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A darkly comic thriller set in contemporary Berlin, this novel finds Martin Rumsfield, an international-museums expert from New Zealand, feeling hemmed in by the pressures of work and the demands of family. When a shady character from his past turns up with a sure-fire money-making scheme, Martin is seduced by the glamour of a walk on the wild side.
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 13, 2021
Very readable, darkly funny, not credible on one level but believable on another and emotionally spot on. Great characters. I really enjoyed it.
August 12, 2012
AS my second book on this site I am not really sure what my benchmark is for rating books with stars. I can say, this book is entertaining and definitely worth reading. The story is nothing special but the theme and the message of the book runs deep. What I really loved is Nigel Cox's use of the English language. He creates lucid images using metaphor and hand picked vocabulary. His style and scene setting evokes a dark beatnik sleaziness of 1950's detective movies set in a modern age. I can open the book on any page and find a set of sentences or a phrase that makes me want to drink the words like a good wine. For example, I have randomly opened on page 110. Cox's character is taking us through the remains of a Nazi "work camp" complete with ovens and a pathology research centre. He is charged with turning this place into a memorial museum and is trying to get a feel for the place: "It was a nothing day, as we crunched on the gravel paths the open sky above us was patchy, a broken thing that didn't hold any messages. We walked and walked, crunch, crunch. Grim buildings, paths - these I could cope with. Inside, I was holding myself. I was still afraid of what I would have to see."
April 10, 2014
I bought this because I'd really enjoyed Jungle Rock Blues (aka Tarzan Presley) by the same author, and was not disappointed. Even though the story is completely different, Nigel Cox's strange, funny, unexpected voice is the same. Sentences seem to catch you off guard, poke you, trip you up and refuse to apologise - and while you're flummoxed you're also laughing because there is so much humour at sentence-, scene- and plot-level. Cox absolutely nails the trick of being funny and serious simultaneously. Read all his books.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews