pretty close to having visions himself, a fact which unsettles him mightily when he acknowledges it. The scenes describing Shaper's delusions are frightening, revolting but entrancing at the same time – at times they are even beautiful – but they are never less than painful. The way Spurrier makes these hallucinations part of the plot – not just moving it forward by providing clues for Shaper distilled from his subconscious, but also making them a large part of Shaper's motivation to take the case and his need to protect Glass – is very deftly done and is one of the things that makes this novel unique.
The other factor that makes A Serpent Uncoiled unique is Shaper. The mystery at the heart of this book is compelling, but Shaper makes it special. He's funny, wry, vulnerable and damaged and needs to redeem himself in his own eyes. Glass offers him that opportunity and sets something in motion that will change Shaper's life. Through meeting Mary, Glass' assistant in his efforts to remember his past, Shaper's broken heart starts to mend, not very fast, but at long last the wounds are starting to scab over. He finally detoxes, not his usual three day detox-jojo routine, but truly detoxing. He deals with his past, in the form of the Corams and in the process sets himself free to move on to his own fate. If the book doesn't exactly end on a happy note, it does leave one hopeful for Shaper's future.
Spurrier's writing is intricate and deliberate. He scorns neither profanity nor complex words and seems to expect the reader to be smart enough to keep up with his strange vision. In this manner he weaves not just a classic noir crime novel, but a tale of a man twisting free of his past which is as memorable as it is dryly funny. A Serpent Uncoiled is a great book, not for the faint of heart, but very much recommended. It's out from Headline on August 4th.
This book was sent to me for review by the publisher.
The book oozes plot, because Shaper's case is labyrinthine. Moving from what seems to be nothing more than a threatening hoax letter to the most frightening murder plot Shaper has ever encounter, the story keeps the reader on her toes. Every time I thought this time Shaper (and I) had figured out the real culprit, we'd turn another twisting corner and it would turn out I was wrong. But despite the numerous twists and turns and dead ends in the case, the plot never became too clever for its own good, rather Shaper's conclusions were logical based on the hard evidence and often backed up by his instincts, even taking into account that Shaper isn't always the most reliable of observers.
Shaper's world is weird and delusional, due to his emotional trauma and his resultant drug abuse. Shaper intuits his way through the case based on hunches derived from his drug-induced fata morganas. For someone completely sceptical of the New Age bollocks, as he calls them, Shaper gets pretty close to having visions himself, a fact which unsettles him mightily when he acknowledges it. The scenes describing Shaper's delusions are frightening, revolting but entrancing at the same time – at times they are even beautiful – but they are never less than painful. The way Spurrier makes these hallucinations part of the plot – not just moving it forward by providing clues for Shaper distilled from his subconscious, but also making them a large part of Shaper's motivation to take the case and his need to protect Glass – is very deftly done and is one of the things that makes this novel unique.
The other factor that makes A Serpent Uncoiled unique is Shaper. The mystery at the heart of this book is compelling, but Shaper makes it special. He's funny, wry, vulnerable and damaged and needs to redeem himself in his own eyes. Glass offers him that opportunity and sets something in motion that will change Shaper's life. Through meeting Mary, Glass' assistant in his efforts to remember his past, Shaper's broken heart starts to mend, not very fast, but at long last the wounds are starting to scab over. He finally detoxes, not his usual three day detox-jojo routine, but truly detoxing. He deals with his past, in the form of the Corams and in the process sets himself free to move on to his own fate. If the book doesn't exactly end on a happy note, it does leave one hopeful for Shaper's future.
Spurrier's writing is intricate and deliberate. He scorns neither profanity nor complex words and seems to expect the reader to be smart enough to keep up with his strange vision. In this manner he weaves not just a classic noir crime novel, but a tale of a man twisting free of his past which is as memorable as it is dryly funny. A Serpent Uncoiled is a great book, not for the faint of heart, but very much recommended. It's out from Headline on August 4th.
This book was sent to me for review by the publisher.
January 31, 2015
Dan Shaper is a private investigator. He used to be a mob enforcer. He used to beat and batter and otherwise assault various people on behalf of his criminal bosses. But he got out of that life. Tragedy came calling and his crime family chose business over him and his revenge. But you don’t leave that sort of a life without scars, and Dan has plenty of issues. Usually he medicates. It is his solution. If he doesn’t then what he calls his “Sickness” will overwhelm him. He has plenty of technical terms different psychologists have come up with, but none of them appeal. So Sickness it is.
A cocktail of uppers and downers keeps him level. Usually.
In A serpent uncoiled he is busy trying to protect and old, befuddled man who claims to be a couple of thousand years old. He doesn’t remember exactly, sometime in the last few decades he lost his memory, he has no idea what he did in the past, but he thinks he might be in danger now. Someone has been sending him threatening letters. And there are bodies to go with those messages. Can Shaper protect him?
There’s also a girl, because you gotta have a love interest.
I’m pretty sure it was seeing some of the video Spurrier has on his blog that prompted me to buy this book. And I think it was a worthwhile investment.
It was a book that as long as I was reading I was thoroughly enjoying, but when I put it down I wasn’t hugely gripped into picking up again. I don’t say that to be negative about it, but just to clarify. I liked it. I didn’t love it.
It isn’t my usual sort of novel, maybe that’s why I wasn’t so immersed in it. It is a mystery detective book, with a very pulpy style of writing to it. I don’t read a whole heap of those sort of books.
I do think that paragraph is enough to put anyone off, I’m almost of a mind to delete it because I don’t want to put anyone off, I did enjoy it. I would read more by Spurrier. In fact I think I’ll try his début novel at some stage, the blurb, a hitman whose victims are coming back to life, sounds really interesting.
I think maybe some of my distance from the story is because of Dan’s background. He is a bad guy. Or at least he used to be one, and this sort of “former bad guy turned hero” seems to be all over the place at the moment. The hero1 decides to help people now, but in most cases there is very little restitution. Plenty of regret and “damn I used to be so bad”, but little by the way ot making things right with those you have wronged. And very little acknowledgement of the real damage the hero did in the past2 just that he is now helping instead of hindering. Is that enough?
Its harsh to land all this on A serpent uncoiled, and in fairness Dan does suffer because of what he has done. But he also has a fridged woman in his background. :(
Leaving all that baggage to one side it is a pretty entertaining story, and I quite liked Dan by the end. I would also like to see where he goes from here, but I don’t think a sequel ever came out? However he does have a comic out called Six Gun Gorilla, that should be good enough for anyone.
(1) it is usually a dude, Black Widow might be the exception ↩
(2) again Black Widow is an exception, she seems to recognise that fact ↩
A cocktail of uppers and downers keeps him level. Usually.
In A serpent uncoiled he is busy trying to protect and old, befuddled man who claims to be a couple of thousand years old. He doesn’t remember exactly, sometime in the last few decades he lost his memory, he has no idea what he did in the past, but he thinks he might be in danger now. Someone has been sending him threatening letters. And there are bodies to go with those messages. Can Shaper protect him?
There’s also a girl, because you gotta have a love interest.
I’m pretty sure it was seeing some of the video Spurrier has on his blog that prompted me to buy this book. And I think it was a worthwhile investment.
It was a book that as long as I was reading I was thoroughly enjoying, but when I put it down I wasn’t hugely gripped into picking up again. I don’t say that to be negative about it, but just to clarify. I liked it. I didn’t love it.
It isn’t my usual sort of novel, maybe that’s why I wasn’t so immersed in it. It is a mystery detective book, with a very pulpy style of writing to it. I don’t read a whole heap of those sort of books.
I do think that paragraph is enough to put anyone off, I’m almost of a mind to delete it because I don’t want to put anyone off, I did enjoy it. I would read more by Spurrier. In fact I think I’ll try his début novel at some stage, the blurb, a hitman whose victims are coming back to life, sounds really interesting.
I think maybe some of my distance from the story is because of Dan’s background. He is a bad guy. Or at least he used to be one, and this sort of “former bad guy turned hero” seems to be all over the place at the moment. The hero1 decides to help people now, but in most cases there is very little restitution. Plenty of regret and “damn I used to be so bad”, but little by the way ot making things right with those you have wronged. And very little acknowledgement of the real damage the hero did in the past2 just that he is now helping instead of hindering. Is that enough?
Its harsh to land all this on A serpent uncoiled, and in fairness Dan does suffer because of what he has done. But he also has a fridged woman in his background. :(
Leaving all that baggage to one side it is a pretty entertaining story, and I quite liked Dan by the end. I would also like to see where he goes from here, but I don’t think a sequel ever came out? However he does have a comic out called Six Gun Gorilla, that should be good enough for anyone.
(1) it is usually a dude, Black Widow might be the exception ↩
(2) again Black Widow is an exception, she seems to recognise that fact ↩
January 17, 2012
Nearly amazing but jut not quite, the bother with A Serpent Uncoiled is that there is a little bit too much plotting and the mystery is a bit too mysterious for one book to cope with, the base idea is without a doubt genius and originality at which a horror/crime idea has been attacked (and I mean attacked) are excellent but there is no real connection for me with any of the characters, the right ideas are all there but there is juat too much going on all the time for me to really be able to get my teeth into and this unfortunately just makes the whole thing is just a bit too overwhelming. If this had been split into a trilogy and more time had been spent making it possible for the reader to invest an interest in this then I would genuinely think that it would have easily been a classic in the waiting. Unfortunately, as I have said a few times through, a little bit too much plot and just not quite enough substance for me.
I feel a little bit harsh giving out 3 stars when potentially this could appeal massively if more to your tastes, sadly, just not quite there for me.
I feel a little bit harsh giving out 3 stars when potentially this could appeal massively if more to your tastes, sadly, just not quite there for me.
May 19, 2012
It's been ages since I read crime fiction, the previous books having been from James Ellroy, and compared to that stuff Simon Spurrier's A Serpent Uncoiled is a wholly different kind of animal. In the beginning it looks like the novel flirts with the "supernatural badass male protagonist" books in the vein of Kadrey's stuff, so I got tuned in to certain pulpy & gimmicky over the top experience. The novel never went there, though, turning out to be a solid piece of visceral crime fiction with all the requisite criminal masterminds, hot chicks, badass friends and plot twists, sprinkled with a hefty dose of weird-yet-quite-not-supernatural. I think the word "solid" is what describes A Serpent Uncoiled the best: it does what it does well, twisting every trope of the genre just enough that it feels original.
Read
April 16, 2015A detective (who may be experiencing visions, or may simply be the delusional victim of extensive drug use and his own traumatic past) pursues a killer (who may be the agent of dark supernatural forces, or may simply be fucking mental). True Detective, then, except that being British (and even more, being Si Spurrier) means that show's terrible seriousness is replaced with an equally bruising black comedy. One of those books I felt could have happily been a bit shorter, without being able to pinpoint exactly what should be cut; maybe it was just that I didn't like spending too much time with Dan Shaper and the assorted fuck-ups and villains of his world. Nevertheless, I kept reading (albeit with breaks for lighter fare), and found the experience much more satisfactory than Spurrier's previous non-shared-world novel Contract and its slightly fumbled conclusion.
May 20, 2013
A Serpent Uncoiled is the second novel by Simon Spurrier, better known for his work on various comics and such – it’s a crime story at heart, a messy, visceral, twisted tale, all told through the anguished, oft-drugged eyes of one Dan Shaper.
Retired from a life of organised violence, Shaper is working as a private investigator and quietly dosing himself into oblivion to forget his hellish past. All of a sudden, as often happens in these situations, a case drops into his lap which forces him to both confront his demons and shape up to avoid getting dead. And before he knows it, Shaper is arse-deep in new-age messiahs, brutal organ-harvesting serial killers and terrifying crime bosses.
FULL REVIEW: http://manyatruenerd.com/2013/05/17/a...
Retired from a life of organised violence, Shaper is working as a private investigator and quietly dosing himself into oblivion to forget his hellish past. All of a sudden, as often happens in these situations, a case drops into his lap which forces him to both confront his demons and shape up to avoid getting dead. And before he knows it, Shaper is arse-deep in new-age messiahs, brutal organ-harvesting serial killers and terrifying crime bosses.
FULL REVIEW: http://manyatruenerd.com/2013/05/17/a...
December 6, 2012
This is a terrific crime novel. Tight plotting, excellent writing, interesting characters--and spooky stuff too. If you liked the Lisbeth Salander books you'll like this one. If you like James Patterson you'll like this one. I was so happy this is Spurrier's second novel because that means I have another one to find.
April 27, 2012
Although I really enjoyed this book while I was reading it, it is very bleak. I had a hard time coming back to it which is why it took so long to read. It's incredibly well written with no sympathetic characters at all, which is pretty weird.
October 21, 2012
Oooh! Crime, and an anti-hero with a drug problem, as a seedy investigator that the underworld calls upon. There are so many facets to this story. It’s different, compelling, a little shocking and fascinating. Something for those jaded by the same old of the crime world!
June 1, 2013
Not bad. A thriller with a twist. Crime, with a mere whiff of the supernatural. Found the book meandered a little, with the main character, Shaper, relying on a sort of "Dirk Gently' approach to detection.
June 22, 2015
Exciting read with likeable characters and very witty with some genuine laugh out loud moments. The story moves along nicely and didn't feel like there were passages in it that the book could have done without. Nice twist at the end.
October 11, 2011
This was a fun read. The story was fast-paced and engaging. Sometimes, however, some of the plot twists just seemed random and off-kilter. I highly recommend it!
September 2, 2012
I think this book cracked open my skull and shat in my brain. Recommended!
June 6, 2016
A cracking read, well worth your time.
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