the almost perfect plot

by Ed Halliday

This is an alternate Cover Edition for ISBN10: 1501038222/ ISBN13: 9781501038228.

The Almost Perfect Plot is a black humour thriller and quite accurately described by the title. The story revolves around the main character who happens to be called Thomas Hardy, (no, not that one, this one is a truly awful writer!), who has a very mundane life but this all changes and not always for the better! As he finds himself buried alive, pursued by the police as well as his ex-wife and a serial killer, he often wishes he was still a writer of instructions books for anything from flat pack furniture to car sun roofs. He has always had aspirations to write great literary works, but as he seeks material for the life changing plot to his debut novel, life starts to imitate fiction. It all starts when, having been kicked out of his house in the course of his divorce, he decides it is time to make a new start and fulfil the potential he has always believed he holds. Having moved abroad to the south of France, (a task which ended up being far more challenging than he had planned for!), in search of a change of lifestyle, he seeks inspiration in vain until a retired English policeman befriends him. Retired policeman Fred Williams persuades him to write crime fiction based on a real case that Fred himself had worked on but never solved. Tom abandons thoughts of prize winning literature and takes Fred up on his offer. However, struggling for realism in his story, Tom decides to act out the crime he is trying to write about so he can better get the feel of it, and in the process stumbles onto the scene of a real life killing. As the only witness to the crime, the serial killer has no choice but to try and get rid of our hapless hero, only by a series of twists and coincidences this proves to be harder than the killer could have imagined. The coincidences that save our hero also implicate Tom himself as the police try to catch the perpetrator, on top of which Tom has an ex-wife who is trying to hound him, and this was definitely not a good time to fall in love!
The Almost Perfect Plot is available in paperback or ebook from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Ed-Halliday/...

354 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 3, 2015

About the author

Ed Halliday is not your usual writer of dark humour. It has often been remarked by agents and reviewers alike that his style of writing is unusual but in a refreshing and entertaining way. There is no rambling prose put there just for the sake of filling pages and therefore fulfilling the page count criteria of a publisher, every word is there for a purpose. This is why his stories make engaging reading that keeps you turning the pages. The reason his style is so different to most is simple. He has had no formal training whatsoever, no writers workshops, no degree in creative writing, not even an ’A’ level in English. Everything that goes onto the page is untainted by the restrictive rigours imposed by years of being told how to write, it is done by instinct and a desire to produce something that he himself would enjoy reading. Born in the industrial north of England in the late sixties, Ed spent the formative years of his childhood in France where he was educated in the French state system before finishing his education in an English boarding school. He has recently returned to France to live and to write, hence the frequent references in his books to the country of his childhood.

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun serial killer comedy of errors

The author has that way that only the English do of finding wit and black humor in a crazy situation. The book is an easy fun read.

[Onionboy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and kept my interest. The only fault I have with it is that it suffers from what I call "Spider-man syndrome."

In the Spider-man movies, the main character's love interest is also his next-door neighbor, is also engaged to someone who happens to be his boss' son, his boss happens to be spider-man's biggest opponent, his teachers happen to be the scientists who turn into the villains. In a city of 7 million people, the hostage the villain picks is always spider-man's aunt or girlfriend. The villain's son is his best friend and room-mate, and trying to date his girlfriend, and out to kill Spider-man, etc. You get the picture. A small group of people are so overly interconnected that it gets annoying.

That happened in this book too. I am not a writer, so perhaps it is hard for a writer to avoid that without introducing too many characters who all have minor roles in the story. Maybe that makes the story more interesting. It is not a major fault of this book; just something I found a bit annoying once I noticed it.

Overall I recommend this book. I don't give out many 5 star ratings, but this book is that good.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this comic thriller, two words that are rarely used together to describe a novel! Thomas Hardy may have the name of a famous novelist but although he's a writer, he spends his days grinding out instructions to put together flat pack furniture. When his wife leaves him, he ends up in a rental house in St. Paul, a charming village in the south of France. There he hopes to change his fortunes by writing a mystery novel from the point of view of a serial killer. Catastrophe, disaster, and coincidence occur and his real life mirrors the sinister plot of his novel as he's stalked by a serial killer. If you enjoy black humor, you'll enjoy this.

[N Rushforth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this author because I was given copy of one of his other books, The Expected Demise of Bernard Fish, and I have to say I have become rather hooked on his work. This one is no exception. It is very funny and very well written although I should point out that all this author's books are in a very unique but, I find, refreshing style. It keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout and you can't but help keep turning the pages and laugh while you do it!

[Joanne Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is totally hilarious from start to finish and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time!! A great comedy thriller!!

[Patti · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were parts that were very well written, descriptive and flowing very naturally. There were other parts that felt like he gave the manuscript to an 8 year old and told them to have at it.