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Savage Night
How much blood would you spill to avenge those you love? Andy Park passes out at the sight of blood, but he thinks he’s discovered a way to make his family’s enemies pay. He isn’t prepared for the fallout, though, when his teenage son is put in mortal danger and his daughter and her fiancé are forced to carry out his dirty work. And yet Park’s world is peachy in comparison to Tommy Savage’s. A masked man known only as Mr. Smith is blackmailing Savage—for what, he has no idea. And after an attempt to gain the upper hand has near-fatal results, Tommy and his brother, Phil, find themselves heading to a graveyard with only a couple of swords and a bag of cash for company. Will they survive the night? Will anyone? With equal parts blood phobia and blood lust, Allan Guthrie’s Savage Night unfolds over six short blood-blind hours in Scotland’s capital city.
311 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 1, 2016
Savage Night
by Allen Guthrie
Two families clash, sociopaths collide, revenge is the name of the game & the body count soon mounts; decapitations, garrotting, death by arson… mayhem ensues.
When I first started reading this novel, I thought it was dark (really DARK) comedy & even now I’ve finished I’m not entirely sure.
“Not that he was her boyfriend, exactly. But they'd been getting along well & maybe something would have happened tonight. It certainly wouldn't now. A headless corpse was a major turn-off.”
No shit!!
And;
“It hurt, exactly like he'd said it did. “Ow.” Maybe overdoing the sympathy card, was he?
Effie said, “Don't stretch it then, you bumshite.”
That was nice. Being called a bumshite. No, really. Hardly anybody felt comfortable enough with Park to call him anything other than sir or cunt. He tended to provoke extreme reactions. Bumshite was good. There was an intimacy in the word that made him smile.
And;
“You wouldn't think a person would have so much meat & bone & sinew to get through. Effie had a new respect for butchers.”
This is a gritty, smart chunk of noir from Scotsman Allan Guthrie the second of his books I’ve read.
I read this in 24 hours, more or less from cover to cover. I just couldn't stop reading. It's rare I find a page-turner & this is one. I rarely score a book 5 stars, but for 'pure' entertainment value I score this novel 5 stars.
by Allen Guthrie
Two families clash, sociopaths collide, revenge is the name of the game & the body count soon mounts; decapitations, garrotting, death by arson… mayhem ensues.
When I first started reading this novel, I thought it was dark (really DARK) comedy & even now I’ve finished I’m not entirely sure.
“Not that he was her boyfriend, exactly. But they'd been getting along well & maybe something would have happened tonight. It certainly wouldn't now. A headless corpse was a major turn-off.”
No shit!!
And;
“It hurt, exactly like he'd said it did. “Ow.” Maybe overdoing the sympathy card, was he?
Effie said, “Don't stretch it then, you bumshite.”
That was nice. Being called a bumshite. No, really. Hardly anybody felt comfortable enough with Park to call him anything other than sir or cunt. He tended to provoke extreme reactions. Bumshite was good. There was an intimacy in the word that made him smile.
And;
“You wouldn't think a person would have so much meat & bone & sinew to get through. Effie had a new respect for butchers.”
This is a gritty, smart chunk of noir from Scotsman Allan Guthrie the second of his books I’ve read.
I read this in 24 hours, more or less from cover to cover. I just couldn't stop reading. It's rare I find a page-turner & this is one. I rarely score a book 5 stars, but for 'pure' entertainment value I score this novel 5 stars.
January 23, 2017
A Scottish family feud. Two despicable Edinburgh families, the Savages and the Parkes, collide brutally when the patriarch of one devises a scheme to help pay the home care for his seriously invalided wife. The chronologically-reversed narrative structure of the novel is experimental for this type of genre, but the elaborate, and ever escalating, levels of bloodletting are typical. This is hip Jacobean-style revenge tragedy.Tarantino aficionados will probably find this rapid fire gut-punch exhilarating. Others will quickly weary of the unremitting bloodshed and relentless profanity. Portions of this nihilistic noir work like literary epinephrine, but it does become fatiguing. The novel's running gag is that the Papa Parke faints at the sight of blood. Readers may feel similarly queasy.
January 30, 2014
A clevery written story of revenge gone wrong. The book opens with a bang and doesn't stop delivering jolts and surprises. Two families, the Parks and the Savages, are pitted against each other, each has a grudge to settle. Park senior is recently out of prison, his wife is brain damaged and needs constant care, so he needs money. The Savages are there to provide it, £50k to be precise. But the tables are turned and the Savages kidnap th boy sent to collect the cash, and he dies in the process. Unknown to them it's Park's son, he gains revenge in brutal fashion. But this is a story where nothing goes to plan.
This is a book that nededa concentration to read. There are multiple strands and flashbacks (preludes) to the murder that opens th book. But it's worth it, Guthrie winds up the tension and delivers piecemeal surprises. It's sharp, smart and gritty. Bloody brilliant.
This is a book that nededa concentration to read. There are multiple strands and flashbacks (preludes) to the murder that opens th book. But it's worth it, Guthrie winds up the tension and delivers piecemeal surprises. It's sharp, smart and gritty. Bloody brilliant.
April 5, 2012
Allan Guthrie does this. He takes what could be the most straightforward crime scenario, bare non the most straightforward story and turns them into surreal, balletic, over-the-top, cacophonous celebration of gory violence and spiteful feeling, like a demented Italian chef making long, thick spaghettis of death by stetching and deforming dough. There is nobody that writes like him. Nobody. I used to think Guy Ritchie's movies were cool, but they're not. They're vanilla compared to this. SAVAGE NIGHT would make Guy Ritchie cry for his mother. In fact, the debate I had with myself before reading it was to know whether it would live up to its title, which is legendary is noir. Not only it does, but it should have been called something like that. SAVAGE NIGHT 2: SAVAGER. Great book.
May 6, 2020
This is definitely not a book for the squeamish and one that puts the emphasis on the noir in Tartan noir as two families in Edinburgh go to violent and very bloody war with each other.
The families are the Park's and the Savages and head of the Park household , recently out of prison comes up with a plan to extort money out of the Savage family . Chaos ensues over a 24 hour period and the book goes back and forth setting the scene for a horrendously gruesome finale.
There is definitely very black humour in this book and at times I read with the equivalent of hands in front of my eyes but in the end like a good horror film I was unnerved but definitely keen to read another by this author.
The families are the Park's and the Savages and head of the Park household , recently out of prison comes up with a plan to extort money out of the Savage family . Chaos ensues over a 24 hour period and the book goes back and forth setting the scene for a horrendously gruesome finale.
There is definitely very black humour in this book and at times I read with the equivalent of hands in front of my eyes but in the end like a good horror film I was unnerved but definitely keen to read another by this author.
May 19, 2020
Exciting page-turner with blood and guts galore in this tale of a clan war in Edinburgh's underworld. Tarantino-esque time jumps and bite-sized passages hold the interest and kept me reading until the early hours. The only drawback was that, with everyone being such gits, it was difficult to decide whose side I was on.
November 16, 2018
Scottish noir at its darkest. When asked what she does, the demure young lady says, "I kill people." Which is true... Runs in the family...
May 23, 2010
PROTAGONIST: The Park and Savage families
SETTING: Edinburgh, Scotland
RATING: 3.25
SAVAGE NIGHT covers the events of just six hours as told from the perspective of a large group of characters who are involved in murder, mayhem and revenge. Set in Edinburgh, the story follows the adventures of two families, the Parks and the Savages. They've got a lot of bad blood between them; various members of both families are set on avenging all the wrongs inflicted by the other.
Neither family approaches anything resembling normalcy. Ex-con Andy Park passes out at the sight of blood, not exactly a great trait for someone indulging in violence. Park has some redeeming values; he is trying hard to keep his family together and goes to great lengths to care for his invalid wife. Of course, his definition of keeping his family together might vary from yours or mine—blackmail and violence are quite the norm. His son, Richie, is a hit man who killed the father of his daughter, Effie's, boyfriend. Effie is a bit of a psychopath herself.
Similarly, the Savage family is concerned with taking care of their own, which leads to confrontation with the Parks and several dismembered bodies. The reality is that both families are justified in their actions to some degree, and both have made a lot of mistakes as far as learning the real truth about situations. Interestingly, I found that both families gained my sympathy, even as they killed and maimed each other in revenge.
I am a huge fan of noir, and Allan Guthrie's books certainly fall into that category; but SAVAGE NIGHT just did not work for me. For a noir work to succeed, it needs to have all the same elements as any other book—cohesive plotting, detailed characterization and writing that will carry the reader along, and not just violence and hopelessness, even if coupled with a dash of humor. Guthrie does well as far as his writing skills but fell down as far as the structure of the book. The narrative constantly bounced its point of view from one character to another, as well as jumping between time periods, past and present. The same event as told by many people may have been covered multiple times by the conclusion of the book. The approach made it difficult to follow, as the flow was constantly interrupted.
Ultimately, SAVAGE NIGHT is a tale of how far someone will go to avenge those they love. In true noir fashion, there are no fairy tale endings. Any character that did not end up on a slab in the morgue has to count themselves lucky. I survived the book, but just barely.
SETTING: Edinburgh, Scotland
RATING: 3.25
SAVAGE NIGHT covers the events of just six hours as told from the perspective of a large group of characters who are involved in murder, mayhem and revenge. Set in Edinburgh, the story follows the adventures of two families, the Parks and the Savages. They've got a lot of bad blood between them; various members of both families are set on avenging all the wrongs inflicted by the other.
Neither family approaches anything resembling normalcy. Ex-con Andy Park passes out at the sight of blood, not exactly a great trait for someone indulging in violence. Park has some redeeming values; he is trying hard to keep his family together and goes to great lengths to care for his invalid wife. Of course, his definition of keeping his family together might vary from yours or mine—blackmail and violence are quite the norm. His son, Richie, is a hit man who killed the father of his daughter, Effie's, boyfriend. Effie is a bit of a psychopath herself.
Similarly, the Savage family is concerned with taking care of their own, which leads to confrontation with the Parks and several dismembered bodies. The reality is that both families are justified in their actions to some degree, and both have made a lot of mistakes as far as learning the real truth about situations. Interestingly, I found that both families gained my sympathy, even as they killed and maimed each other in revenge.
I am a huge fan of noir, and Allan Guthrie's books certainly fall into that category; but SAVAGE NIGHT just did not work for me. For a noir work to succeed, it needs to have all the same elements as any other book—cohesive plotting, detailed characterization and writing that will carry the reader along, and not just violence and hopelessness, even if coupled with a dash of humor. Guthrie does well as far as his writing skills but fell down as far as the structure of the book. The narrative constantly bounced its point of view from one character to another, as well as jumping between time periods, past and present. The same event as told by many people may have been covered multiple times by the conclusion of the book. The approach made it difficult to follow, as the flow was constantly interrupted.
Ultimately, SAVAGE NIGHT is a tale of how far someone will go to avenge those they love. In true noir fashion, there are no fairy tale endings. Any character that did not end up on a slab in the morgue has to count themselves lucky. I survived the book, but just barely.
November 3, 2014
I have read almost all of Allan Guthrie’s work and he sets an exceptionally high standard of characterization coupled with skillful writing.
Savage Night is a dark tale of revenge and murder yet manages to touch on some tenderness - I can’t believe I’ve written tenderness in a review of a hard-boiled noir story but it does work! Set in Edinburgh, it’s about feuds between criminal families.
Andy heads the Park family; he is a violent, nasty piece of work yet faints at the sight of blood. He’s devoted to his wife who’s in a care home; his son, Richie, is a hit man who killed his sister Effie’s boyfriend’s father. Just such a normal, run of the mill family!
The mystery balaclava wearing Mr Smith is blackmailing Tommy Savage, the head of another Lothian criminal family. Also thrown into the mix are Tommy’s sons, Fraser and ten year old Jordon, together with Tommy’s brother Phil.
Headless corpses and people with psychotic tendencies abound while the author takes you on the journey through this gritty story at a cracking pace.
Highly recommended but be warned, you’ll not feel like having a soak in the bath for a long time after reading it!
Savage Night is a dark tale of revenge and murder yet manages to touch on some tenderness - I can’t believe I’ve written tenderness in a review of a hard-boiled noir story but it does work! Set in Edinburgh, it’s about feuds between criminal families.
Andy heads the Park family; he is a violent, nasty piece of work yet faints at the sight of blood. He’s devoted to his wife who’s in a care home; his son, Richie, is a hit man who killed his sister Effie’s boyfriend’s father. Just such a normal, run of the mill family!
The mystery balaclava wearing Mr Smith is blackmailing Tommy Savage, the head of another Lothian criminal family. Also thrown into the mix are Tommy’s sons, Fraser and ten year old Jordon, together with Tommy’s brother Phil.
Headless corpses and people with psychotic tendencies abound while the author takes you on the journey through this gritty story at a cracking pace.
Highly recommended but be warned, you’ll not feel like having a soak in the bath for a long time after reading it!
November 3, 2014
Savage Night. Violent, funny, demented, twisted... but it's Guthrie, so that's a given, right?
Savage Night is the story of two families at murderous odds with one another: the Parks, led by ex-con Andy Park who (despite his pathological aversion to nnggghh blood) wants revenge for a (real or imagined) slight perpetrated by the Savages. He concocts a blackmail scheme that goes horribly wrong when the Savages decide to take action themselves. The violence escalates and finally comes to a head in one long, bloody night of mayhem.
In Slammer, Guthrie stuck with a single POV, but in Savage Night he uses multiple POV to great effect . There are times, especially about mid-way through, where things get a little confusing and you'd better be paying very close attention if you don't want to get lost. Fortunately, Guthrie makes NOT paying attention impossible.
Savage Night is the story of two families at murderous odds with one another: the Parks, led by ex-con Andy Park who (despite his pathological aversion to nnggghh blood) wants revenge for a (real or imagined) slight perpetrated by the Savages. He concocts a blackmail scheme that goes horribly wrong when the Savages decide to take action themselves. The violence escalates and finally comes to a head in one long, bloody night of mayhem.
In Slammer, Guthrie stuck with a single POV, but in Savage Night he uses multiple POV to great effect . There are times, especially about mid-way through, where things get a little confusing and you'd better be paying very close attention if you don't want to get lost. Fortunately, Guthrie makes NOT paying attention impossible.
December 1, 2012
Those reviewers who compare this book to a Tarantino film are wrong. This book is MORE violent than a Tarantino film. Right up until the last page, the gore flows and you wonder how the characters remain sane. Most don't, of course, but even with the crazy stuff that goes on, they continue to have an eye on their goals. Until everything falls apart.
This was my first Allan Guthrie book, but it won't be my last. I will take a break, however, because even reading about violence and depravity at this level is disturbing.
I love the Edinborough setting. I really liked how the book is non-linear, with flashbacks and previews throughout. Even those all the characters have major personal flaws, you do tend to identify with them.
Excellent read, hard to put down.
This was my first Allan Guthrie book, but it won't be my last. I will take a break, however, because even reading about violence and depravity at this level is disturbing.
I love the Edinborough setting. I really liked how the book is non-linear, with flashbacks and previews throughout. Even those all the characters have major personal flaws, you do tend to identify with them.
Excellent read, hard to put down.
April 12, 2016
I think a few months back I would have given this book 4 stars. I think I'm becoming more stingy with my ratings.
Anyway I was a big fan of Allan Guthries Slammer novel. This one was super violent and unsettling. There is no real hero to the story but I felt Tommy Savage was the closest to an innocent so I was rooting for him throughout. The story is all about revenge. These people aren't criminal masterminds so everything goes wrong.
The unpredictability of the story is its strength, when so many books today can be predicted early on and become a real disappointment.
Don't expect everybody to shake hands and come to some sort of truce here. Severed limbs, emotional torture and multiple murders are going to take place before this story reaches its ending.
Anyway I was a big fan of Allan Guthries Slammer novel. This one was super violent and unsettling. There is no real hero to the story but I felt Tommy Savage was the closest to an innocent so I was rooting for him throughout. The story is all about revenge. These people aren't criminal masterminds so everything goes wrong.
The unpredictability of the story is its strength, when so many books today can be predicted early on and become a real disappointment.
Don't expect everybody to shake hands and come to some sort of truce here. Severed limbs, emotional torture and multiple murders are going to take place before this story reaches its ending.
January 10, 2011
Mayhem, bloody mayhem. This "grand guignol" borders, at times, on absurdity. But Mr. Guthrie specializes in "hard" characters, showing a toughness in Scots that's hinted, perhaps, in characters like Gerald Cafferty. Part of my ancestry is Scots: hope I'm not kin to Mr. Guthrie's cast of characters. If you want contemporary hard-boiled, you needn't look further than this representative offering of Mr. Guthrie's.
December 12, 2008
in some ways this book reminded me very much of Scott Smith's 'A Simple Plan'; the feeling events begin to spiral out of control, escalating and compounding their gruesome nature as the plot starts to resolve itself.
that said, emissions from the dwarf star that is Guthrie's dark humour grow stronger as the book hurtles you towards the bright collapse of its conclusion.
that said, emissions from the dwarf star that is Guthrie's dark humour grow stronger as the book hurtles you towards the bright collapse of its conclusion.
April 3, 2013
lacking the concentrated fury of SLAMMER, but still goes hard. some serious splatterpunk. complaint: too many 1 word sentences that say nothing more than "fuck," "shit," or in one egregious case "shitty-fuck." (the one word "fuck" sentence in close 3rd person is my least favorite of all neo-noir cliches. comes off as corny.)
February 14, 2023
The amount of references to piss is honestly just so wild, none of the characters are compelling so in the end I just wanted everyone except the one little kid to die. It's impossible to tell when Savage is hallucinating or not, and not even in an interesting way, and the timeline is impossible to fully understand because it's all so inconsistent.
January 14, 2009
What a splatterfest. The third I've read by this Scottish pulp crime author is the most graphic. I winced all the way through, except when I was chuckling at a "cameo" by Guthrie's opposite number from the U.S., Duane Swierczynski.
January 2, 2010
This was an interesting tale set in England. The story unfolds in a broken time line and has lots of different turns, but it seemed to try to hard to be like "Lock, Sotck, and two smoking Barrels". The ending left something to be desired so just got an ok rating from me.
July 26, 2015
The cast plan things out, then do something stupid for the sake of moving the story in a downward spiral. Inconsistent characters ruined this book for me. My first by this author. I'll give him one more chance due to his positive buzz.....maybe more enjoyable while buzzed.
August 30, 2008
More cruelty and stupidity in Scotland. Business as usual for Allan Guthrie.
September 10, 2008
while a good book I would not recommend it because I felt the end was a little flat for what the author had set up in the rest of the book.
September 30, 2008
This was my first Allan Guthrie, but it won't be my last. I liked the confusing discontinuous time-line. The visuals would make Tarantino blush. Funny, too.
August 18, 2012
Had a lot of fun with this novel and you will to. If you aren't reading Allan Guthrie something is seriously wrong with you.
April 10, 2011
Bloody mess.No redeeming features.NOIR.Not good vs. evil,just plain evil with disatrous results forall involved.
December 19, 2011
Good use of stylized violence, and a very quick read. Not "deep stuff", but cute and unique.
December 27, 2012
Unlikable characters. Purposely confusing plot. In no way can I recommend it.
September 2, 2013
If Danny Boyle had a bastard child with Quentin Tarantino, it wouldn't kick and scream half so vividly as this Edinburgh noir. Gallus!
February 9, 2014
Boring it's the only word to describe it.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews