Slide

Max & Angela #2

by Ken Bruen, Jason Starr

Max Fisher used to run a computer company; Angela Petrakos was his assistant and mistress. But that was last year. Now Max is reinventing himself as a hip-hop crack dealer and Angela’s back in Ireland, hooking up with a would-be record-setter ... in the field of serial killing. Will their paths cross again? What do you think?

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Noir, Fiction, Thriller, Audiobook, Pulp

217 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

Ken Bruen was an Irish writer of hardboiled and noir crime fiction.

Reviews

[Still · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm telling you - these two characters, Max & Angela have got to be the two luckiest criminals in crime-lit history.
Max has to be the stupidest criminal in crime-lit history while Angela has to have the worst taste in men in crime-lit history.

These books are really in the black-humor category but "Slide" is the most violent in the series I've read so far.

I'm rating this 4 stars because I'm too ashamed for liking it so much to give it 5 stars.

Highly recommended fun-read.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Max Fisher, the business man from Bust, is back and is a crack dealer. Felicia, a stripper from Bust, is his woman. Meanwhile, Angela is back in Ireland and has hooked up with a psychopath calling himself Slide. Slide's goal in life is to become the next big serial killer. Throw in a cop that's seeking revenge on Fisher for the cop killed in Bust and you have Slide.

Slide, while not as good as Bust, is a pretty good read. It's a little light on Angela but Max is a more interesting character anyway. He's as delightfully sleazey as ever and has no idea how ridiculous he's become, thinking he's like Scarface. Slide's fairly interesting. Angela is still Angela.

Slide probably won't win any awards but it's a fun story and a hilarious entry in the Hard Case series. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to Max and Angela in The Max.

[Thomas Zimmerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had fun reading this novel, but i sure wouldn't recommend it. It was worth a few chuckles, and I read it so quickly it felt more like a short story than a novel, but there were too many goofy moments. I'm pretty sure the authors took turns killing each other off in two of the chapters. Cute . . . actually too cute, kind of like when Hard Case crime books were mentioned in the narrative, with the author(s) noting; 'boy, those guys sure know how to sell books using tits on the cover.' I am going to read more Hard Case books, but Bust won't be next on my list.

[Gabriel Congdon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's about the F word.


It's not just fuck, fucked, fucker, and fucking. Sometimes it's fook, then friggin', then freaking. The difference between a well placed freaking as opposed to fucking, is a (surprisingly) subtle t'ang, and Bruen and Star are masterly at knowing when to when.

Other than that the other aspect concerns political incorrectness. I'm not going to go into it because I'm sure you all have your own theories that are more advanced than mine. But the reason I side with the "in" crowd is because it acknowledges peoples evil. Whenever I laughed at a joke, it would make me pause and reflect. I think this is more useful than whitewashing all the faults of the species. So this book makes fun of Southern people, my amusement of it doesn't alter the relationship I have with a guy in my neighborhood whose from Atlanta. Two things can happen at once. By laughing, I become one of the bad guys of this book, and again I think it's better to acknowledge and own that then act like a Puritan.

[Lars · Rating 3 out of 5]

The German title of this book is 'Crack', which is quite unimaginative, as the protagonist of the novel is a crack dealer. On the other hand, the German title hits the essence of this fast read very well, because the book itself makes the impression as if it was written under the influence of drugs. Fast and crazy dialogues and freaked out characters are the main ingredients of this story, not to forget the nasty violence. Although these may be the main components of the Hard Case Crime-series, to my taste, the authors overdid the Pulp-style considerably. There is no character during the 200 pages who isn't gone nuts, a psychopath or a maniac. This makes it a fast read, but also lacks the classy style of the original Pulp-novels. The fact that the authors took reference to themselves and the HCC-series a few times adds to the off-hook nature of the book. OK, but, in my view, too freaked out.

[Justinthunderliger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't know this was the sequel to "Bust" until I started reading it. We catch up with the 2 scumbags that made it out of the last dog pile, this time they're hooking up with a new cast of human trash, or getting dirtier themselves. Based on the last book, I thought someone would go down a water slide, or go to a wedding reception to do the electric slide, or maybe solve math problems without a calculator using a slide rule. None such thing, thankfully. The attempts at black humor were a bit clunkier this time around, but not completely awful. It was still interesting enough to waste a few hours on, and the conversational narrative was easily digestible. Not entirely offensive, but not my favorite book, either.

[Mr. Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slide picks up the story of Max and Angela after the events in Bust. I was somewhat disappointed in the story. The first book had been so much fun and I was looking forward to more of the same. Unfortunately I felt like a kid who had had one too many pieces of candy after Halloween. Whereas the scenarios and situations that the characters found themselves in were laugh out loud funny in Bust, they were kind of annoying in Slide. The characters were just as flawed and still sociopaths, only now I found it harder to read about them. On a final note, I found the twists and turns almost too contrived - it felt like the authors were forcing it. In Bust the story felt reasonably plausible. In Slide I had to suspend my sense of disbelief.

Two and a half stars rounded up to three.

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, there are few Hard Case Crime books that haven't worked for me. This collaboration by Irishman Bruen and American Starr is one of them. It's the second book in a trilogy, but seriously... that had nothing to do with it. I just hated it. There just really aren't words for how much. I decided I would try to say something nice about it, but I have nothing nice to say. Wow. Really amazing. Just...wow.

[John of Canada · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were several laugh aloud moments for me,mostly involving Max-sorry,The M.A.X.There were also several moments of horrible violence.The Bruen team seem to have something against the most innocent characters.I will read the read of this series and probably hope for more.

[Snakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part two in the Max and Angela series, yet the book revolved around a third character named Slide. Found it a bit more humorous than the first one and there’s still a couple more. As a bit of a spoiler, Slide does not survive this novel and the next is titled The Max. I’ll definitely continue on to the third.

[Stephen J. Golds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series of books. Darkly funny, ridiculous antiheroes and Fargoesque plots.
5/5 highly recommended

[Garrett Sanders · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know where to start. I haven’t read a ton of hard case crime books, but I’ve read at least five, maybe six, and this isn’t just my least favorite, it’s miles. MILES. behind whichever is second to least. This was one of the worst, if not the worst, books I’ve read in my whole adult life. It makes a mockery of good literature, and art in general. It spits on the neo noir, crime, and serial killer genres, all of which this book lent aspects from, and tells them to go screw themselves; when, in fact, this book is the one that should go screw itself.
This book was, time and time again, a MASTERCLASS on how to write completely INSUFFERABLE characters. I literately just hoped, throughout the entirety of the book, that everyone would just die. The cop was the only one who was tolerable, but that’s only because we only spend like 20ish pages with him. And even he is still as cliche as they come. It tried to write the serial killer character as a “charming”, doesn’t give an f, edgy “cool” guy, who (well, really the writers) completely relies on all his victims being totally brain dead stupid morons, and also never try to defend themselves. I guess he’s just wayyyy too fast and clever and cool 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
And speaking of the serial killer, it occurred to me at some point around the 2/3 point that he somewhat reminded me of another literary, edgy and angsty, serial killer from some books written at about the same time as this one was. Stephen King’s Brady Hartsfield from the Bill Hodges trilogy (or the Mr. Mercedes books as they’re more well known). That’s a great example on how TO write a character like that, and make him actually pretty creepy and disturbing, instead of like someone you want to just constantly slap the ever loving crap out of. Literally. The entire book.
Everyone in this book is almost comically arrogant, to the point where I suspect that it may’ve been intentional? I genuinely couldn’t think of a reason as to WHY you, as a writer, would WANT to go about intentionally trying to piss your readers off (in a bad way), and make them never want to read your books again, which then leads me to the idea that it must NOT have been intentional. Really, you couldn’t pay me to pick up another book for as long as I live written by either of these hacks.

And don’t even get me started on how the writers kept trying to interweave the word “like” into dialogue and the character’s internal monologue, but I swear it couldn’t have felt LESS natural. It made the characters that much more, like, unbearable.
I hope to god that these men that wrote this worthless piece of crap retire immediately as writers (I do realize that this book is 15 years old, humor me), if only to save the poor trees that would have to be cut down in order to make the paper for their books.

And don’t even bother trying to pick at little details like time passing at different rates for different characters for storylines happening at the same time; or simple math not adding up for how much money a NYC penthouse would cost.

Ultimately, what really yanks my chain is this: I love books, more than almost anything. BUT, I am a very slow reader, so I try to pick wisely what I read vs. what I listen to on audio. I admit, I picked very wrong here. So what I guess what I’m most angry about (well not really, this book pissed me off in more ways than one) is that these dipshits made a fool of me, and wasted my time. And for that, they can piss all the way off.


P.S. I’ve seen at least one or two reviews on here giving the book a fairly low rating, but saying something like “it was bad but I had fun while reading it” or “dumb but fun”. However, I refuse to give these moronic writers even that much. Not even to mention that I DIDNT have fun while reading, and I’m not really sure how someone would even go about doing that while reading this scum.

[Javier Muñoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

En Slide Max encuentra su nueva vocación como traficante de crack tras el hundimiento de su empresa de redes de computadoras, Angela por su parte viaja a Irlanda donde se funde todo el dinero que le robó a Max y termina enredándose con un asesino en serie (Slide) cuyo objetivo es ganarse la vida realizando secuestros que le puedan aportar algo de dinero en forma de rescate (si consigue no asesinar a sus víctimas antes de cobrar) al tiempo que intenta alcanzar el número de víctimas de leyendas como Ted Bundy.

Aunque Angela y Slide tienen buenos momentos, la trama de Max (desde ahora The M.A.X.) lo eclipsa todo... o en realidad no tanto la trama como el desarrollo del personaje. Los delirios de grandeza de The M.A.X., que se ve como un gran capo e intenta a imitar al Pacino de películas como Scarface o Carlito's way, llegan a límites épicos. Sus monologos internos son descacharrantes y empieza a desarrollar una forma de hablar propia en la que toma términos del slang afroamericano y el castellano que va escuchando en películas y en un curso de cintas de casette... todo esto se mezcla en un cerebro que ya de por si no daba para mucho y que ahora está cada vez más perjudicado por el abuso del alcohol y la cocaína con resultados insospechados.

Violencia, personajes muy oscuros y desagradables, humor incorrecto y enredos sin fin... no es para todo el mundo, de hecho a mucha gente le pueden resultar profundamente ofensivas las actitudes machistas y racistas de algunos personajes... esto es ficción y yo lo tolero bien porque no es algo que se justifique sino que se parodia y se ridiculiza, pero igual que a mi hay cosas que me sacan la carcajada entiendo que a otros les pueden escandalizar y ofender... avisado queda.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even moreso than its predecessor, Bust, Slide succeeds or fails (depending on your point of view) as noir comedy. The novel's third-person narrative is filtered through the minds of half a dozen characters, all of whom are caricatures and only one of whom (police detective Joe Miscali) is not a blathering moron. The idiocy and the jokes (which are often one and the same) come in an unrelenting stream. Though I found Bust a more satisfying novel, especially in its plotting, I cannot deny that Slide was entertaining.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost wanted to give this book two stars just for sheer ridiculousness, but I couldn't bring myself to it. All of the characters are completely inane. The plot is all over the place, and even less coherent than the first novel of the series. One might question why, after reading the first book, I continued on to read the sequel. The only reason is that I bought them both at the same time, and didn't want it to go to waste. In any case, it will never happen again.

[Regan Sharp · Rating 2 out of 5]

What it lacks in compelling characters, eloquent prose, or clever plot lines, it makes up for with a relentless onslaught of violence, misogyny, homophobia, hardcore pornography, stereotypical caricatures, cringe-inducing dialogue, absurd scenarios and copious drug use. It's a fast, easy read that doesn't require much from it's audience other than a strong stomach for the obscene. I found it to be the perfect selection for where I read most of it: on the crapper.

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rubbish, absolute rubbish. One of those books where the psycho killer is some cool hipster with a kinky sex scene going on. The best thing about this book was that I managed to sell it to some old dusty bookstore where it shall stay for the rest of its useless years.

[Simonne Lambert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this even better than Bust. Laughed out loud at times. Think Max is hysterical and suppose I shouldn't like his character but can't help myself. My first experience with these kind of Noir books. Can anyone recommend others that are as dark and funny?? Now reading The Max

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I decided to continue the "Max and Angela" series by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr with the second novel "Slide." I'm not sure it was a great idea, but here goes the review, anyway.

The formula for "Slide" is simple--more. More satire. More over the top...everything. More unlikable characters. Just...more.

After splitting up Max and Angela--Max ends up hitting bottom (kind of literally) in the rural south before becoming a crack kingpin (or so he thinks) back in New York...and Angela moves "home" to Ireland and finds herself in a relationship with a(nother) serial killer. The two storylines only cross briefly towards the end of the novel.

I believe that the authors split up "Slide" to work more efficiently. The "Angela and Slide" chapters appear to be Bruen's work. The "Max and Kyle" chapters are Starr's work. That's just an educated guess from me. I'd say I liked the Starr chapters better, though not the story within them--as Max Fisher is the most deluded asshole I've seen in print since "A Confederacy of Dunces" (a much superior work of fiction). Bruen's style gets on my nerves, as does his overuse of Irish slang. It might be gritty and realistic, but it's not fun to read. And the new main character "Slide," isn't all that interesting. He's just a wannabe monster eager to come to the land of monsters (meaning New York) to play.

Another educated guess of mine is that both of the authors get offed by Slide as minor characters in the book. If only life imitated art. Heh. There are also some shots taken (a.k.a. Easter eggs) about Hard Case Crime kinds of books.

"Slide" is a mish-mash of stereotypes, one-dimensional nonsense, easy targets, and plot points that make it very hard to suspend disbelief. As in "Bust," the characters are lacking in any real narrative value. It just becomes, "Oh, what horrid thing will they do next? Really? That? Sigh."

Overall, the writing isn't that bad, it's just the subject matter and the approach that seem way off. As before, imagining Angela in some future movie version of these books is one of the few things that let me get through reading these books.

Hey, at least they're not very long.

[Andrew F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Make that 3 and a half stars.

Slide is a quick read, funny and engaging and mostly continues the fun of the first book, Bust. However, I do have some issues with it.

Firstly, the tone is too silly in my opinion. The first book was blackly funny, with endless double crosses and endless stupidity on the part of the characters, but within the realms of believability. It reminded me of the movie Fargo. Here, it's much less credible, almost like a very dark sitcom. It does build on many elements in the first book, so there is also an accumulated-ridiculousness that begins to really pile up. I just can't think of this version of Max Fischer as being a "real person" and not a character in an edgy sitcom. There's a reference to Hard Case Crime, a reference to a guy who is a cover model for Crimespree looking a bit like a cut-price Fabio, and incredibly enough Ken Bruen himself makes a cameo appearance. This is just a bit too far for me.

The new characters not drawn with much depth either. Max and Angela continue to be fine, but we barely get any real insight into characters like Slide, Felicia or Kyle.

Having said all that, the story continues to be highly entertaining and I particularly liked the stream-of-consciousness power rants of the now-cocaine addled (and crack-addled) Max Fischer, who has no idea how far gone he is. In some respects this whole turn for the character reminded me of Breaking Bad.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written with incredible comedic angst, this story is a lunatic ride through the streets of Brooklyn. It helps to have read the first book so you really have a feel for how these two sorry humans began, but you could also read this book by itself.

A year has gone by since internet tycoon Max asked his busty secretary Angela to find him a hit man to off his wife. Of course, Max never planned on hiring a psychopathic hit man and didn't realize that Angela was also banging this hitman.
Now, not only has the world caved in on Max, but he wakes hungover in a wifebeater Tshirt in some Nowheresville Alabama town. From there Max becomes the número uno crack dealer in Manhattan with his own sushi chef. This book is obviously in many ways a hysterical
parody and it almost makes you laugh out loud.

Meanwhile, Angela has been living in Ireland and showing off her assets, trying to land her meal ticket. Of course, she ends up playing house with a serial killer and probably the meanest serial killer you
ever heard of.

Great fun in this book as these two Crawl through crazy adventures and, yes, they do meet again in New York and there are definitely some fireworks when they meet.

[Alonzo Church · Rating 2 out of 5]

When we last saw Max and Angela, Angela had managed to bankroll relocation to Ireland by emptying the bank accounts of Max. Max has spiraled downward since then, waking up from an alcohol blackout in a cheap motel deep in Alabama. Angela, in the meantime, hasn’t had much luck snaring a rich boyfriend in Ireland, and has again ended up in the amorous clutches of an ambitious serial killer. Will Max and Angela meet again, and how will that work out?

This feels like the second season of one of those binge worthy Netflix shows. You know, the one that was really meant to be one season but because the ratings were so good they kept it going. There really isn’t much plot to this. A lot of this are the scatalogical thoughts of Max, who has taken to selling crack, smoking crack, and spouting blather. The rest puts us into Angela’s head, and gives us addled thoughts of Slide (her murderous new boyfriend). The mood is black comedy, some of it really misjudged.

There is some fine writing here and there. Mostly, though, this is just pointless stream of consciousness babble.

[Friday Night · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as Bust

This book is a sequel to "Bust" by the same authors. If you didn't read and enjoy "Bust", I don't recommend this book. I enjoyed "Bust" and then found out that there are three more books in the series so I purchased them all.

This book felt like a farce to me. It's almost like the authors were trying to outdo each other with every chapter and it was just too much. There were some funny parts but this book really bored me; especially in the middle chapters. The Slide character was terrible. Max was funny for a while and then became irritating and annoying. Not enough of Angela in my opinion. I think if the novel would've focused on Angela instead of Max this book would've been more entertaining. I really had to push myself to finish it. After 100 pages I still didn't give a shit what happened. And after finishing it I feel like I wasted my time with it.

If I hadn't already purchased the other two novels in the series I wouldn't have purchased them after reading this one.

[Emz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A viciously violent romp with serial killer Slide. Angela, our scheming and seductive conwoman, hooks up with Slide, thinking he's a good guy, although she quickly finds out the opposite. Max, down on his luck, has turned to prostitution to make ends meet, but seeing that it's a pain in the arse, he decides to change profession and become a crack dealer.

A somewhat comedic caper with a few chuckles here and there, at the absurd goings-on. Slide's rising body count is not sustainable at this rate, and the end is nigh for all concerned.

Overall, a quick read with plenty going on, and plenty of mindless violence as the bodies fall by the wayside. The narrative was entertaining in a pulpy sort of way, a fun frolic through the minds of some sick puppies

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a journal entry from my drinking days that is in the exact same spirit as the first page and a half of this book! Only, I woke up on a couch in Oakland and there was a turtle crawling around the floor below me. Still…

“They called him Slide because he didn’t let anything slide, ever. He’d killed thirteen and counting. Counting like the ritual psycho he was.”

Vulgar. Sleazy. And hilarious! I loved this book and all the crazy shenanigans that both Angela and the M.A.X. get into! It's just crazy fun! And the two of them don't actually interact in this book! On one side we get Angela and Slide and a whole bunch of killing. And on the other, we get Max, or the M.A.X. as he labels himself, and his crack dealing delusions of grandeur (and "Scarface"!). Throw in a stripper and a poor, dumb kid from Alabama (and lots of sushi!), and you have the book titled "Slide". Definitely a fun read!

“We never forget and we never fooking forgive, you got that?”

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angela Petrakos and Max Fisher are cancer. Self centered, deluded, morally bankrupt...Slide is part of the continuing saga of the destruction of all those around them. The only way this book is bearable is that it is written as the blackest of comedies. Ken Bruen and Jason Starr are at play here and having a grand time-they even write themselves into the novel, and promptly kill themselves off. I do not think you have to read this series in order (the first book is called Bust) to enjoy them. I did enjoy Slide a thousand percent more than Bust-perhaps Bruen and Starr have hit their stride with this second installment.

[Jordan McPeek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Psychos can be funny. Sure, why not? Not huge on plot for a crime novel but it's so much fun watching them, Max especially, pinball around spouting hilarious rapid-fire psycho logic. Short fast read, brutal in parts. As with many comic novels, I highly recommend the audiobook version. The dialogue gets so much funnier when it's delivered by a trained performer who nails the accents, the emotion, and the comic timing. Reminds me of Tim Dorsey's Serge Storms books, although a bit more hardboiled and little less absurd.

[Leslie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The authors try really, really hard to be shocking and daring and blackly funny, but they mostly just succeed in being unpleasant and puerile and annoying. I don't think I've ever encountered work by any artist or performer in any field who was actively trying to shock that actually did shock me while also doing something interesting. Tell me a real story, a story worth reading for its own sake, and leave the juvenile, sniggering shock tactics alone.

[Bobby Panichella · Rating 4 out of 5]

This part 2 of this series Slide & Angela I love how Bruin writes this you almost feel like your hearing the Irish accents he uses words like shite fook just like a person who came here from Ireland.So far I’m really enjoying this series,next up is Max & Angela oh Max was in the 1st & now the 2nd novel,he’s a lowlife but a rich lowlife that Angela played him in the 1st novel so you see everyone is kind of a lowlife but it makes for good reading.

[Jon Weidler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps it was the silly rebellious allure of reading this during a recent stint of jury duty, or the fact that I'd been away from Bruen & Starr's uniquely vulgar, hilarious, and vicious neo-Noir world for several years, but "Slide" hit my darkly comedic sweet spot in a big bad way. A page-turner of violent atrocity, absurd plot twists, and delightfully un-PC humor. Why one of the big streaming services hasn't picked up the "Max & Angela" trilogy for a limited series is beyond me.