The Black Russian: a Jack Susko mystery

Jack Susko #2

by Lenny Bartulin

After yet another slow week at the cash register, that fine purveyor of second-hand literature, Susko Books, is facing financial ruin. Jack Susko sets off to a gallery in Woollahra to scrape up some coin with the sale of an old art catalogue. With his usual panache and exquisite timing, he arrives just as De Groot Galleries is being done over by masked thieves. Along with a mysterious object from the safe, the robbers seize a valuable first edition from Jack’s bag, too.

When the owner of the gallery doesn’t want to call the cops, Jack is offered a sizeable sum to keep silent: but when de Groot arrives at the bookshop with his heavy to renege on the deal, all bets are off. With an ease that almost constitutes a gift, Jack Susko finds himself at the centre of a world full of duplicity, lies and art theft.

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Australia

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Lenny Bartulin is the author of Death by the Book aka A Deadly Business (2008). His poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous publications, including HEAT, Meanjin, and New Australian Stories. His latest novel is The Black Russian.

Lenny Bartulin was born in Hobart in 1969 and lives in Sydney.

Reviews

[Andrew Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right lets be clear Bartulin is no Chandler but who is? But for those who love and have exhausted Chandler and know of or live in sydney this is a great entertaining modern day noir novel.

[Carlos Ghiraldelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um livro facílimo de ler, dinâmico e com muita fluidez - e apesar da capa, não é propriamente um livro de crime. Bem humorada, esbarra em Nick Hornby, embora a anos-luz do charme e do bom humor.

Personagens bons, um tanto exagerados (especialmente o protagonista Jack Susko), e uma história comum, sem grandes sustos. Vale pela escrita fluída e por ser um livro australiano, que pra mim não é uma leitura comum.

[Suzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun Aussie crime novel - not too serious, perfect reading for a lazy long weekend

[Rafhael Jaques · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly fun and funny.
Read it.

[Lizzy Siddal (Lizzy’s Literary Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up to 4 / Great fun!

[Merilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in Sydney, lots of known streets and suburbs mentioned, always fun.
Otherwise, pretty basic, criminals and stolen goods and lots of scenes with guns and heavies.

[Zampano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Não tente me enganar, Lenny. Eu sei que vidas de donos de sebo não são tão legais como essa aqui que você escreveu.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having really enjoyed the first Jack Susko book, A DEADLY BUSINESS, it was music to my ears to find that the second book was on its way. THE BLACK RUSSIAN sees not just the return of Jack - but the return of all of Jack's problems - financial and personal.

In THE BLACK RUSSIAN Jack somehow or other manages, yet again, to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Attempting to scrape up some much needed cash, he's doing a special delivery of an old art catalogue when the gallery he has just walked into is held up by a couple of masked thieves. Masked, yet there's something somewhere in the back of Jack's minds that is ringing bells about one of those gunmen. Beyond that, much more importantly, the thieves also pinched a rare first edition from his bag. So it's personal.

One of the fun things about the accidental detective genre is the way in which the author has to set up a scenario for our hero to get himself into trouble in. I love the inventive methods that so many of our authors use to come up with something that just seems so feasible - as long as you don't spend too much time wondering why your average accidental detective just doesn't lick their wounds and go home and feed the cat! Jack's detecting skills are still very much from the "poke around and make yourself unpopular school" but he does it with such aplomb (okay well he bumbles around with intent) that it's not only believable, it's frequently quite hilarious.

Part of the attraction of both of these books is the stereotypes, delivered with a dead pan Australian sensibility and wit. In THE BLACK RUSSIAN, the hero is beaten, threatened, put upon, abused and mistreated. The villains are, well villainous - menacing, threatening and sinister, surrounded by lots of big, dumb and violent sidekicks. The girls are gorgeous, dangerous, mad and not to be trusted under any circumstances. The cat is aloof. The settings evocative and fresh and clear - you can see the slightly dowdy look of Susko Books, you can hear the off engine notes of the beaten up cars. The dialogue is frequently funny and Jack does a great line in wise-cracking commentary, lines that definitely have their roots in the hard-bitten, hard-boiled Noir heroes of earlier days.

THE BLACK RUSSIAN is great fun, and very well done, and something that surely should make your average reader rush out to the bookshops for a copy. (Perhaps incorporate a search through the nearby second-hand bookshop on the way home, just in case there's a real-life Jack lurking around in there, contemplating a risk just to make a living).

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second book in the Jack Susko series, set in modern day Sydney.
Jack owns a secondhand book store that really isn't making its way.
Jack ends up at a robbery where incidentally he loses one of the few decent things he owns. The victim persuades him not to go to the police, but then fails to reimburse him for his loss.
Things go downhill from there and Jack is threatened and fooled left, right and centre by just about everyone he meets.
Lots of twists. Fun, light read. 3.5 Stars.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. From the wisecracking amateur detective who’s always in over his head, to the plot twists and double-double crosses that keep you guessing right to the end. This is a fun read with lots of Aussie colour.

[Ann Tonks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not enough layers or depth to keep my interest. A read that was over too quickly with little reward.