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Isaiah Coleridge #1
Blood Standard
A novel set in the underbelly of upstate New York that's as hardboiled and punchy as a swift right hook to the jaw, a classic noir for fans of James Ellroy and John D. Macdonald
Isaiah Coleridge is a mob enforcer in Alaska--he's tough, seen a lot, and dished out more. But when he forcibly ends the money-making scheme of a made man, he gets in the kind of trouble that can lead to a bullet behind the ear.
Saved by the grace of his boss and exiled to upstate New York, Isaiah begins a new life, a quiet life without gunshots or explosions. Except a teenage girl disappears, and Isaiah isn't one to let that slip by. And delving into the underworld to track this missing girl will get him exactly the kind of notice he was warned to avoid.
At turns brutally shocking and darkly funny, heartbreaking and cautiously hopeful, Blood Standard is both a high-tension crime novel and the story of a man's second chance--the parts of his past he will never escape, and the parts that will shape his future.
Isaiah Coleridge is a mob enforcer in Alaska--he's tough, seen a lot, and dished out more. But when he forcibly ends the money-making scheme of a made man, he gets in the kind of trouble that can lead to a bullet behind the ear.
Saved by the grace of his boss and exiled to upstate New York, Isaiah begins a new life, a quiet life without gunshots or explosions. Except a teenage girl disappears, and Isaiah isn't one to let that slip by. And delving into the underworld to track this missing girl will get him exactly the kind of notice he was warned to avoid.
At turns brutally shocking and darkly funny, heartbreaking and cautiously hopeful, Blood Standard is both a high-tension crime novel and the story of a man's second chance--the parts of his past he will never escape, and the parts that will shape his future.
390 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2018
260 people are currently reading
3844 people want to read
About the author
Laird Barron
175 books2,879 followersLaird Barron, an expat Alaskan, is the author of several books, including The Imago Sequence and Other Stories; Swift to Chase; and Blood Standard. Currently, Barron lives in the Rondout Valley of New York State and is at work on tales about the evil that men do.
Photo credit belongs to Ardi Alspach
Agent: Janet Reid of New Leaf Literary & Media
Photo credit belongs to Ardi Alspach
Agent: Janet Reid of New Leaf Literary & Media
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 367 reviews
August 9, 2019
”I was Oppenheimer’s dread in microcosm, a miniature atom bomb. A destroyer of small things. Not worlds, nothing so grand, but individual bodies, individual lives. In little more than a week I’d crossed purposes with mercenaries, gangsters, white supremacists, hillbilly moonshiners, gangbangers, and Feds. Blood had spilled. As ever, blood was the currency of my existence. Blood was the standard.”
Coleridge--defender of animals.
Isaiah Coleridge bears the name of a poet, but he doesn’t express himself in romantic verse or ballads (though some may be written about him) or in free verse or pastoral or in bard inspired sonnets. He might know a limerick or two, but that just comes from hanging out with hardcases, gangsters, criminals, and thugs. He is a big fan of Humphrey Bogart. He may have wanted to be like Bogart, but let's just say Bogart’s trench coat would never fit. Coleridge is a mountain of a man. His nickname is Hercules, and after riding along with him on this little adventure, I’d have to say he is aptly named.
”’I have a fondness for the heroic dudes. Hercules, Thor, Beowulf, Gilgamesh, John Henry, That crowd.’
‘My, my. The strongman archetype.’
I spread my hands in a gesture of faux modesty.
‘C’mon, just look at me.’
‘Indeed. Impressive that a macho dude such as yourself is comfortable with the degree of homoeroticism that permeates those mythologies.’”
The one busting his balls in that conversation is his girlfriend Meg. Well, he and I both hope she is his girlfriend. (Her real name is Megara which is also Barron having some fun with the Hercules myth. Megara is a given as a gift to Hercules for saving Thebes. I’m not sure the modern day Megara would be on board with that plan.) She is an acrobat and, when not doing flips and handstands, can put on an evening dress and turn every head in the room. With all that flipping around, sometimes Coleridge finds it hard to pin her down.
Speaking of balls.
”I leaned against him and used my size and weight to casually muscle him into the darkness. My left hand maintained a solid clutch on his testicles, guiding him like a rudder. Old hat move on my part--over the course of a long and sordid career, I’d grabbed more junk than a fluffer in Burbank.”
When you want to have a conversation with a man and know he is really listening to you, well grab him by the balls, and you can steer him, drop him, or just focus his mind with a few ounces of pressure.
So Coleridge is a made man in Alaska, working for the Outfit, breaking a few heads, but mostly just sitting around reading books, playing poker, drinking, and exploring the physical attributes of a series of good looking dames.
Everything is great until the walrus hunt. Yep, he is on a comet trail to the top of the organization until the very moment he decides he is on the side of the sea creatures. He should, by all rights, be dead, bucking a made man like he did, but some favors are called in by his estranged father, and he finds himself exiled to a farm in New York.
New York? Seriously, if you want to put a guy in exile, send him to a farm in Kansas. He’ll be crying for mercy in a week.
The thing of it is, with time for reflection, while scooping up horse shit and slinging hay around, he really decides what he wants to do is help people. Well, animals, too (remember the walruses), and there is going to be an incident with a dog where some very bad people are going to find out just how Isaiah feels about dogs.
A teenage girl goes missing, and because she is black, nobody but her grandparents care what happens to her. She is mixed up with some lowlifes, and being an astute observer of the general tendencies of bottom feeding morons, Coleridge, part Maori, so a man of color himself, starts his investigation by looking for those guys. Of course, he isn’t done with the Outfit; one cannot just walk away from the mob and become a gumshoe. He has some unfinished business over the walruses, or should I say the guy he embarrassed feels like he has unfinished business with Coleridge.
Laird Barron. What is with the eyepatch, you might ask? He survived cancer as a child, but his right eye did not.
What I really like about this book is that Laird Barron is a student of mythology, pulp fiction, and hardboiled fiction. He leaves us little clues about his reading resume all throughout the book. One that I particularly like is a minor character named Blandish. The name kept niggling around at the back of my brain until I finally locked it down. The classic hardboiled novel Orchids for Miss Blandish. In a normal novel, that might be just a coincidence, but in a Barron novel that is definitely a signpost to a reader like me.
Coleridge has an astute understanding of what motivates people to do the things they do. ”It’s always about money, drugs, or sex.” He is a natural to become an equalizer (sans Jaquar), a Beowulf who slays the monsters (sans Viking war ship), a defender of helpless animals (a bulkier and more serious Ace Ventura), a savior of damsels in distress (St. George sans lance).
I had a blast reading this book and have already queued up the next book in the series, Black Mountain. If you like hardboiled novels, you won’t go wrong with this one. Barron kept me guessing. I had no idea what Coleridge would do next. Barron’s writing style is fluid and glitters with wit and nuance. He has created a character that, sometimes in the same sentence, scared me, inspired me, and had me chuckling. What a way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Coleridge--defender of animals.
Isaiah Coleridge bears the name of a poet, but he doesn’t express himself in romantic verse or ballads (though some may be written about him) or in free verse or pastoral or in bard inspired sonnets. He might know a limerick or two, but that just comes from hanging out with hardcases, gangsters, criminals, and thugs. He is a big fan of Humphrey Bogart. He may have wanted to be like Bogart, but let's just say Bogart’s trench coat would never fit. Coleridge is a mountain of a man. His nickname is Hercules, and after riding along with him on this little adventure, I’d have to say he is aptly named.
”’I have a fondness for the heroic dudes. Hercules, Thor, Beowulf, Gilgamesh, John Henry, That crowd.’
‘My, my. The strongman archetype.’
I spread my hands in a gesture of faux modesty.
‘C’mon, just look at me.’
‘Indeed. Impressive that a macho dude such as yourself is comfortable with the degree of homoeroticism that permeates those mythologies.’”
The one busting his balls in that conversation is his girlfriend Meg. Well, he and I both hope she is his girlfriend. (Her real name is Megara which is also Barron having some fun with the Hercules myth. Megara is a given as a gift to Hercules for saving Thebes. I’m not sure the modern day Megara would be on board with that plan.) She is an acrobat and, when not doing flips and handstands, can put on an evening dress and turn every head in the room. With all that flipping around, sometimes Coleridge finds it hard to pin her down.
Speaking of balls.
”I leaned against him and used my size and weight to casually muscle him into the darkness. My left hand maintained a solid clutch on his testicles, guiding him like a rudder. Old hat move on my part--over the course of a long and sordid career, I’d grabbed more junk than a fluffer in Burbank.”
When you want to have a conversation with a man and know he is really listening to you, well grab him by the balls, and you can steer him, drop him, or just focus his mind with a few ounces of pressure.
So Coleridge is a made man in Alaska, working for the Outfit, breaking a few heads, but mostly just sitting around reading books, playing poker, drinking, and exploring the physical attributes of a series of good looking dames.
Everything is great until the walrus hunt. Yep, he is on a comet trail to the top of the organization until the very moment he decides he is on the side of the sea creatures. He should, by all rights, be dead, bucking a made man like he did, but some favors are called in by his estranged father, and he finds himself exiled to a farm in New York.
New York? Seriously, if you want to put a guy in exile, send him to a farm in Kansas. He’ll be crying for mercy in a week.
The thing of it is, with time for reflection, while scooping up horse shit and slinging hay around, he really decides what he wants to do is help people. Well, animals, too (remember the walruses), and there is going to be an incident with a dog where some very bad people are going to find out just how Isaiah feels about dogs.
A teenage girl goes missing, and because she is black, nobody but her grandparents care what happens to her. She is mixed up with some lowlifes, and being an astute observer of the general tendencies of bottom feeding morons, Coleridge, part Maori, so a man of color himself, starts his investigation by looking for those guys. Of course, he isn’t done with the Outfit; one cannot just walk away from the mob and become a gumshoe. He has some unfinished business over the walruses, or should I say the guy he embarrassed feels like he has unfinished business with Coleridge.
Laird Barron. What is with the eyepatch, you might ask? He survived cancer as a child, but his right eye did not.
What I really like about this book is that Laird Barron is a student of mythology, pulp fiction, and hardboiled fiction. He leaves us little clues about his reading resume all throughout the book. One that I particularly like is a minor character named Blandish. The name kept niggling around at the back of my brain until I finally locked it down. The classic hardboiled novel Orchids for Miss Blandish. In a normal novel, that might be just a coincidence, but in a Barron novel that is definitely a signpost to a reader like me.
Coleridge has an astute understanding of what motivates people to do the things they do. ”It’s always about money, drugs, or sex.” He is a natural to become an equalizer (sans Jaquar), a Beowulf who slays the monsters (sans Viking war ship), a defender of helpless animals (a bulkier and more serious Ace Ventura), a savior of damsels in distress (St. George sans lance).
I had a blast reading this book and have already queued up the next book in the series, Black Mountain. If you like hardboiled novels, you won’t go wrong with this one. Barron kept me guessing. I had no idea what Coleridge would do next. Barron’s writing style is fluid and glitters with wit and nuance. He has created a character that, sometimes in the same sentence, scared me, inspired me, and had me chuckling. What a way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
January 20, 2021
I picked this book up because I've been meaning to try out Laird Barron. I've heard he was an excellent horror author and I found a used hardcover cheap. Excellent! I'll give him a try.
I realized very quickly that I was not in fact reading a horror novel. This was a noir, a dark and gritty one, but very much in the realm of probability (with obviously exaggerations for fiction's sake). Even still I could see a horror influence from the author. He's known for cosmic horror, which if there is a more nihilistic sub-genre of horror, I don't know it. Noir too tends to be cynical to say the least.
Honestly, when you think about it, mixing the two would work well.
As said (this volume at least) is not a horror story. There are unpleasant things that happen, but nothing too unexpected from a noir. In all honesty, it's my guess that Barron was hoping this series would break him into the mainstream.
I hope it works.
This was a fun ride. Our lead Isaiah Coleridge is not your usual gumshoe or former alcoholic cop. He drinks a bit too much, but never enough to let it cloud his senses and he sure wasn't a cop... in fact he was quite the opposite. He's a former mafia hitman, specifically the guy they would send after other mobsters if they stepped on the wrong toes. Coleridge though is sent into exile after he himself steps on one pair of toes (more specifically, chops someone in the neck). He's sent to a horse farm in rural New York to lay low and perhaps start anew. While there he finds himself involved in a the case of a missing teenager. Is this a chance at redemption? Or is it just an excuse to go back to his violent ways, but be deemed the hero?
I enjoyed this one all around. The characters are all solid, the case goes interesting places, the moral shades of gray are at times jarring (but in an entertaining way) and there's enough left open for the series to continue, but not where you sit there feeling like you missed part of the story due to lack of reveals. An excellent start to what could be a great series, and I will definitely check out the second. Recommended to all who enjoy a bit of Noir. 4/5 stars
I realized very quickly that I was not in fact reading a horror novel. This was a noir, a dark and gritty one, but very much in the realm of probability (with obviously exaggerations for fiction's sake). Even still I could see a horror influence from the author. He's known for cosmic horror, which if there is a more nihilistic sub-genre of horror, I don't know it. Noir too tends to be cynical to say the least.
Honestly, when you think about it, mixing the two would work well.
As said (this volume at least) is not a horror story. There are unpleasant things that happen, but nothing too unexpected from a noir. In all honesty, it's my guess that Barron was hoping this series would break him into the mainstream.
I hope it works.
This was a fun ride. Our lead Isaiah Coleridge is not your usual gumshoe or former alcoholic cop. He drinks a bit too much, but never enough to let it cloud his senses and he sure wasn't a cop... in fact he was quite the opposite. He's a former mafia hitman, specifically the guy they would send after other mobsters if they stepped on the wrong toes. Coleridge though is sent into exile after he himself steps on one pair of toes (more specifically, chops someone in the neck). He's sent to a horse farm in rural New York to lay low and perhaps start anew. While there he finds himself involved in a the case of a missing teenager. Is this a chance at redemption? Or is it just an excuse to go back to his violent ways, but be deemed the hero?
I enjoyed this one all around. The characters are all solid, the case goes interesting places, the moral shades of gray are at times jarring (but in an entertaining way) and there's enough left open for the series to continue, but not where you sit there feeling like you missed part of the story due to lack of reveals. An excellent start to what could be a great series, and I will definitely check out the second. Recommended to all who enjoy a bit of Noir. 4/5 stars
June 3, 2018
When he sees his fellow gangsters killing walruses for fun, Isaiah Coleridge chops one of them in the throat and winds up exiled to a work farm in upstate New York. A teenage girl also staying at the farm disappears and Isaiah means to find her, stirring up a hornet's nest of gang members and corrupt law enforcement...
2017 was the year of Laird Barron for me. I managed to read every book he had in print so it was a no-brainer that I'd pick up this one, his first foray into crime fiction. Barron's prose is rooted in noir so I knew he'd do a great job.
Blood Standard is a mystery but Isaiah Coleridge is no Philip Marlowe. He pretty much bulldozes his way around, kicking ass and pissing people off. In some ways, he's a lot like Conrad Navarro, the protagonist of The Light is the Darkness, a brute of a man who would have been better off being born a thousand years earlier.
The writing was as I expected, grim, gruesome stuff written with a sort of poetry. Like Isaiah, I suspect Laird Barron wouldn't mind a Homburg and an overcoat, although he'd be wearing his someplace cold and desolate. If I wouldn't have been reading a physical copy, I would have highlighted half of the book on my Kindle.
Isaiah's a little more complicated than all of that, a half-Maori man haunted by his mother's death at the hands of his father when he was fifteen. Papa Coleridge is a piece of work, a career military man who went mercenary. While Isaiah wouldn't agree with, he's a lot more like his father than he'd like to admit.
While I don't pretend to understand Isaiah, I understand his motivations. It brought a tear to my eye when someone asked Isaiah why he did what he did and he said "I miss my dog." Animals and kids have an innocence that should be preserved. Yeah, I miss my dog too.
Isaiah's case takes him up against the White Manitou, a Native American organized crime organization, and corrupt cops and FBI agents. By the time the dust is settled and the blood is dried, the case is closed but not a lot of good came of it. The classic noir ending, in fact.
The supporting cast went a long way toward making Isaiah seem like more than a human wrecking ball. Lionel, Isaiah's drunken co-worker at the ranch, is the kind of friend every man wants, one that would follow him through the gates of hell. I also liked that Meg was tough and didn't immediately jump on Isaiah's groin. She proved to be a many-faceted character.
There were a whole lot of loose ends left behind but that's not all that surprising. If you follow Laird Barron on social media, you know he's already got the next Coleridge book in the can. I'm looking forward to Isaiah's next blood-spattered outing.
Laird Barron's first steps into the world of crime fiction were even better than I expected. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
2017 was the year of Laird Barron for me. I managed to read every book he had in print so it was a no-brainer that I'd pick up this one, his first foray into crime fiction. Barron's prose is rooted in noir so I knew he'd do a great job.
Blood Standard is a mystery but Isaiah Coleridge is no Philip Marlowe. He pretty much bulldozes his way around, kicking ass and pissing people off. In some ways, he's a lot like Conrad Navarro, the protagonist of The Light is the Darkness, a brute of a man who would have been better off being born a thousand years earlier.
The writing was as I expected, grim, gruesome stuff written with a sort of poetry. Like Isaiah, I suspect Laird Barron wouldn't mind a Homburg and an overcoat, although he'd be wearing his someplace cold and desolate. If I wouldn't have been reading a physical copy, I would have highlighted half of the book on my Kindle.
Isaiah's a little more complicated than all of that, a half-Maori man haunted by his mother's death at the hands of his father when he was fifteen. Papa Coleridge is a piece of work, a career military man who went mercenary. While Isaiah wouldn't agree with, he's a lot more like his father than he'd like to admit.
While I don't pretend to understand Isaiah, I understand his motivations. It brought a tear to my eye when someone asked Isaiah why he did what he did and he said "I miss my dog." Animals and kids have an innocence that should be preserved. Yeah, I miss my dog too.
Isaiah's case takes him up against the White Manitou, a Native American organized crime organization, and corrupt cops and FBI agents. By the time the dust is settled and the blood is dried, the case is closed but not a lot of good came of it. The classic noir ending, in fact.
The supporting cast went a long way toward making Isaiah seem like more than a human wrecking ball. Lionel, Isaiah's drunken co-worker at the ranch, is the kind of friend every man wants, one that would follow him through the gates of hell. I also liked that Meg was tough and didn't immediately jump on Isaiah's groin. She proved to be a many-faceted character.
There were a whole lot of loose ends left behind but that's not all that surprising. If you follow Laird Barron on social media, you know he's already got the next Coleridge book in the can. I'm looking forward to Isaiah's next blood-spattered outing.
Laird Barron's first steps into the world of crime fiction were even better than I expected. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
April 10, 2018
Laird Barron's "Blood Standard" is a top-notch crime fiction story that has a great narrative voice even from the beginning. Take a half-Maori (a Polynesian ethnic group who is indigenous to New Zealand) mobbed-up enforcer at odds with his ex-military father (who killed his mother) and finds himself exiled by the Outfit from Alaska to the Hudson River Valley. Talk about two wildly different neighborhoods. Isaiah Coleridge is a tough guy with a heart of gold, keen about wreaking mayhem among his enemies and soft to animals and missing teenagers. He is also a college-educated hitman whose favorite book is Homer's Odyssey and dates librarians and acrobats. The pace of this novel is terrific. Impossible to put down. And filled with hard-charging violence, stubbornness, bullheadedness, and here's hoping there's more to this series than just this standalone first novel.
The fact that he is a literary mob enforcer reminded me of Chute's Jesus Diaz series and the idea of a mobbed-up guy who is semi-retired and sort of deals on the edges of the Outfit in a smaller countryside venue reminded me of Collins' Nolan series. Nevertheless, Barron has done an excellent job of re-imagining the pulpy idea of a mobbed up guy trying to be a good guy in a new environment and finding it difficult to stay out of trouble. And trouble might as well be Isaiah's middle name - his mob moniker was Hercules- because he tangles with everyone from the FBI to the retired black ops guys to the Outfit to the local toughs. But what makes this book sing and shout is the narrative voice which is humorous as well as deadly.
Many thanks to G.P. Putnam for providing an advance copy for review. What else has this guy written ?
The fact that he is a literary mob enforcer reminded me of Chute's Jesus Diaz series and the idea of a mobbed-up guy who is semi-retired and sort of deals on the edges of the Outfit in a smaller countryside venue reminded me of Collins' Nolan series. Nevertheless, Barron has done an excellent job of re-imagining the pulpy idea of a mobbed up guy trying to be a good guy in a new environment and finding it difficult to stay out of trouble. And trouble might as well be Isaiah's middle name - his mob moniker was Hercules- because he tangles with everyone from the FBI to the retired black ops guys to the Outfit to the local toughs. But what makes this book sing and shout is the narrative voice which is humorous as well as deadly.
Many thanks to G.P. Putnam for providing an advance copy for review. What else has this guy written ?
October 12, 2018
I received a free advance copy from NetGalley for review.
Apparently the American mob is just like Starbucks in that they’ve got franchises everywhere, including Alaska.
Isaiah Coleridge is an enforcer who has been working this frozen turf for a while, but he gets in big trouble after crossing a deadly local boss. That earns him a vicious beating as well as a dangerous enemy. He’s also exiled from Alaska and sent to live on a farm in upstate New York as part of his punishment. Isaiah is content to follow orders about staying away from family business as he spends his days shoveling shit for the couple who run the place, and he makes several new friends while living a quiet life. However, when the couple’s wild young granddaughter disappears after hanging around several lowlifes Isaiah can’t help but to reenter the murky underworld of mobsters, dangerous gangs, murderous hillbillies, crooked cops, and Feds to try and find her.
Bottom line here is that this a really solid and entertaining piece of crime fiction. I was a shade disappointed that we didn’t get more in Alaska because I thought the entire novel was set there and was looking forward to an offbeat locale, but the rural New York area also makes for an interesting place to have a mob enforcer doing his thing.
The most interesting aspect is Isaiah himself. He’s the son of a Maori woman and a former American military officer so he had an army brat upbringing. As a mob enforcer he’s an expert at both dishing out and being on the receiving end of extreme violence. He’s also a smart guy with a taste for the old school epics like The Odyssey as well as the occasional sip of whiskey. Throw in a soft spot for animals which can bring on John Wick levels of violence when triggered, and you’ve got a complex character who smoothly narrates the twists and turns of the story.
My main complaint is that it’s all just a bit much. The personal story of Isaiah being in the mob’s doghouse and dealing with own issues is deep enough. However, when you add in the hunt for the missing woman which entails layers of navigating mob protocol and then add mercenaries to the mix, that’s maybe one or two scoops of stories too much. Still, I’d be happy to read more of Isaiah’s adventures.
Apparently the American mob is just like Starbucks in that they’ve got franchises everywhere, including Alaska.
Isaiah Coleridge is an enforcer who has been working this frozen turf for a while, but he gets in big trouble after crossing a deadly local boss. That earns him a vicious beating as well as a dangerous enemy. He’s also exiled from Alaska and sent to live on a farm in upstate New York as part of his punishment. Isaiah is content to follow orders about staying away from family business as he spends his days shoveling shit for the couple who run the place, and he makes several new friends while living a quiet life. However, when the couple’s wild young granddaughter disappears after hanging around several lowlifes Isaiah can’t help but to reenter the murky underworld of mobsters, dangerous gangs, murderous hillbillies, crooked cops, and Feds to try and find her.
Bottom line here is that this a really solid and entertaining piece of crime fiction. I was a shade disappointed that we didn’t get more in Alaska because I thought the entire novel was set there and was looking forward to an offbeat locale, but the rural New York area also makes for an interesting place to have a mob enforcer doing his thing.
The most interesting aspect is Isaiah himself. He’s the son of a Maori woman and a former American military officer so he had an army brat upbringing. As a mob enforcer he’s an expert at both dishing out and being on the receiving end of extreme violence. He’s also a smart guy with a taste for the old school epics like The Odyssey as well as the occasional sip of whiskey. Throw in a soft spot for animals which can bring on John Wick levels of violence when triggered, and you’ve got a complex character who smoothly narrates the twists and turns of the story.
My main complaint is that it’s all just a bit much. The personal story of Isaiah being in the mob’s doghouse and dealing with own issues is deep enough. However, when you add in the hunt for the missing woman which entails layers of navigating mob protocol and then add mercenaries to the mix, that’s maybe one or two scoops of stories too much. Still, I’d be happy to read more of Isaiah’s adventures.
April 21, 2023
This starts as what I'd loosely compare with the hard-boiled, noir-like genre of crime fiction in its style of speech and descriptions. The difference being that Isaiah (main character) is an enforcer within the crime syndicate, and not your typical dry, hat-wearing detective looking to solve a case (which I've never been a fan of). I am a fan of Isaiah, and Laird Barron's style in this, because the book settles in as Isaiah himself settles into his new life on the dangerous cusp of being on the outs with the mob. Early in, his human values are apparent, something that readers can dig. They are the same traits that made me like him and carry through the rest of the book. It becomes a two-fold action mystery, one involving the gritty of the mob surrounding upstate New York, and the other of a girl gone missing, the two seemingly related. Plenty of action here and quite a few characters to say the least. Isaiah is beyond tough. Big, intimidating. Different from most though. Tough guys are no fun without vulnerabilities, or a sense of humor. This is going to be a good series.
February 10, 2018
I'm on team Coleridge. Until he punches me in the ribs (I'm kind of delicate). Brimming with memorable characters, action, nastiness, and well, fun (that's my kind of fun, and I imagined Laird cackling wildly as he wrote parts of this book).
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January 23, 2022FINISHED! Look for the read-along, live chat video with author, Laird Barron and your hosts, me & C. S. Humble on the 26th :)
Review to follow
Review to follow
March 31, 2021
When I saw that Laird Barron had a hardboiled detective series out, I had a typical fangirl moment of squeaking and running as fast as I could to get a copy of the first book. There are many amazing horror writers out there, but Mr. Barron is definitely my favorite, and I was quite curious to see how he would do with in the noir/thriller genre. And holy cow, he did not disappoint!
Because it’s Laird Barron, there is some seriously violent stuff in “Blood Standard”; I don’t read a ton of hardboiled detective stories, but I feel like there are usually not quite as explicitly bloody as this. It doesn’t really faze me, but I can see how some readers would be put off by the many shootings, stabbings and snapped bones Isaiah goes through between the first and last page. Also, in typical Laird Barron fashion, while he respects and pays homage to the genre’s tropes, his protagonist is quite unique. Half-Maori, fascinated with Greek mythology and triggered by violence against animals, Isaiah Coleridge is unlike any other mob muscle I’ve come across (in print, obviously) before. With his bleak life story, violent upbringing and career, and past filled with tragedies, he really is kind of like a Greek hero, pushing forth and taunting death, but somehow, prevailing.
Isaiah Coleridge was the muscle for the branch of the Chicago mob that works out in Alaska, a life for which he was perfectly suited. That is, until one of his bosses crossed one of Isaiah’s lines and made him snap: his life was only saved because someone higher up the food chain called in a favor, but the price was exile from the Great North to the Hudson Valley. But Isaiah has barely finished licking his wounds in his new life as a farm hand when the teenage granddaughter of his new benefactors goes missing. Now if there is one thing about Isaiah, it’s that once he has a goal in mind, he won’t let it go, and he decides he will find Reba and return her to her family. In the process, he will cross paths with former special ops guys with mean streaks, gangs and drug runners, dirty cops and feds – and a patient but careful and guarded woman.
Barron’s writing is muscular, but also wonderfully fluid, and often evocative: it’s easy to go through this book in big gulps, follow the quick pacing of Isaiah’s quest and root for this strange man who managed to get out of “the life” so that he can live a better one. It doesn’t have the uber-creepy flavor that make his horror stories super-addictive, but the darkness, grit and occasionally poetic existentialism that makes him an amazing writer are all right there.
4 stars, because I kept hoping for a quick appearance from the Children of Old Leech or their minions – and they never showed up. But otherwise, this is an amazing book that fans of old-school noir and hardboiled detective stories should absolutely add to their library.
Because it’s Laird Barron, there is some seriously violent stuff in “Blood Standard”; I don’t read a ton of hardboiled detective stories, but I feel like there are usually not quite as explicitly bloody as this. It doesn’t really faze me, but I can see how some readers would be put off by the many shootings, stabbings and snapped bones Isaiah goes through between the first and last page. Also, in typical Laird Barron fashion, while he respects and pays homage to the genre’s tropes, his protagonist is quite unique. Half-Maori, fascinated with Greek mythology and triggered by violence against animals, Isaiah Coleridge is unlike any other mob muscle I’ve come across (in print, obviously) before. With his bleak life story, violent upbringing and career, and past filled with tragedies, he really is kind of like a Greek hero, pushing forth and taunting death, but somehow, prevailing.
Isaiah Coleridge was the muscle for the branch of the Chicago mob that works out in Alaska, a life for which he was perfectly suited. That is, until one of his bosses crossed one of Isaiah’s lines and made him snap: his life was only saved because someone higher up the food chain called in a favor, but the price was exile from the Great North to the Hudson Valley. But Isaiah has barely finished licking his wounds in his new life as a farm hand when the teenage granddaughter of his new benefactors goes missing. Now if there is one thing about Isaiah, it’s that once he has a goal in mind, he won’t let it go, and he decides he will find Reba and return her to her family. In the process, he will cross paths with former special ops guys with mean streaks, gangs and drug runners, dirty cops and feds – and a patient but careful and guarded woman.
Barron’s writing is muscular, but also wonderfully fluid, and often evocative: it’s easy to go through this book in big gulps, follow the quick pacing of Isaiah’s quest and root for this strange man who managed to get out of “the life” so that he can live a better one. It doesn’t have the uber-creepy flavor that make his horror stories super-addictive, but the darkness, grit and occasionally poetic existentialism that makes him an amazing writer are all right there.
4 stars, because I kept hoping for a quick appearance from the Children of Old Leech or their minions – and they never showed up. But otherwise, this is an amazing book that fans of old-school noir and hardboiled detective stories should absolutely add to their library.
March 4, 2024
Interesting enough plot. Compelling, but hardly earth shattering. Yet I loved the wisecracking ex-mafioso bruiser of a protagonist who can take a licking and keep on ticking ("I'm not a detective. I'm a bulldozer."). He's got some intellectual and even emotional depth, especially when it comes to dogs, and a real casual like approach to violence (excepting situations involving dogs). Infusions of lyrical prose, witty dialogue, colorful characters, mythological references, interesting settings (rural Alaska and upstate New York), gritty detail and bone crunching action definitely got me hooked and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
September 21, 2025
Known primarily for his horror/dark fantasy/new weird, Laird Barron cuts his teeth in the crime/mystery/mafia genre with “Blood Standard”, introducing a frightening yet lovable new (anti)hero that is reminiscent of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and Robert B. Parker’s seminal hero, Spencer.
Isaiah Coleridge is a hulking Maori mob enforcer in Alaska. He’s done a lot of bad things, and while he once dreamed of being a good guy, the role of very bad guy just kind of fell into his lap. Unfortunately, he makes a mistake. When you’re in the mob, mistakes generally mean one thing: a bullet in the brain or cement shoes.
Thankfully, his boss shows some mercy and merely exiles him to upstate New York, where he’s to work as a farmhand while his future with the mafia is deliberated by wise guys in shady back rooms.
Like Wreck-it Ralph, Isaiah may be a bad guy, but he’s not a bad guy. He may have tortured and killed a few people in his life, but he has a soft spot for children, the elderly, and animals.
When the teenaged daughter of the nice family who runs the farm goes missing one day, Isaiah decides to play detective. Switching from gangster to gumshoe, it turns out, doesn’t require a hell of a lot of changes. He still gets to bust skulls, only now he is working with the police rather than against them. Awkward, to say the least.
His investigation uncovers a local turf war between a white supremacist group and a gang of Native Americans. Drugs, guns, and human trafficking are apparently a booming business in these parts. Normally, Isaiah wouldn’t care much about that stuff, except that an innocent young girl may have been caught up in something from which she couldn’t get out.
Isaiah has Reacher’s tendency to find trouble, but he also has Spenser’s optimism and sense of humor, which is often his saving grace. Of course, Isaiah shares both Reacher’s and Spenser’s talent for creating mayhem.
I have never read Barron’s horror fiction*, but if it is half as good as “Blood Standard”, I will have to give it a look-see. Seriously, if you are a fan of hard-boiled noir fiction with a fair amount of blood and guts, Barron is a writer to check out.
*5/30/2025 addendum: I wrote this review in 2019. I have since read a shitload of Barron's horror fiction, and it is damn good. Not for the squeamish or those who like things like a good night sleep.
Isaiah Coleridge is a hulking Maori mob enforcer in Alaska. He’s done a lot of bad things, and while he once dreamed of being a good guy, the role of very bad guy just kind of fell into his lap. Unfortunately, he makes a mistake. When you’re in the mob, mistakes generally mean one thing: a bullet in the brain or cement shoes.
Thankfully, his boss shows some mercy and merely exiles him to upstate New York, where he’s to work as a farmhand while his future with the mafia is deliberated by wise guys in shady back rooms.
Like Wreck-it Ralph, Isaiah may be a bad guy, but he’s not a bad guy. He may have tortured and killed a few people in his life, but he has a soft spot for children, the elderly, and animals.
When the teenaged daughter of the nice family who runs the farm goes missing one day, Isaiah decides to play detective. Switching from gangster to gumshoe, it turns out, doesn’t require a hell of a lot of changes. He still gets to bust skulls, only now he is working with the police rather than against them. Awkward, to say the least.
His investigation uncovers a local turf war between a white supremacist group and a gang of Native Americans. Drugs, guns, and human trafficking are apparently a booming business in these parts. Normally, Isaiah wouldn’t care much about that stuff, except that an innocent young girl may have been caught up in something from which she couldn’t get out.
Isaiah has Reacher’s tendency to find trouble, but he also has Spenser’s optimism and sense of humor, which is often his saving grace. Of course, Isaiah shares both Reacher’s and Spenser’s talent for creating mayhem.
I have never read Barron’s horror fiction*, but if it is half as good as “Blood Standard”, I will have to give it a look-see. Seriously, if you are a fan of hard-boiled noir fiction with a fair amount of blood and guts, Barron is a writer to check out.
*5/30/2025 addendum: I wrote this review in 2019. I have since read a shitload of Barron's horror fiction, and it is damn good. Not for the squeamish or those who like things like a good night sleep.
Want to read
August 6, 2018This ARC is an uncorrected advance proof. Publication date is May 29, 2018.
May 2, 2025
I dont write reviews.
And I don’t read ham-fisted, tough guy novels, but I must say, Barron did it well, (I think since I have nothing with which to compare it). He maintained my interest throughout. The story was chockful of strange customers, wise guys and all-round psychos. Knowing that the super weirdness is coming soon, strengthens my resolve to continue this series.
“Sweat peeled the duct tape from my mouth. The tape was a formality, stage dressing for a ritual as old as crime itself. That ritual concerning the purification of traitors. I could yell all I wanted. Nobody would hear me except the rest of the thugs keeping watch upstairs. We were in the underworld. That spot on the map marked with skulls and crossbones and dragons. Tape, pliers and ballpeen hammers were meant to satisfy tradition as much as anything else.”
Book 6 - Laird & I Will Follow: A Laird Barron Retrospective
And I don’t read ham-fisted, tough guy novels, but I must say, Barron did it well, (I think since I have nothing with which to compare it). He maintained my interest throughout. The story was chockful of strange customers, wise guys and all-round psychos. Knowing that the super weirdness is coming soon, strengthens my resolve to continue this series.
“Sweat peeled the duct tape from my mouth. The tape was a formality, stage dressing for a ritual as old as crime itself. That ritual concerning the purification of traitors. I could yell all I wanted. Nobody would hear me except the rest of the thugs keeping watch upstairs. We were in the underworld. That spot on the map marked with skulls and crossbones and dragons. Tape, pliers and ballpeen hammers were meant to satisfy tradition as much as anything else.”
Book 6 - Laird & I Will Follow: A Laird Barron Retrospective
August 12, 2018
This is the first book in a new hard boiled detective series featuring Isaiah Coleridge, a mob enforcer who was working in Alaska until being exiled to upstate New York (near the home of his estranged father) after a problem involving walruses pissed off the wrong man. Isaiah is half Maori, has a fondness for classic literature and can't stand seeing animals abused.
Isaiah has been given a cover story to explain his arrival at Hawk Mountain Farm and Center for Symbolic Studies, run by the elderly African American couple Virgil and Jade Walker, both of whom have doctorates in literature and sociology. Their 18 year old granddaughter Reba has a history of getting into trouble and hanging with iffy friends, so she has been sent to live with them for a while. When Reba goes missing, Isaiah agrees to try to find her. However, the search for the girl gets lost in this book, in which there is a little too much going on. Isaiah is not really a detective, he's muscle, and his investigation provides lots of opportunities for the violence at which he excels.
This book has the New York and Alaska branches of the mob, a Native American gang, internal gang rivalries, neo Nazis, the FBI, cops in league with the mob, drug dealing, freelance thugs and strained families. That was a lot to keep track of. There is the customary tough guy talk common to the genre, but there is humor too, like in the dialogue between Isaiah and Lionel, ex-marine and former mercenary who is now a worker at the Center. The author sometimes tends to wordiness and excessive description. "[New York State] reveals her length and breadth, her mercurial character, by slow degrees. Reveals herself via the shift of sunbeams through the canopies forests still wild at the margins, through the soft sweep of the Appalachians and the Catskills, the Hudson and the Rondout curving gently as a mama's arm around her child." Nevertheless, I liked Isaiah, the plot and action kept me interested and I will probably read the next book in the series.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
Isaiah has been given a cover story to explain his arrival at Hawk Mountain Farm and Center for Symbolic Studies, run by the elderly African American couple Virgil and Jade Walker, both of whom have doctorates in literature and sociology. Their 18 year old granddaughter Reba has a history of getting into trouble and hanging with iffy friends, so she has been sent to live with them for a while. When Reba goes missing, Isaiah agrees to try to find her. However, the search for the girl gets lost in this book, in which there is a little too much going on. Isaiah is not really a detective, he's muscle, and his investigation provides lots of opportunities for the violence at which he excels.
This book has the New York and Alaska branches of the mob, a Native American gang, internal gang rivalries, neo Nazis, the FBI, cops in league with the mob, drug dealing, freelance thugs and strained families. That was a lot to keep track of. There is the customary tough guy talk common to the genre, but there is humor too, like in the dialogue between Isaiah and Lionel, ex-marine and former mercenary who is now a worker at the Center. The author sometimes tends to wordiness and excessive description. "[New York State] reveals her length and breadth, her mercurial character, by slow degrees. Reveals herself via the shift of sunbeams through the canopies forests still wild at the margins, through the soft sweep of the Appalachians and the Catskills, the Hudson and the Rondout curving gently as a mama's arm around her child." Nevertheless, I liked Isaiah, the plot and action kept me interested and I will probably read the next book in the series.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
May 9, 2025
The first of a trilogy, Blood Standard is a hard boiled detective mystery novel with cosmic horror-esque existential dread and a genre debut for Laird Barron, who made a name for himself in the niche corner of Horror's weird fiction, particularly cosmic horror.
Isaiah Coleridge is the protagonist and also the novel's best part. Written with a lot of complexity - The son of an Air Force officer and a Maori woman from New Zealand, inheriting their genes to grow hulkingly big and their fighting traditions but also a philosophical bookworm. That is a lot but the character was well written enough that every facet of the character were believable. Though, he is also one of the flaw, seeing as this novel is written in first person narration and Coleridge does held back information. I get having unreliable narrator, but Coleridge is never portrayed as such. It's not big enough of a flaw to ruin the character or the plot though.
The mystery is simple enough. After Alaska where Isaiah fucked up, trashing a made man and escapes a probable execution, he was exiled to Upstate New York with the mob’s blessing, as long as he doesn’t freelance for any rival outfit. While working on a farm he gets caught up in the search for a teenage girl who's the granddaughter of the farm owners, getting herself in deep with the local bad boys. The simple and somewhat predictable aspect of the mystery and plot is raised up a level simply by having Coleridge in the mix and also by having a wordsmith like Barron writing it. Things get bloody and gory. It's what would happen if you have John Wick as a lead and is almost 7 feet tall, demolishing his path when he's down the rabbit hole. It's filled with classical Greek reference because this is Heracles' journey to the underworld.
Despite being a straight up hardboil thriller, Barron himself also never abandoned the weird literature aspect of his writing. It's there in tone and atmosphere thanks to the excellent prose. There's a creepy pagan festival, desolated cities and industrial area where there are otherworldly unsettling element that he created perfectly. The existential dread that Barron does so well in his horror stories that, more often than not are more terrifying than most modern horror filled with supernatural entities.
It's not a groundbreaker but it never was meant to be one. A way for Barron to get his feet wet on the genre even if Barron himself is just a step away from his horror writings to something of the same ilk of this (Noir, Crime, Mystery) with a lot of his short stories, in particular: Bulldozer, Hand Of Glory or Jaw of Saturn. It was a nice, bloody journey with a weird-horror leanings and great pulpy hardboiled writing that's worth re-reading because how readable and immersive it is. What's not to like about that.
Isaiah Coleridge is the protagonist and also the novel's best part. Written with a lot of complexity - The son of an Air Force officer and a Maori woman from New Zealand, inheriting their genes to grow hulkingly big and their fighting traditions but also a philosophical bookworm. That is a lot but the character was well written enough that every facet of the character were believable. Though, he is also one of the flaw, seeing as this novel is written in first person narration and Coleridge does held back information. I get having unreliable narrator, but Coleridge is never portrayed as such. It's not big enough of a flaw to ruin the character or the plot though.
The mystery is simple enough. After Alaska where Isaiah fucked up, trashing a made man and escapes a probable execution, he was exiled to Upstate New York with the mob’s blessing, as long as he doesn’t freelance for any rival outfit. While working on a farm he gets caught up in the search for a teenage girl who's the granddaughter of the farm owners, getting herself in deep with the local bad boys. The simple and somewhat predictable aspect of the mystery and plot is raised up a level simply by having Coleridge in the mix and also by having a wordsmith like Barron writing it. Things get bloody and gory. It's what would happen if you have John Wick as a lead and is almost 7 feet tall, demolishing his path when he's down the rabbit hole. It's filled with classical Greek reference because this is Heracles' journey to the underworld.
Despite being a straight up hardboil thriller, Barron himself also never abandoned the weird literature aspect of his writing. It's there in tone and atmosphere thanks to the excellent prose. There's a creepy pagan festival, desolated cities and industrial area where there are otherworldly unsettling element that he created perfectly. The existential dread that Barron does so well in his horror stories that, more often than not are more terrifying than most modern horror filled with supernatural entities.
"Sleep came in fits and fragments over the next couple of nights. My dreams were haunted, not by rough seas or tyrants shouting from their thrones but by images of Reba galloping Bacchus into the black mouth of a cave and men in fatigues dropping through the earth into tiger pits. Lionel cried for help and I was afraid to look over the lip of the trap. A man I recognized from a previous incarnation of myself, but whose name I’d forgotten, entreated me from his knees not to shoot him. I pulled the trigger anyway. Tony Flowers leered as I struggled to escape the iron chair. My mother’s body lay, cold and blue, near the water, her lovely face disfigured by a gash from an oar, and Mervin stood in silhouette, the very figure of the Reaper. I dreamed of Achilles sliding against the loose rocks of a cliff, accelerating away from my grasp. We both plummeted into the green abyss of eternity."
It's not a groundbreaker but it never was meant to be one. A way for Barron to get his feet wet on the genre even if Barron himself is just a step away from his horror writings to something of the same ilk of this (Noir, Crime, Mystery) with a lot of his short stories, in particular: Bulldozer, Hand Of Glory or Jaw of Saturn. It was a nice, bloody journey with a weird-horror leanings and great pulpy hardboiled writing that's worth re-reading because how readable and immersive it is. What's not to like about that.
October 2, 2018
BLOOD STANDARD is an outstanding crime novel immersed with style, wit, and pages filled with a tipped-over-barrel of violence. Barron succeeds in telling a compelling page-turning mystery while simultaneously (and most entertainingly) filling out the character of Isaiah Coleridge, a massive bulldozer of brute force with a penchant for wisecracks to cover an underlying river of cunning.
Coleridge does not fear the things most men fear, and the anomaly drives his reputation for being one of the baddest and cold-hearted triggermen in the gangster underworld. But as Barron peels back the layers of who Coleridge is, readers will find themselves becoming increasingly attached to the big man while he shoots, stabs and bludgeons his way to saving an innocent (or perhaps not so innocent).
It's been a helluva long time since I've enjoyed reading a book this much. The language Barron employs is rich but not overly-dense, filled with passages that will make your eyes widen with their acrobatic verbiage and personality. Pages flip themselves and at times I literally put the book down just to slow my reading pace and extend the ride. I didn't want this story to end.
If you're a fan of Hammett, Thompson, Chandler, Ellroy, than this book is for you. A noir steeped deep in humor and blood.
And the best part? There's more to come. Book Two is already in process.
I can't wait.
Coleridge does not fear the things most men fear, and the anomaly drives his reputation for being one of the baddest and cold-hearted triggermen in the gangster underworld. But as Barron peels back the layers of who Coleridge is, readers will find themselves becoming increasingly attached to the big man while he shoots, stabs and bludgeons his way to saving an innocent (or perhaps not so innocent).
It's been a helluva long time since I've enjoyed reading a book this much. The language Barron employs is rich but not overly-dense, filled with passages that will make your eyes widen with their acrobatic verbiage and personality. Pages flip themselves and at times I literally put the book down just to slow my reading pace and extend the ride. I didn't want this story to end.
If you're a fan of Hammett, Thompson, Chandler, Ellroy, than this book is for you. A noir steeped deep in humor and blood.
And the best part? There's more to come. Book Two is already in process.
I can't wait.
April 11, 2018
Time to get fucking excited people! This was an excellent read. I read it in one sitting and only wish I could read it again for the first time. My ridiculously high expectations were met and now I just want that second book in the series.
Isaiah Coleridge is a great protagonist and the kind of well developed hard-boiled character I love to see cinder blocks chucked at. What I mean is, when your hero is this well drawn from the start, like Isaiah is, and you know you're in the hands of a writer like Barron, I for one, just like to hold on and see what shit the author throws at them. A great series character is one you want to continue the journey with after the adventure is over or the mystery is solved. And so I found myself reading with glee, waiting to see how Isaiah would react, what the consequences would be and what comes next. Also worth noting is that Isaiah is joined by the kind of cast of well developed and interesting characters I haven't always found in contemporary mystery or noir.
And the voice, the prose, it's damn good and it's all Barron. There are moments and lines in this book that only he could write and it's a pleasure to read.
I tried to approach reading this like I would if I'd found it at a bookstore without having read any of Laird's other works. And all I could think of while reading this was that I would have been freaking out and telling all the noir perverts and pulp junkies I know to check this guy out.
I'd put this up with some of the best contemporary mystery/neo-noir novels I've read by Dennis Lehane, David Peace, Charlie Huston, and Don Winslow (Not the most diverse list, I know-I need to get reading and am open to suggestions). The only other contemporary mystery/crime novel I've read this good in the past couple years was Jordan Harper's She Rides Shotgun. I'll save more details and quotes when I write a longer review closer to publication day.
Now, for those of you worried about Laird Barron abandoning weird/horror or his roots with this switch to a more straight up hard-boiled mystery or noir novel, all I can say is: grow up. (also he's stated in multiple interviews that he'll still be writing in that vein). This man can write and I love that he's interested in a wide spectrum of fiction and willing to take the risk of writing these books.
I often think about it like music. AC/DC is a great band and I like them but they put out the same album year after year for forty years. Which is great, you can count in them to deliver that same album. But the bands I really love are always the bands that take risks with each album, they grow and take risks
It reminds me of that old Lawrence Block quote about what readers want from a series: The same but... different.
But if you've ever read Laird's work you know that he's not gonna be playing the same song with each story. He's shown that by growing and evolving with his work, I mean look at Swift to Chase. It's not always gonna work for me or you, but wouldn't you much rather have an author continue to develop and break new ground than keep writing the same thing over and over again? Okay rant over.
It might not be your glass of Lagavulin but if you give it a chance I don't think you will regret it. This is gonna be a great series and I can't wait for the next book. Now go preorder this book.
Isaiah Coleridge is a great protagonist and the kind of well developed hard-boiled character I love to see cinder blocks chucked at. What I mean is, when your hero is this well drawn from the start, like Isaiah is, and you know you're in the hands of a writer like Barron, I for one, just like to hold on and see what shit the author throws at them. A great series character is one you want to continue the journey with after the adventure is over or the mystery is solved. And so I found myself reading with glee, waiting to see how Isaiah would react, what the consequences would be and what comes next. Also worth noting is that Isaiah is joined by the kind of cast of well developed and interesting characters I haven't always found in contemporary mystery or noir.
And the voice, the prose, it's damn good and it's all Barron. There are moments and lines in this book that only he could write and it's a pleasure to read.
I tried to approach reading this like I would if I'd found it at a bookstore without having read any of Laird's other works. And all I could think of while reading this was that I would have been freaking out and telling all the noir perverts and pulp junkies I know to check this guy out.
I'd put this up with some of the best contemporary mystery/neo-noir novels I've read by Dennis Lehane, David Peace, Charlie Huston, and Don Winslow (Not the most diverse list, I know-I need to get reading and am open to suggestions). The only other contemporary mystery/crime novel I've read this good in the past couple years was Jordan Harper's She Rides Shotgun. I'll save more details and quotes when I write a longer review closer to publication day.
Now, for those of you worried about Laird Barron abandoning weird/horror or his roots with this switch to a more straight up hard-boiled mystery or noir novel, all I can say is: grow up. (also he's stated in multiple interviews that he'll still be writing in that vein). This man can write and I love that he's interested in a wide spectrum of fiction and willing to take the risk of writing these books.
I often think about it like music. AC/DC is a great band and I like them but they put out the same album year after year for forty years. Which is great, you can count in them to deliver that same album. But the bands I really love are always the bands that take risks with each album, they grow and take risks
It reminds me of that old Lawrence Block quote about what readers want from a series: The same but... different.
But if you've ever read Laird's work you know that he's not gonna be playing the same song with each story. He's shown that by growing and evolving with his work, I mean look at Swift to Chase. It's not always gonna work for me or you, but wouldn't you much rather have an author continue to develop and break new ground than keep writing the same thing over and over again? Okay rant over.
It might not be your glass of Lagavulin but if you give it a chance I don't think you will regret it. This is gonna be a great series and I can't wait for the next book. Now go preorder this book.
November 19, 2024
My first Laird Barron, but it won’t be my last. This was a dark thriller with the kind of determined, unstoppable, but broken hero I love. Isaiah Coleridge is an enforcer for the mob in Alaska who falls out of favour and ends up semi-exiled to rural New York State. There he gets involved in the search for a missing local girl.
It’s a classic mystery set up and Coleridge is a great lead, as capable with his fists as he is with his brain. There’s a wildness to him that always feels only just contained and he takes just as much brutality as he dishes out.
The book’s depiction of America is similar. A wild place where violence (either natural or man made) is never far away.
It’s a great read, gripping, action packed, dark and at times very funny. There’s a richness and thoughtfulness to the prose which you don’t always get in books like this and it makes for a memorable read.
The plot is what keeps you reading but it’s that constant undertone of wildness and brutality that really leaves an impression. Think Jack Reacher by way of Cormac McCarthy.
It’s a classic mystery set up and Coleridge is a great lead, as capable with his fists as he is with his brain. There’s a wildness to him that always feels only just contained and he takes just as much brutality as he dishes out.
The book’s depiction of America is similar. A wild place where violence (either natural or man made) is never far away.
It’s a great read, gripping, action packed, dark and at times very funny. There’s a richness and thoughtfulness to the prose which you don’t always get in books like this and it makes for a memorable read.
The plot is what keeps you reading but it’s that constant undertone of wildness and brutality that really leaves an impression. Think Jack Reacher by way of Cormac McCarthy.
January 10, 2020
O Laird Barron είναι ένας συγγραφέας τρόμου και είναι ο καλύτερος παραγνωρισμένος συγγραφέας τρόμου. Αν ο κόσμος ήταν δίκαιος, δηλαδή αν ο κόσμος είχε τα δικά μου γούστα, ήξερε να διαβάζει και δεν σαχλαμάριζε με ανοησίες, ο Barron θα ήταν γνωστός όσο ο King. Για την ώρα, και αφού τίποτα δεν φαίνεται να αλλάζει, με τον κόσμο να μαστίζεται από την αδικία, τα συμφέροντα των πολυεθνικών και την κακογουστία της μάζας, ο Barron είναι κάποιος που τον ξέρουν κυρίως οι εραστές της λογοτεχνίας τρόμου. Εδώ καταπιάνεται μ' ένα είδος συγγενές αλλά και με το οποίο υφολογικά φλερτάρει κατά καιρούς στις ιστορίες του ο Barron: το hard-boiled αστυνομικό.
Ο ήρωάς του είναι σκληροτράχηλος, ξέρει να κινείτα στην πιάτσα και δεν τρομάζει εύκολα. Κουβαλάει τα δικά του μυστικά, και έχει την τάση να χώνεται εκεί που δεν τον σπέρνουν. Δεν είμαι ανάποδος άνθρωπος με τα πράγματα που αγαπάω. Έτσι φρόντισα να τοποθετήσω αυτήν την σειρά βιβλίων (υπάρχει και δεύτερος τόμος) νοερά σε ένα δημιούργημα που ο Barron έστησε κυρίως για να διασκεδάσει. Οι διάλογοι είναι υψηλοτάτου επιπέδου, όπως πάντα, αλλά λείπει αυτή η υποδόρια αίσθηση πως αυτά που γράφει είναι πολύ λιγότερα από αυτά που αποκρύπτει. Ο τρόμος του, είτε στις συλλογές είτε στα μυθιστορήματά του, είναι μια λογοτεχνία σπάνια σε φινέτσα και βάθος. Εδώ αυτό λείπει.
Το Blood Standard είναι ένα διασκεδαστικό, σκοτεινό, βιβλίο, που θα αγαπήσουν οι λάτρεις του hard-boiled, και που θέλουν μια σύγχρονη εκδοχή του. Τρία αστέρια για ένα καλό βιβλίο, από έναν συγγραφέα-φαινόμενο στον χώρο της λογοτεχνίας τρόμου.
Ο ήρωάς του είναι σκληροτράχηλος, ξέρει να κινείτα στην πιάτσα και δεν τρομάζει εύκολα. Κουβαλάει τα δικά του μυστικά, και έχει την τάση να χώνεται εκεί που δεν τον σπέρνουν. Δεν είμαι ανάποδος άνθρωπος με τα πράγματα που αγαπάω. Έτσι φρόντισα να τοποθετήσω αυτήν την σειρά βιβλίων (υπάρχει και δεύτερος τόμος) νοερά σε ένα δημιούργημα που ο Barron έστησε κυρίως για να διασκεδάσει. Οι διάλογοι είναι υψηλοτάτου επιπέδου, όπως πάντα, αλλά λείπει αυτή η υποδόρια αίσθηση πως αυτά που γράφει είναι πολύ λιγότερα από αυτά που αποκρύπτει. Ο τρόμος του, είτε στις συλλογές είτε στα μυθιστορήματά του, είναι μια λογοτεχνία σπάνια σε φινέτσα και βάθος. Εδώ αυτό λείπει.
Το Blood Standard είναι ένα διασκεδαστικό, σκοτεινό, βιβλίο, που θα αγαπήσουν οι λάτρεις του hard-boiled, και που θέλουν μια σύγχρονη εκδοχή του. Τρία αστέρια για ένα καλό βιβλίο, από έναν συγγραφέα-φαινόμενο στον χώρο της λογοτεχνίας τρόμου.
December 12, 2024
This is part crime novel and part detective novel. The protagonist is a former mob hitman trying to turn over a new leaf, but old habits die hard. However, he turns his skills toward solving a local mystery, which brings him against all sorts of undesirables in the local community. The mystery itself has a bit of an anticlimactic ending, but the journey there was a fun read.
May 17, 2018
The concept of this mob-enforcer turned fixer pseudo detective novel is fascinating. Throw in a diverse lead (half Maori, but 100% badass) who has a weakness for dogs, action the like you would see in a Jason Statham-style movie, violence, gangs, politics, dirty cops, and occasionally laugh out loud dialogue, and BLOOD STANDARD probably deserves all the stars. But I felt pretty removed from the story, perhaps due to the style of writing, or perhaps because for all the seriousness of the plot, nothing actually ever felt too serious?
There are so many additional elements to Barron's series opener that make it feel fresh and fun. There's an Alaskan setting for the first part of the story. A no-holds-barred critique on race and society's propensity to place less importance on crimes against people of colour. A romance arc that is (surprisingly) left mostly in the background. And a love of myths and gods and strangely prophetic dreams.
And yet I still can't rate this higher than middle ground. I'm definitely interested enough to read on if we're to get more Isaiah Coleridge and I would like to think that a familiarity for these characters would help me enjoy future installments more. Guess we'll see!
3.5 stars
** I received an ARC from Edelweiss and the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
There are so many additional elements to Barron's series opener that make it feel fresh and fun. There's an Alaskan setting for the first part of the story. A no-holds-barred critique on race and society's propensity to place less importance on crimes against people of colour. A romance arc that is (surprisingly) left mostly in the background. And a love of myths and gods and strangely prophetic dreams.
And yet I still can't rate this higher than middle ground. I'm definitely interested enough to read on if we're to get more Isaiah Coleridge and I would like to think that a familiarity for these characters would help me enjoy future installments more. Guess we'll see!
3.5 stars
** I received an ARC from Edelweiss and the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
May 21, 2018
Blood Standard might be one of the best crime thrillers I've read in recent years, and while I'd put Isaiah Coleridge in the vein of a Jack Reacher-like protagonist, Laird Barron produces a work of violent noir that wins on its own merits and kept me hooked the whole way through.
Isaiah Coleridge is a Maori/Caucasian-mixed hitter for The Outfit, a mafioso crime syndicate that has assigned him to Alaska to keep the men there from getting into too much trouble. In the book's opening moments, Coleridge ends up making trouble of his own when he's brought into the fold for a sadistic seal hunt that ends with him attacking a made man. After one of The Outfit's higher-ups cashes in a favor, Coleridge finds himself exiled to the Adirondacks in upper New York. Needless to say, trouble once again finds Coleridge when a local girl goes missing, and Isaiah quickly finds himself caught in the crosshairs of the law, mobsters, and warring street gangs. Given the amount of scarring that covers Coleridge's body like a roadmap, this is just another day in the life of Isaiah.
Coleridge is a great big mountain of a man, and violence runs in his blood. Lee Child fans will feel right at home here, although Coleridge is more introspective and philosophical than Child's wandering former MP. College educated, Coleridge is as book smart as he is street wise, fascinated by ancient Greek myth, and the histories of Odysseus and Hercules lend plenty of thematic weight to Blood Standard. Barron's protagonist is one clearly cut from classical cloth, but his wiseguy mouth keeps him firmly rooted in the modern day. Isaiah is an incredibly well-drawn tragic hero, and one with plenty of tough guy wit, as well as a few moments of self-depreciation.
Barron weaves in moments of introspection between a good number of brief action scenes and plenty of tension, surrounding Coleridge with a number of clearly untrustworthy figures with questionable reputations. Coleridge is also given a few well-rounded foils in the love-interest, Meg, and partner-in-crime-cum-heroics, Lionel, a hard-drinking ex-military sort. Isaiah's scenes with these characters help to inform his growth as a man seeking to turn over a new leaf and set his life right. His history, his brushes with death, his exile from The Outfit, and his own firmly established moral code have left Coleridge grasping for a new life, and we get plenty of glimpses of what that life could be, the promises it could hold for him if he does right, how quickly it could fall apart if he steps wrong, and how badly anybody who crosses him will get hurt.
Laird Barron has crafted a terrific new character here, and half-way through Blood Standard I found myself already jonesing for the next book. I'm excited by the prospect of Coleridge's new life and focus, and I'm dying to see what future odysseys ensnare and disrupt him. This is a character that has plenty of legs for a series, and lots of layers left to mine in subsequent entries. And since I've gone and compared Coleridge to Reacher already, let me just say here for the record that I like Reacher a lot. But I like Coleridge a whole lot more.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
Isaiah Coleridge is a Maori/Caucasian-mixed hitter for The Outfit, a mafioso crime syndicate that has assigned him to Alaska to keep the men there from getting into too much trouble. In the book's opening moments, Coleridge ends up making trouble of his own when he's brought into the fold for a sadistic seal hunt that ends with him attacking a made man. After one of The Outfit's higher-ups cashes in a favor, Coleridge finds himself exiled to the Adirondacks in upper New York. Needless to say, trouble once again finds Coleridge when a local girl goes missing, and Isaiah quickly finds himself caught in the crosshairs of the law, mobsters, and warring street gangs. Given the amount of scarring that covers Coleridge's body like a roadmap, this is just another day in the life of Isaiah.
Coleridge is a great big mountain of a man, and violence runs in his blood. Lee Child fans will feel right at home here, although Coleridge is more introspective and philosophical than Child's wandering former MP. College educated, Coleridge is as book smart as he is street wise, fascinated by ancient Greek myth, and the histories of Odysseus and Hercules lend plenty of thematic weight to Blood Standard. Barron's protagonist is one clearly cut from classical cloth, but his wiseguy mouth keeps him firmly rooted in the modern day. Isaiah is an incredibly well-drawn tragic hero, and one with plenty of tough guy wit, as well as a few moments of self-depreciation.
Barron weaves in moments of introspection between a good number of brief action scenes and plenty of tension, surrounding Coleridge with a number of clearly untrustworthy figures with questionable reputations. Coleridge is also given a few well-rounded foils in the love-interest, Meg, and partner-in-crime-cum-heroics, Lionel, a hard-drinking ex-military sort. Isaiah's scenes with these characters help to inform his growth as a man seeking to turn over a new leaf and set his life right. His history, his brushes with death, his exile from The Outfit, and his own firmly established moral code have left Coleridge grasping for a new life, and we get plenty of glimpses of what that life could be, the promises it could hold for him if he does right, how quickly it could fall apart if he steps wrong, and how badly anybody who crosses him will get hurt.
Laird Barron has crafted a terrific new character here, and half-way through Blood Standard I found myself already jonesing for the next book. I'm excited by the prospect of Coleridge's new life and focus, and I'm dying to see what future odysseys ensnare and disrupt him. This is a character that has plenty of legs for a series, and lots of layers left to mine in subsequent entries. And since I've gone and compared Coleridge to Reacher already, let me just say here for the record that I like Reacher a lot. But I like Coleridge a whole lot more.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
April 1, 2018
Laird Barron is one of my favorite writers, and I always snap up every new thing he publishes. Some Barron fans might be nervous, seeing him shift genre focus a bit (though crime lords and gangs and rough dudes and the seedy underbelly have always comprised the greater part of his world), but I say there's nothing to worry about on that count. This still feels like Laird Barron, just a streamlined and slightly more wry or sarcastic version. Blood Standard is completely engaging and satisfying all the way through, and Isaiah Coleridge and the rest of the characters are people I want to keep on following. In short, I loved this. More like this, please!
May 24, 2018
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley to read and review.
BLOOD STANDARD by Laird Barron is about Isaiah Coleridge, who’s father is a descendant from coal miners down south, and mother is a Maori from New Zealand, and is an enforcer for the Chicago division of the Outfit, who’s been assigned to Alaska for some time and finds himself in trouble when he interferes with an illegal hunt for walrus ivory by a made man he’s assigned to.
Vitale Night, the man Isaiah assaults, is a feared hit man for the mob, as is his family members, which places Isaiah in great danger, and puts him in Vitale’s sights after the altercation that almost ends Isaiah’s life following torture until a last minute reprieve by his boss “Uncle”Lucius, who’s also a longtime friend of Isaiah’s father.
Isaiah is reassigned to a farm in upstate New York to keep him out of harm’s way temporarily, as he’s been warned that sooner or later the Chicago mob will be allowed to seek him out for retribution.
Life on the farm and the hard work required helps Isaiah strengthen and recover somewhat from his injuries in Alaska at the hands of Night and his men, but several situations present themselves causing further physical damage, and his life is in even more danger when he tries to prevent an altercation involving a young woman named Reba from the farm who’s been hanging out with local gang bangers and is suspected to have been abducted by them after Isaiah attempts to stop the punks responsible before he blacks out in his weakened state.
Will Isaiah be able to locate and save Reba, and in doing so will he put his own life in further danger?
I really liked this book, and Isaiah as a person due to his heritage and unusual background which makes him a different leading character that works well in the story written by the author.
BLOOD STANDARD is the first book in the Isaiah Coleridge series according to the cover, and I will be looking forward to the next book in this series.
Highly recommended.
5 stars.
BLOOD STANDARD by Laird Barron is about Isaiah Coleridge, who’s father is a descendant from coal miners down south, and mother is a Maori from New Zealand, and is an enforcer for the Chicago division of the Outfit, who’s been assigned to Alaska for some time and finds himself in trouble when he interferes with an illegal hunt for walrus ivory by a made man he’s assigned to.
Vitale Night, the man Isaiah assaults, is a feared hit man for the mob, as is his family members, which places Isaiah in great danger, and puts him in Vitale’s sights after the altercation that almost ends Isaiah’s life following torture until a last minute reprieve by his boss “Uncle”Lucius, who’s also a longtime friend of Isaiah’s father.
Isaiah is reassigned to a farm in upstate New York to keep him out of harm’s way temporarily, as he’s been warned that sooner or later the Chicago mob will be allowed to seek him out for retribution.
Life on the farm and the hard work required helps Isaiah strengthen and recover somewhat from his injuries in Alaska at the hands of Night and his men, but several situations present themselves causing further physical damage, and his life is in even more danger when he tries to prevent an altercation involving a young woman named Reba from the farm who’s been hanging out with local gang bangers and is suspected to have been abducted by them after Isaiah attempts to stop the punks responsible before he blacks out in his weakened state.
Will Isaiah be able to locate and save Reba, and in doing so will he put his own life in further danger?
I really liked this book, and Isaiah as a person due to his heritage and unusual background which makes him a different leading character that works well in the story written by the author.
BLOOD STANDARD is the first book in the Isaiah Coleridge series according to the cover, and I will be looking forward to the next book in this series.
Highly recommended.
5 stars.
August 26, 2019
Táto kniha je ako burger, ktorý si dáte v jednej z tých nóbl reštaurácii, kde vám ho pripraví šéfkuchár, ktorý ovláda minimálne štyri svetové jazyky, tyká si s troma prezidentmi a zaručene vie, kde sa píše ypsilon v slove voulevukušeavekmua, kde vám doň ako prílohu namiesto obschnutého šalátu dajú žeruchu (pretože rukola je sooo 2006), kde mäso má certifikát pôvodu, osvedčenie pravosti, akosti a diplom z klasickej literatúry a ako si tak prezerajúc miestoprísažné vyhlásenie lokálneho farmára, o tom že teľa sa páslo na pasienkoch poblíž Edenu prežúvate čerstvú žemľu, ktorá vám v ústach chrumká s nepatrným francúzskym akcentom, strašne ľutujete, že ste nešli do toho mekáča.
December 24, 2024
What a great surprise this turned out to be! Loved the writing style and the overall feel of this story. Add in a great anti-hero protagonist with a quickpaced mystery to solve and you have this here 4 Star story..
Can't wait to jump into part two!!
runoutandgogetyousomeyo
Can't wait to jump into part two!!
runoutandgogetyousomeyo
May 29, 2018
Whatever else I think about this book - the first in the crime-thriller category by this author - I cannot deny his way with words. Even when the going takes gruesome turns, the main character, Isaiah Coleridge, has the chutzpah of a Raymond Chandler private eye combined with the philosophical musings of the late Robert B. Parker's Spenser.
And that's a good thing; otherwise, Coleridge - once a mob enforcer - wouldn't be a particularly appealing guy. Big, brawny and half Maori, he manages to get on the wrong side of his father and his Chicago mob bosses, who send him north to Alaska. There, his cantankerous genes kick in once again, and he is "retired" to remote Hawk Mountain Farm in upstate New York, where he performs mundane tasks like mucking horse stalls.
Needless to say, the work isn't very challenging, and he misses the hard action of his former life (even he isn't sure whether he prefers getting punched or punching someone else's lights out). Still, he vows not to return to his old ways; but then the Michael Corleone effect kicks in: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."
In truth, "they" really aren't the problem; Isaiah simply doesn't have it in him to stay on the right side of trouble. He runs amok of some nasty characters - basically turning their body parts to mincemeat - and saves a wayward young girl from the clutches of some particularly dastardly dudes. Then, in the midst of his having to deal with enemies old and new, the girl he saved goes missing. That hits Isaiah right in the heart (it's stashed right behind his shoulder holster), and nothing - not broken bones, not bloody knife slashes and certainly not threats of a slow and painful death - will stop him from saving her once again.
This is, I believe, the first of a new series - and yes, it's enjoyable enough that I look forward to the next. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review an advance copy. Well done!
And that's a good thing; otherwise, Coleridge - once a mob enforcer - wouldn't be a particularly appealing guy. Big, brawny and half Maori, he manages to get on the wrong side of his father and his Chicago mob bosses, who send him north to Alaska. There, his cantankerous genes kick in once again, and he is "retired" to remote Hawk Mountain Farm in upstate New York, where he performs mundane tasks like mucking horse stalls.
Needless to say, the work isn't very challenging, and he misses the hard action of his former life (even he isn't sure whether he prefers getting punched or punching someone else's lights out). Still, he vows not to return to his old ways; but then the Michael Corleone effect kicks in: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."
In truth, "they" really aren't the problem; Isaiah simply doesn't have it in him to stay on the right side of trouble. He runs amok of some nasty characters - basically turning their body parts to mincemeat - and saves a wayward young girl from the clutches of some particularly dastardly dudes. Then, in the midst of his having to deal with enemies old and new, the girl he saved goes missing. That hits Isaiah right in the heart (it's stashed right behind his shoulder holster), and nothing - not broken bones, not bloody knife slashes and certainly not threats of a slow and painful death - will stop him from saving her once again.
This is, I believe, the first of a new series - and yes, it's enjoyable enough that I look forward to the next. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review an advance copy. Well done!
Read
August 10, 2025With Blood Standard, Laird Barron takes a break from his trademark cosmic horror stylings to pen a straight crime/thriller novel. And you know what? It was really a lot of fun to read.
Pondering this evolution in the author's literary career, it really is not too drastic a leap... even Barron's earlier Weird tales have a tinge of noir to them, a unique mix that sets them apart from stories by many of his contemporaries. Also, the author himself has stated he reads more crime fiction for enjoyment than he does horror, so it seems natural for him to want to embrace the genre.
Isaiah Coleridge is the main character here, a former mob enforcer in Alaska whose circumstances lead him to investigate a disappearance in his new home of upstate New York. And while he has the outward characteristics of a tough-guy hero, he is also a very intelligent and contemplative man who quotes literature and has a worldly air about him. Indeed Coleridge is a great example of not judging a book by its cover. Of course, he's also very good at hurting people when his job calls for it! And in the course of this book, rest assured it does.
One of the most immediately-noticeable aspects of Blood Standard is the prose. Laird Barron is a skilled wordsmith, and his approach yields such a vivid sense of place:
"I’m comfortable with old, old places, places hostile to evolved life. My longest and best home, Alaska, is such a one: a vast, wind-blasted vista of mountain and river and sea as ancient as the bedrock of the world itself. Large and largely empty. Inhuman, yet aware on some primal frequency. Palpably malevolent in its indifference, Alaska is a land where winter kills off wolves and caribou alike and breeds creeping, deadly cabin fever that does in scores of men and women every year."
And another:
"Brick-and-mortar shops with cracked façades, shuttered warehouses and rusting bridges, moribund churches, tall and sinister upon battle rises, abandoned colonial graveyards, derelict memorials, and overgrown estates of dead-as-dust patrician overseers, all unspooling."
But it's also this prose style which may turn off readers unfamiliar with the author, who are looking for the breezy kind of thriller you might pick up at an airport shop or in the book section of your local supermarket (in fact, I saw it once at Walmart and had to do a double-take... seeing Laird Barron's name in Walmart was more surreal than any strange creature Barron himself might have conjured up!). I personally thought this was an excellent book, but the writing style might slow down the pace for some.
Although Blood Standard is the first in a trilogy, it stands completely on its own, so it's worth giving the story a chance without feeling as though you're committing yourself to three books. That said, I do plan to read the next installments at some point.
Pondering this evolution in the author's literary career, it really is not too drastic a leap... even Barron's earlier Weird tales have a tinge of noir to them, a unique mix that sets them apart from stories by many of his contemporaries. Also, the author himself has stated he reads more crime fiction for enjoyment than he does horror, so it seems natural for him to want to embrace the genre.
Isaiah Coleridge is the main character here, a former mob enforcer in Alaska whose circumstances lead him to investigate a disappearance in his new home of upstate New York. And while he has the outward characteristics of a tough-guy hero, he is also a very intelligent and contemplative man who quotes literature and has a worldly air about him. Indeed Coleridge is a great example of not judging a book by its cover. Of course, he's also very good at hurting people when his job calls for it! And in the course of this book, rest assured it does.
One of the most immediately-noticeable aspects of Blood Standard is the prose. Laird Barron is a skilled wordsmith, and his approach yields such a vivid sense of place:
"I’m comfortable with old, old places, places hostile to evolved life. My longest and best home, Alaska, is such a one: a vast, wind-blasted vista of mountain and river and sea as ancient as the bedrock of the world itself. Large and largely empty. Inhuman, yet aware on some primal frequency. Palpably malevolent in its indifference, Alaska is a land where winter kills off wolves and caribou alike and breeds creeping, deadly cabin fever that does in scores of men and women every year."
And another:
"Brick-and-mortar shops with cracked façades, shuttered warehouses and rusting bridges, moribund churches, tall and sinister upon battle rises, abandoned colonial graveyards, derelict memorials, and overgrown estates of dead-as-dust patrician overseers, all unspooling."
But it's also this prose style which may turn off readers unfamiliar with the author, who are looking for the breezy kind of thriller you might pick up at an airport shop or in the book section of your local supermarket (in fact, I saw it once at Walmart and had to do a double-take... seeing Laird Barron's name in Walmart was more surreal than any strange creature Barron himself might have conjured up!). I personally thought this was an excellent book, but the writing style might slow down the pace for some.
Although Blood Standard is the first in a trilogy, it stands completely on its own, so it's worth giving the story a chance without feeling as though you're committing yourself to three books. That said, I do plan to read the next installments at some point.
July 3, 2018
Barron is a pretty big name in weird fiction (the best subset of horror). I guess he did everything he wanted there, so he tried his hand at crime fiction, noir fiction to be precise! He clearly did his homework as many of the noir tropes are there.
- main character who constantly gets beaten up (remember Chinatown?)
- brutal main character with a chequered and violent past, but ultimately with a heart of gold (Byronic Hero? Knight In Sour Armor?)
- SPOILER
- dirty cops, with lots of police brutality
- lots of mafia, including the main character
- every man drinks hard alcohol and nothing else
- a dying town. This, by the way, is the only part where Barron really falls back into a weird fiction description, the rest of the book is clearly delineated from weird fiction - so completely that it feels like Barron could've adopted a different author name, like Ian Banks a.k.a Ian M. Banks used to do.
The only problem is that not much is being developed past these tropes, it's (mostly!) familiar water if you've read some noir crime novels. It feels like Barron is more testing the water, trying to develop away from weird fiction, seeing whether he can pull off writing an entire novel in a genre he has not much experience with. It clearly works for the reader looking for a crime novel (even though sometimes the language used is too much 'american tough guy' cliche for me), but don't come expecting a) weird fiction, or noir mixed with weird fiction or b) a truly original noir novel. Maybe the next one in the series will allow for more experimentation now that Barron has become more comfortable with the genre?
It is the task of the artist to develop, and the task of the audience to follow along.
- main character who constantly gets beaten up (remember Chinatown?)
- brutal main character with a chequered and violent past, but ultimately with a heart of gold (Byronic Hero? Knight In Sour Armor?)
- SPOILER
- dirty cops, with lots of police brutality
- lots of mafia, including the main character
- every man drinks hard alcohol and nothing else
- a dying town. This, by the way, is the only part where Barron really falls back into a weird fiction description, the rest of the book is clearly delineated from weird fiction - so completely that it feels like Barron could've adopted a different author name, like Ian Banks a.k.a Ian M. Banks used to do.
The only problem is that not much is being developed past these tropes, it's (mostly!) familiar water if you've read some noir crime novels. It feels like Barron is more testing the water, trying to develop away from weird fiction, seeing whether he can pull off writing an entire novel in a genre he has not much experience with. It clearly works for the reader looking for a crime novel (even though sometimes the language used is too much 'american tough guy' cliche for me), but don't come expecting a) weird fiction, or noir mixed with weird fiction or b) a truly original noir novel. Maybe the next one in the series will allow for more experimentation now that Barron has become more comfortable with the genre?
It is the task of the artist to develop, and the task of the audience to follow along.
May 10, 2019
I hate reviews with spoilers so you won't read any here. All you'll get is my humble opinion about the quality of this novel.
Loved it! I'm new to this author and was impressed. Mr. Barron introduced me to my new man crush, Isiah Coleridge. Isiah is half Maori and a modern-day warrior utilizing his skills as a mob enforcer. He’s a killer with a soft spot for animals, especially dogs, and wayward women. I was captivated from start to finish. Plenty of action and enough mystery to keep me enthralled. I hope to see more books featuring Mr. Coleridge. I was chosen to read an advance copy of this book as part of Penguin’s First to Read program. However, the opinions expressed in this review are 100% mine and mine alone.
Loved it! I'm new to this author and was impressed. Mr. Barron introduced me to my new man crush, Isiah Coleridge. Isiah is half Maori and a modern-day warrior utilizing his skills as a mob enforcer. He’s a killer with a soft spot for animals, especially dogs, and wayward women. I was captivated from start to finish. Plenty of action and enough mystery to keep me enthralled. I hope to see more books featuring Mr. Coleridge. I was chosen to read an advance copy of this book as part of Penguin’s First to Read program. However, the opinions expressed in this review are 100% mine and mine alone.
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