What do you think?
Rate this book
Stiffed
Tadhg Maguire wakes to find himself spooning a dead man. The stiff is Tony Marino, lieutenant to mobster Aldo Pirelli. It doesn't matter how the local enforcer ended up between Tadhg’s sheets, Pirelli is liable to leap to the wrong conclusion and demand rough justice.
The right thing to do would be to call the cops.
The sensible thing to do would be to disappear. Forever.
The only other option is to get rid of the body and pretend it was never there. No body, no crime.
What he needs is a couple of friends to help dispose of the heavy corpse. Little do Tadhg’s friends know what kind of reward they’ll receive for their selfless act – threatened, chased, shot at, and kidnapped with demands to return a million dollars they don’t possess.
By mid-afternoon Tadhg is the most wanted man in America. Not bad for someone who’d never previously had so much as parking ticket.
If he survives the day he’s resigned to serving time, but not before he saves his friends from the same fate.
The right thing to do would be to call the cops.
The sensible thing to do would be to disappear. Forever.
The only other option is to get rid of the body and pretend it was never there. No body, no crime.
What he needs is a couple of friends to help dispose of the heavy corpse. Little do Tadhg’s friends know what kind of reward they’ll receive for their selfless act – threatened, chased, shot at, and kidnapped with demands to return a million dollars they don’t possess.
By mid-afternoon Tadhg is the most wanted man in America. Not bad for someone who’d never previously had so much as parking ticket.
If he survives the day he’s resigned to serving time, but not before he saves his friends from the same fate.
319 pages, Paperback
First published May 5, 2013
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
Rob Kitchin
55 books107 followersI'm a professor at the National University of Ireland Maynooth and the author or editor of 28 academic books and a 12 volume encyclopedia, and author of four crime novels and two collections of short stories. My passions are reading and writing crime fiction and undertaking research on social issues. I contribute to three blogs: The View From the Blue House, Ireland After NAMA, and The Programmable City.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 14, 2013
I will put my hands up straightaway and confess that ‘comic’ crime does not usually sit well with me, and apart from Carl Hiaasen and Colin Bateman, I very rarely pick up books billed as such. However, Stiffed was a genuinely very entertaining and equally funny read. You know how sometimes you ruminate at the end of the day and say “Wasn’t that just the day from hell“, well, think twice, because Tadhg’s day can easily trump the minor irritations of the average day! Waking up with a corpse, grappling with the realisation that your girlfriend is missing, being pursued by some very nasty characters indeed, and relying on the help of two hapless friends with dubious social skills, and you get a sense of how bad his day really is. Not only has Kitchin constructed a very readable and compelling plotline, but the comic touches are a joy. There are numerous completely laugh-out-loud moments that appealed to my dark sense of humour, and I loved the interplay between Tadhg and his friends, who bring a whole new level of ineptitude to the world of body disposal. There is a nice little twist involving Tadgh’s girlfriend and his blundering avoidance of the baddies of the piece is well played out. All in all, a bit of a hoot!
September 20, 2014
You know where you are right from the beginning of Stiffed. You’re in Tadhg Maguire nightmare that’s tense, edgy and funny. What you don’t know is exactly how badly things will become.
Tadhg (be careful how you say that, now) returns home from a bout of heavy drinking and wakes up in his bed with his arm round the corpse of a gangster’s heavy instead of his crazy girlfriend. As we’re soon to find out, the crazy girlfriend happens to have stolen a million bucks from the mob, which at least goes some way to explain the switch between the sheets.
Clearly Tadhg faces a dilemma. He can call the murder in, do a runner or dispose of the body. He chooses the latter and enlists the help of some good friends to make sure he gets the job done.
In retrospect, a runner might well have been the best option.
His good friends don’t know what they’ve let themselves in for.
It’s not long before there’s another body on the scene and the police come round to find out what exactly is going on.
This may have been a bad start to Tadg’s day. As he looks back on events, finding a body in his bed is going to seem like a bright spot. Things spiral out of control and fall to pieces.
To my mind, the piece feels very visual and has the energy of a slick action film. Overlaying the chaos and pace are the thoughts of a very confused Tadhg. This blend works really well.
The sense of America as a melting pot for the diverse certainly comes across and the list of supporting characters are really well drawn.
Essentially I thought the read was a lot of fun. The crime and action angles work well, in the main as platform that allows Kitchen’s comedy to play out. The humour comes in many forms – in dialogue, situation, action and slapstick – which means it’s an entertaining read and an ideal beach companion (even if that beach is a cold, rocky expanse on the East Coast of Scotland).
Tadhg (be careful how you say that, now) returns home from a bout of heavy drinking and wakes up in his bed with his arm round the corpse of a gangster’s heavy instead of his crazy girlfriend. As we’re soon to find out, the crazy girlfriend happens to have stolen a million bucks from the mob, which at least goes some way to explain the switch between the sheets.
Clearly Tadhg faces a dilemma. He can call the murder in, do a runner or dispose of the body. He chooses the latter and enlists the help of some good friends to make sure he gets the job done.
In retrospect, a runner might well have been the best option.
His good friends don’t know what they’ve let themselves in for.
It’s not long before there’s another body on the scene and the police come round to find out what exactly is going on.
This may have been a bad start to Tadg’s day. As he looks back on events, finding a body in his bed is going to seem like a bright spot. Things spiral out of control and fall to pieces.
To my mind, the piece feels very visual and has the energy of a slick action film. Overlaying the chaos and pace are the thoughts of a very confused Tadhg. This blend works really well.
The sense of America as a melting pot for the diverse certainly comes across and the list of supporting characters are really well drawn.
Essentially I thought the read was a lot of fun. The crime and action angles work well, in the main as platform that allows Kitchen’s comedy to play out. The humour comes in many forms – in dialogue, situation, action and slapstick – which means it’s an entertaining read and an ideal beach companion (even if that beach is a cold, rocky expanse on the East Coast of Scotland).
July 7, 2013
Total madness. Fun and nutty ride from the first paragraph. A lot of characters to keep track of and a bit confusing at times. Funny as hell and tons of violence. Excellent. I have already grabbed 2 more books from this author. This was my introduction....
July 14, 2013
i think it was Raymond Chandler who said if you walk into a room and there's a gun on the table sooner or later somebody's going to get shot. Rob should learn that lesson. A lot of guns and very little shots from the protagonists. needed more editing and maybe drafts.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews