Those Crazy Freeways

London Underground #3

by Hanna Jameson

From the queen of urban noir, a new thriller set in the nowhereland between New York and LA.

Eli and Ronnie are two British ex-cons on the road in America. Their mission is to find Trent, a guy who screwed them over and disappeared. But now, after forty hours driving through yellow desert, eating at lonely motels, what seemed real is no longer certain. Where did Trent stay? What did he do? Did he even exist at all?

Leaving violent killings in their wake, Ronnie and Eli can do nothing except keep travelling. Now, trapped in a nightmarish road trip together, these two men must confront their own personal demons before they can come home.

Genres: Crime

333 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 1, 2016

About the author

Hanna Jameson's fourth novel, part murder mystery and part post-apocalyptic thriller - THE LAST - is out early 2019, with Viking UK and Simon & Schuster - Atria Books US. The Last is the story of an American academic searching for the truth about a girl who has been murdered in his Swiss hotel in the aftermath of a nuclear war that has destroyed most of the Western world.

Jameson had written the first draft of her debut, award-nominated novel - SOMETHING YOU ARE - at just seventeen. Something You Are and two further novels in the series - GIRL SEVEN and ROAD KILL - are available now in the UK, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands.

She lives in London currently, and is working on screenwriting projects. She likes whiskey, history, and emotionally taxing TV shows.

Reviews

[Ian Mapp · Rating 1 out of 5]

First off, I am not going to give up on the Author. There's promise here, and anyone who has influences of Tarantino, Nick Cave and David Peace has got to be worth keeping abreast off.

Not that I got anything at all from this book. And a large reason for this is a unforgivable action from the publisher. This is book 3 of a trilogy and NOWHERE on the book cover is this even hinted at. My suspicions were aroused about 30 pages in and the character of Seven was introduced. Introduced as though we should know who she was. I checked on here and my heart sank when I realised I had missed the start of the story.

Terrible approach from House of Zeus.

I was on hols with no alternative so chose to continue. Its a pulpy roadtrip with characters that I couldn't engage with. It's doesn't flow well and is very episodic, with chapters only loosely related to each other.

There's a split time/location narrative - with some chapters set in London, some in America. Not easy to keep track off.

By part way through, it was just washing over me. No drama at the end and instantly forgotten when put down.

Last is a standalone book from Hanna on my To Read list. I will give that a go.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having finished this I’ve just realised that it’s the third in a trilogy... However, I don’t think it’s necessary to read the other two in order to enjoy this.
The urban noir genre is occasionally accused of being too male dominated so it’s especially refreshing to see a new young female writing talent. Jameson actually won the CWA Dagger for the first in this series at the age of 17.
Amongst her skills here are that as well as a London setting (hence the ‘urban noir’ and ‘undergound’ tags) this is an American road trip novel also. Two British ex-cons drive across the US looking the guy who snitched on them with limited success. The dual storyline switches between this and the nightclub in London owned by one of the guys, which has its problems.
It’s a cast of pretty unpleasant characters and as expected from the genre, a fair amount of violence. For the reader it’s a question of who to take sides with, and another of Jameson’s skills is to make any such sympathies fluctuate.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ronnie and Eli are on a road trip in the US to track down the man who wronged Eli. Meanwhile, back in London, Ronnie's workmates are trying to deal with the aftermath of a double crossing and a possible hostile takeover. This was an entertaining thriller with just enough gore to keep it twisted but not too much to turn your stomach.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Road Kill – A Proper Killing Spree

Hanna Jameson is proving why she is the queen of urban noir with every new book and her influences come from the likes of Quentin Tarantino. Quite simply if Tarantino wrote books this would be the book that he would write, this is a really twisted thriller from a twisted mind. I love this twisted mind and long may she continue.

The story centres around Eli and Ronnie who are a pair of hard men on a mission across the United States, and cover the entire country in 40 hours. They are looking for Trent, a guy who seems to have disappeared but nobody is sure where, but they have a mounting body count as they continue their search,

Back in London, Daisy is recovering from being shot in a robbery while working at Ronnie’s nightclub, as Noel and Nic seem to be avoiding any type of work while Ronnie is away. Daisy is trying to support Noel the best she can, as she hunts for her shooter while trying to keep her mind straight and keep the club open. But everything seems to be turning to rubbish around her and she has a sense of foreboding that things are not what they seem, especially when Ronnie gets back.

In the wake of the violent killings that Eli and Ronnie leave all over the USA, Ronnie at the same time seems to be losing his mind. He is clashing with his powerful father who also wants him to take his jailbird brother back to London with him, once he has finished his road trip. Something has got to give, and Ronnie knows it will not be him, but what he will do, he will just go with the flow. One thing that does come through Eli and Ronnie are mirrors of each other, sad, mad and very dangerous to know.

Hanna Jameson is a major talent who is getting better with every book, she has a seriously twisted mind to come up with the sort of plots Tarantino would be proud of. She is not in to some sort of dainty crime thriller, she likes to see the bodies drop, her villains are horrible people and there are no heroes around. She does not dress the killing up as fun, but as downright evil. You may not warm to both leading characters, but Ronnie and Eli are the sort of villains most men wish they could be if they did not have a care in the world.

Road Kill is a seriously brilliant urban noir thriller that has you gripped from beginning to end and Hanna Jameson is a thriller writer who the world will soon know more about.

[Giorgiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

When i start reading The Road Kill i felt that i don’t understand too much. There were so many names in so few pages that i had to concentrate very hard to memorize each of them and who they are. Now i understand why obviously. It’s only because there are two previous book which, unfortunately, i didn’t read.

Leaving this apart, this book is something new for me. I’ve never read a book about gangsters, drugs, and about their life. This book has everything. From drug dealers and gangsters, to religion, Satan and Bible. I’m sure you all heard a few years ago about a girl who’ve been murdered and her body body was found after two weeks in a water tank in an hotel. Well Hanna Jameson talks about it too.

The book starts with Ronnie being back in USA for his brother ‘s release from prison. He kills his brother’s lawyer, and then her starts this road trip with his friend, Eli, with the mission of finding Trent, a guy who must likely will be killed by them.
https://awesomebookstoday.wordpress.com

To be honest i would have preferred to have a more palpitant trip as i found this quite unpredictable and boring from time to time. It attract my attention only at the end on The Staten Island.

Back in London, Daisy feels that she can’t cope anymore with taking care of everything, including the Underground club, as Noel is having a bad time and is drunk every time. Nick, her boyfriend, broke up of her and asked her to move out, and Edie, her boss, intends to sell the club.

To end this, i would recommend it to everyone who wants to spend some quality time reading about gangsters and drug dealers and killings.

Thank you Netgalley for this opportunity in return of an honest review.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the joys of reviewing books is discovering a new writer and I had this most recently with Hanna Jameson, who’s work until now had regrettably passed me by. Her third novel, Roadkill, was featured on one of the review sites I subscribe to (Bookbridgr? Nudge Real Readers? I forget now) and I requested it on the strength of the cover art.

As mentioned, Roadkill is the third novel to be published by the author, and while it can be read as a stand-alone story, the tale utilises many of the same characters as her previous work and unfolds in the same “universe” as it were. In this sense, it reminded me of the work of James Ellroy, a writer she lists as one of her influences.
 
When reading a novel in a series it can go either way. Some author’s books really do stand on their own and the reader doesn’t need to have read their previous work. Other novels rely so much on past events that a new reader can quickly get lost. Roadkill kind of straddles a middle line. Yes, this is a standalone story, but I found myself wondering at what had gone on beforehand and feeling like I was missing something. This was most apparent in the main characters’ motivation.

Roadkill follows two British gangsters on a road trip across America. Eli ropes Ronnie into a mission to find a guy called Trent who screwed Eli over years ago. And here lay my confusion.  Eli had founded a magazine. Trent, with others, forced him out, and took over the enterprise. But this was years ago and quite frankly was just business, and so I found myself confused as to why Eli wanted him dead now. More seriously, I couldn’t grasp why Ronnie felt compelled to help him. It all seemed pretty thin. Perhaps I was missing something. Perhaps if I had read the author’s previous work I might better understand.

But I persevered and I must say that I’m glad that I did. Because Roadkill quickly becomes a kind of Tarantino fantasy of a novel. It’s a gutsy, rollercoaster of a book, where these two British criminals travel across the United States taking drugs, killing, and encountering all kinds of weird and wonderfully fucked up people. For example, along the way they meet an alchemist who believes that he can change base metals into gold. And who provides them with pills that might just be able to cure any ailment. And that’s before we get to the Satanism. Yes, that’s right, it all gets really quite creepy and sinister when devil worship and missing kids enter the frame.

If there’s one criticism I have at this point it might be that at no point do Eli and Ronnie cross paths with the police. They butcher their way across America and never bump into a cop. But in some ways that makes sense as this is almost a psychedelic crime novel (in the Charles Manson sense of the word) and I’m not sure how seriously the author expects us to take it all. It’s not comic or comedy, hell no. Roadkill is dark stuff. But in the same way that one suspends their disbelief when, say, watching Pulp Fiction, or Reservoir Dogs, if one does so with Roadkill then you’re in for one hell of a ride.

All in all I must say that Roadkill is a brilliant, brash effort. This is the deepest, darkest noir. All the characters are repulsive, though all are strangely compelling. And I want to spend more time with them. Proof is that on the back of Roadkill I ordered both the author’s previous novels from Amazon. I look forward to what this author pens next.

5 Stars

[Tex · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Road Kill” (RK aka “Those Crazy Freeways”) is the third novel by Hanna Jameson and the final instalment in the gangland crime “London Underground” trilogy.

Some books you can’t put down because they are so good…other because you just want them finished and done with. RK, which could have been the best chapter in the London Underground trilogy if it just didn’t get in its own way so much, falls into the latter category.

Starting pretty much on the heels of its predecessor the initial storyline started with the fallout from the previous book. Unfortunately there was also another (loosely) connected subplot which took up way too much space and really added little to the overall book. Also, unfortunately, the initial storyline just seemed to be forgotten about and the final quarter of the book was yet another storyline that felt rushed and completely unsatisfying.

It was almost like Jameson wanted to write two or three different stories but couldn’t make up her mind which one she preferred and ended up cobbling something together that did none of them any justice. This approach left the reader with too many unanswered questions, and actions by the main characters that just seemed preposterous.

Don’t get me wrong I have no issue with books that are open ended and leave room for individual thought and interpretation but RK had left so much unresolved as to be deeply frustrating.

It was almost as if by the end Jameson just got bored and didn’t want to write about the criminal underworld any more, or got herself in such a mess with all of the competing storylines, that she just gave up and walked away.

RK is really just a disappointing hot mess and gets 2 states of confusion out of 5.

[Gary Letham · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third book in the "Underground" series finds Ronnie O'Connell, Noel Braben's partner in the club back in his native America for the release from prison after fifteen years of his tearaway younger brother Eamonn. Accompanying him is an old family friend Eli. After the release Eli convinces Ronnie to go on a road trip to find an ex business partner and associates, to settle some business. Eli dosent specify what he intends to do, but Ronnie, knowing Eli for many years suspects there may be blood spilt. The journey takes them on a trip around their own humanity,reawakening their darker inner selves an slowly brings them, for better or worse, to the fore. All the while at the back of Ronnies mind is his other task to track Seven down in Chicago.
Meanwhile back ain London, Daisy runs the club single handed as Noel has broken down completely after Sevens betrayal and Edie returns from Manchester putting everyone's future under the microscope

[Dylan Sentance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this without realising it was the third in a series however I don't think mattered too much. Funny characters, sharp dialogue and a fair share of brutality made this a fast paced and enjoyable read. ordered the first in the trilogy after about 30 pages.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

There should have been some background. I felt I was reading a book that other people 'were in the know'.

[Lara Stevems · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off well I thought but the book lost it for me somewhere in the middle. But some good dialogue and I could almost give it a 3.

[Josi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as the others. Took me forever. Was good to fall asleep to

[Martyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the confusion of the first few chapters, I started to enjoy it but disappointed with the ending.

[Jarvo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Began this shortly after finishing the latest Ian Rankin and to be honest it left the latter breathing its vapour. The heart of the book is kind of Jack Kerouac rewritten by James Elroy with a touch of Hunter S. Thompson. Narcotics and blood letting in equal measures, and a plot that is leading into the occult. The whole main character who appears remotely together is the female co-narrator left behind in London, and by her own admission she is pretty much out of her head most of the time, but if you had to deal with most of the people in this book, frankly, you would be. Probably deserves an extra half star, but is a little short of the maximum because of an ending that dismisses much of the previous narrative as a cock and bull story, although equally we feel well set up for the next instalment.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unsatisfying read as the story jaunted from one point to the next without clarity. It had points of interest but overall difficult to follow and enjoy.