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Sam Turner #2
Death Minus Zero
With his second novel Baker takes more risks than many writers would dare and triumphs. Val McDermid, novelist, Manchester Evening News.
Baker’s second novel is strong, dark and discursive. There’s no doubt that – with his York setting and up-from-the-gutter hero – Baker has added something new to the crime scene. Philip Oakes, Literary Review.
The supporting cast work splendidly, and York itself is evoked in an effective series of settings. Dark and seedy, leavened with ample wit, I enjoyed this book and can imagine it making an entertaining television series. Martin Hughes, Crime Time.
Baker’s second novel is strong, dark and discursive. There’s no doubt that – with his York setting and up-from-the-gutter hero – Baker has added something new to the crime scene. Philip Oakes, Literary Review.
The supporting cast work splendidly, and York itself is evoked in an effective series of settings. Dark and seedy, leavened with ample wit, I enjoyed this book and can imagine it making an entertaining television series. Martin Hughes, Crime Time.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
11 people want to read
About the author
John Baker
10 books5 followersI’m a novelist and blogger based in the UK. After some time spent in Norway and the South of France I came to settle in York.
On my blog are details of my published novels. My blog, in one form or another has been running since August 2002. The main focus of the blog is fiction and writing but it often expands into general cultural or political questions.
You may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Apart from the above the blog posts regular items of literary news, tips and hints on the writing process, quotations, interviews, extracts from novels and original shorter fiction, book, film, and theatre reviews. Go ahead, subscribe to the feed.
My latest published novel is entitled Winged with Death. It is partly set in Montevideo in the seventies in the midst of civil war. Another arm of the novel is set in the present day in the North of England. Winged with Death is about time and tango and revolution, abduction and denial. It is published in the UK by Flambard Press. You can read an extract from Winged with Death by following this link. You can read extracts from my earlier novels at John Baker’s Fiction Pages, together with photographs, interviews, reviews, quotations and biographical info.
You can also purchase any of my novels directly from me.
On my blog are details of my published novels. My blog, in one form or another has been running since August 2002. The main focus of the blog is fiction and writing but it often expands into general cultural or political questions.
You may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Apart from the above the blog posts regular items of literary news, tips and hints on the writing process, quotations, interviews, extracts from novels and original shorter fiction, book, film, and theatre reviews. Go ahead, subscribe to the feed.
My latest published novel is entitled Winged with Death. It is partly set in Montevideo in the seventies in the midst of civil war. Another arm of the novel is set in the present day in the North of England. Winged with Death is about time and tango and revolution, abduction and denial. It is published in the UK by Flambard Press. You can read an extract from Winged with Death by following this link. You can read extracts from my earlier novels at John Baker’s Fiction Pages, together with photographs, interviews, reviews, quotations and biographical info.
You can also purchase any of my novels directly from me.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 31, 2021
PROTAGONIST: PI Sam Turner
SETTING: York, UK
SERIES: #2
RATING: 4.25
WHY: PI Sam Turner has a new client, Norman Brown, who wants him to find a woman he refers to as "Snow White". There's something off about Norman, and Sam has him observed by his crew, former homeless kid Geordie and unemployed womanizer Gus. Norman's behavior is suspicious. He can be charming, but he is a relentless psychopath; and the murder rate in York UK reflects that. Great characterization and although noirish, there's ample humor in the book. It's intriguing to follow the stream of consciousness thoughts and conversations of Norman.
SETTING: York, UK
SERIES: #2
RATING: 4.25
WHY: PI Sam Turner has a new client, Norman Brown, who wants him to find a woman he refers to as "Snow White". There's something off about Norman, and Sam has him observed by his crew, former homeless kid Geordie and unemployed womanizer Gus. Norman's behavior is suspicious. He can be charming, but he is a relentless psychopath; and the murder rate in York UK reflects that. Great characterization and although noirish, there's ample humor in the book. It's intriguing to follow the stream of consciousness thoughts and conversations of Norman.
July 12, 2013
In our continuing quest to read mysteries connected with locations of future travel, we found John Baker's Death Minus Zero about some criminal goings on in the ancient northern English city of York.
This volume gets violent enough at times that you may occasionally cover your eyes. Norman Bunce escapes from prison in a lucky incident involving the wreckage of his bus. You’re kind of pulling from him for a moment or two, till he pulls off his first change of clothes. That will be the first time for turning your head. Why read something so repellent? Well, it's not at like that as a whole.
We follow Norman's escape route till he eventually comes to York to look up a girl who did him some unspecified wrong back when. He runs afoul of a Detective named Sam Turner, an alcoholic who's trying to put his life back together and who has formed partnerships with a couple of other strays. Their detective work is skillful but desultory, and they pursue it in off times when they aren’t concerned with romance and other important matters.
What makes this book fascinating is its insight into the workings of the criminal mind. Only one other writer I know of—Les Edgerton—is as insightful about why bad guys do what they do. Many writers spend gallons of ink exploring motive and background for their villains. Truth is, there’s not a lot of that goes on among the lawbreaking class according to numerous inside sources of mine. Criminals respond to the needs and impulses of the moment rather than exploring their deepest needs and developing elaborate plans. They’ll rob or kill because when opportunity meets inclination and for not much other reason. Norman is exactly like that, and it’s Sam Turner's gift to understand and predict the directions those impulses are liable to take. There may not be deep motives, but there are patterns, and he who predicts the patterns wins the game, grabs the crook, and saves the day for the innocent and unwary.
Death Minus Zero is an intriguing, if sometimes brutal adventure, full of suspense and interesting characters, and you’ll be more than happy you went along for the ride.
This volume gets violent enough at times that you may occasionally cover your eyes. Norman Bunce escapes from prison in a lucky incident involving the wreckage of his bus. You’re kind of pulling from him for a moment or two, till he pulls off his first change of clothes. That will be the first time for turning your head. Why read something so repellent? Well, it's not at like that as a whole.
We follow Norman's escape route till he eventually comes to York to look up a girl who did him some unspecified wrong back when. He runs afoul of a Detective named Sam Turner, an alcoholic who's trying to put his life back together and who has formed partnerships with a couple of other strays. Their detective work is skillful but desultory, and they pursue it in off times when they aren’t concerned with romance and other important matters.
What makes this book fascinating is its insight into the workings of the criminal mind. Only one other writer I know of—Les Edgerton—is as insightful about why bad guys do what they do. Many writers spend gallons of ink exploring motive and background for their villains. Truth is, there’s not a lot of that goes on among the lawbreaking class according to numerous inside sources of mine. Criminals respond to the needs and impulses of the moment rather than exploring their deepest needs and developing elaborate plans. They’ll rob or kill because when opportunity meets inclination and for not much other reason. Norman is exactly like that, and it’s Sam Turner's gift to understand and predict the directions those impulses are liable to take. There may not be deep motives, but there are patterns, and he who predicts the patterns wins the game, grabs the crook, and saves the day for the innocent and unwary.
Death Minus Zero is an intriguing, if sometimes brutal adventure, full of suspense and interesting characters, and you’ll be more than happy you went along for the ride.
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December 7, 2010I enjoyed this far more than the first book in the series probably because I knew what to expect this time. These books are certainly crime novels but I don't think they are great mysteries. Most of the facts in the case are clear to the reader long before they are clear to the characters in the book and the reader's fun is in sitting back and watching how things will play out.
I notice that when I read Poet in the Gutter (the first in the series) I thought that Sam Turner was my closest fictional detective. I've since found detectives closer to Newcastle but I've also moved to Yorkshire. But Yorkshire is brimming with fictional detectives and I can name several closer than Sam.
This book was just what I needed to read at the moment, clever and quite dark, at least dusky, without sacrificing humour and full of great characters.
September 4, 2007
DEATH MINUS ZERO (Private Invest-England-Cont) – VG
John Baker – 2nd in series
Indigo, 1996 – UK paperback
Sam Turner, private investigator, now has an office and his first client who has asked him to find Snow White. However Sam knows the signs of an ex-con and decides to be careful with this client. But even Sam doesn’t realize just how dangerous this new client is.
*** This series came recommended to me by one of my U.K. booksellers. I read the first in the series and wasn’t completely sold, but I am now. Sam and his staff are great characters and well written. I cheered the end of the book, not because I was glad to see it end but because the end was very well deserved. Happily, books 3 – 5 are waiting on my shelf.
John Baker – 2nd in series
Indigo, 1996 – UK paperback
Sam Turner, private investigator, now has an office and his first client who has asked him to find Snow White. However Sam knows the signs of an ex-con and decides to be careful with this client. But even Sam doesn’t realize just how dangerous this new client is.
*** This series came recommended to me by one of my U.K. booksellers. I read the first in the series and wasn’t completely sold, but I am now. Sam and his staff are great characters and well written. I cheered the end of the book, not because I was glad to see it end but because the end was very well deserved. Happily, books 3 – 5 are waiting on my shelf.
January 11, 2013
Actually there is nothing new: on the one side a troubled privat eye, on the other a psychopathic ciminal. But J. Baker maneged to entertain me a lot with this novel. Recommended to all crime fiction lovers.
July 19, 2010
see previous general comments on John Baker...Death minus Zero has some very nice touches about York, Crime and pyschopaths...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews