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Cicero Grimes #2
Bloodstained Kings
The author's much-anticipated second novel is as powerful and ambitious as its predecessor. Set in New Orleans and the rural South, it is the story of a chain of cataclysmic events let loose by the murder of Clarence Jefferson, a legendary lawman who has gathered a cache of evidence that could imprison corrupt politicians in five states. His last act, it appears, was to hand-pick two people as the unlucky heirs of his potentially explosive evidence files.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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172 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
August 19, 2015
What a discovery. Literate hard-boiled crime. Gentleman's pulp noire. Maybe it's not quite 'No Country For Old Men' by McCarthy and not quite 'Bleeding Edge' by Pynchon, but Tim Willock's writing deserves comparison to the best. The dust jacket also puts him in league with James Ellroy and Stephen Hunter, two other great authors.**** A fast paced psychological thriller, it probably helps that Willock is a doctor of psychology specializing in addiction. Gritty and intense, an excellent book! I still have a copy of his book 'Green River Rising' left to read.
March 22, 2008
I will read anything this man writes. This book reads like adventure poetry.
July 30, 2012
The only character I liked in this book was Gul, the dog. And I don't like dogs.
June 19, 2023
Sull'onda del successo seguito a Il fine ultimo della creazione, ho letto anche questo libro di Tim Willocks, incoraggiato da un amico. Se Il fine ultimo della creazione non mi aveva detto granché, questo mi ha colpito ancora meno.
Il romanzo non ha niente che non vada: storia cruda ma avvincente, personaggi sporchi, scrittura ben strutturata. Tutto ok, solo che non ci ho trovato niente di speciale. Forse sono partito con aspettative troppo alte. Forse non era il momento giusto.
Comunque se si vuole leggere un poliziesco ruvido e un po' pulp, questo è un buon libro a cui rivolgersi.
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Precedente: Solo il mimo canta al limitare del bosco
Successivo: Tutti i miei robot
Il romanzo non ha niente che non vada: storia cruda ma avvincente, personaggi sporchi, scrittura ben strutturata. Tutto ok, solo che non ci ho trovato niente di speciale. Forse sono partito con aspettative troppo alte. Forse non era il momento giusto.
Comunque se si vuole leggere un poliziesco ruvido e un po' pulp, questo è un buon libro a cui rivolgersi.
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Precedente: Solo il mimo canta al limitare del bosco
Successivo: Tutti i miei robot
July 5, 2018
Re macchiati di sangue è un action thriller solido e senza fronzoli; una storia di vendette incrociate con un body count bello alto azzoppata da un protagonista mediocre (quando perfino un cane - per quanto un cane spaccaculi - è più carismatico del tuo personaggio principale c'è qualcosa che non va) e da un finale un po' moscio. Sicuramente migliore del precedente Bad City Blues, ma niente di trascendentale.
April 18, 2019
Wild ride this one.
July 26, 2019
A bit overwrought to elevate a good Southern Gothic towards the epic, but entertaining enough to make it worthwhile.
February 20, 2012
Years back I had a day where I had little to do so first thing after breakfast I sat down to a read a bit of this paperback book Green River Rising by Tim Willocks that I had just bought after seeing it recommended somewhere. It’s the story of a prison uprising and it turned out to be one of the most downright addictive books I’ve ever read. Willocks has pretty unique style that brings a literary sensibility to the lowest depths of human nature but which forges forward with thriller plotting. I finally came up for air in the early evening having read it cover to cover in one sitting. (I had a similar reaction to Iain Banks’ Complicity, reading that in one go too.)
Not too long afterwards I saw the hardback of Blood Stained Kings and immediately bought it. It would be a little while until I managed to get hold of Bad City Blues, Willocks’ first book, but it was eventually republished as a paperback.
Kings is actually a direct sequal to Blues so it was a bit odd to read them in that order. This time I’ve re-read them the right way around.
Set in the southern states of the US, in Blues we are introduced to Cicero Grimes, ex-surgeon and shrink now making an ‘honest’ living putting criminals and other low-life through his custom detox program (Willocks is actually a specialist in addiction himself) and the corrupt police captain Clarence Jefferson. The latter is one of the most powerful and vivid characters I’ve ever encountered, up there with Hannibal Lecter. (Like Lecter he unfortunately has a bit of an destabilising effect on the novels as, though the other characters are great, they can’t quite measure up to the ‘Shithammer’). Physically huge, Jefferson is a distillation of every bad-ass Southern bastard you’ve ever read about or seen. He’s also a fiendish autodidact. And an utterly insane sociopath. Willocks seems to bring a lot of professional expertise to the latter characteristic and the tracts of the novels examining Jefferson’s thought processes are mind-warping to say the least. The action brings in Cicero’s drug smuggler brother, his ex-prostitute girlfriend and her lunatic born-again preacher husband. Everyone is after proceeds of a bank robbery.
Unfortunately Blues is not quite up to the standard of Willocks’ later work. He never goes overboard on plot but it is particularly threadbare here. There’s a protracted integration / torture sequence padded out with lashings of Jefferson’s mad philosophy that goes on for a bit too – it seems like about a quarter of the book – and whilst important to the novel as a whole it does not have to be anywhere that length.
Kings has more plot and more action. It introduces a whole load of new characters – including Grimes’ father a retired Union bruiser and ex-marine, a young female soul singer, a DA who things he’s a bad ass but he’s way out of his depth, a hillbilly pilot who’s thinking of turning Muslim – ‘you get to choose a cool name for yourself’ – and Gul, the greatest canine character in any book I’ve read. This time the maguffin they are all chasing after are Jefferson’s files on all the corruption he’s been involved plus there is a unbelievably twisted revenge story subplot.
It’s not quite as good as Green River Rising though – but then, not a lot is.
Not too long afterwards I saw the hardback of Blood Stained Kings and immediately bought it. It would be a little while until I managed to get hold of Bad City Blues, Willocks’ first book, but it was eventually republished as a paperback.
Kings is actually a direct sequal to Blues so it was a bit odd to read them in that order. This time I’ve re-read them the right way around.
Set in the southern states of the US, in Blues we are introduced to Cicero Grimes, ex-surgeon and shrink now making an ‘honest’ living putting criminals and other low-life through his custom detox program (Willocks is actually a specialist in addiction himself) and the corrupt police captain Clarence Jefferson. The latter is one of the most powerful and vivid characters I’ve ever encountered, up there with Hannibal Lecter. (Like Lecter he unfortunately has a bit of an destabilising effect on the novels as, though the other characters are great, they can’t quite measure up to the ‘Shithammer’). Physically huge, Jefferson is a distillation of every bad-ass Southern bastard you’ve ever read about or seen. He’s also a fiendish autodidact. And an utterly insane sociopath. Willocks seems to bring a lot of professional expertise to the latter characteristic and the tracts of the novels examining Jefferson’s thought processes are mind-warping to say the least. The action brings in Cicero’s drug smuggler brother, his ex-prostitute girlfriend and her lunatic born-again preacher husband. Everyone is after proceeds of a bank robbery.
Unfortunately Blues is not quite up to the standard of Willocks’ later work. He never goes overboard on plot but it is particularly threadbare here. There’s a protracted integration / torture sequence padded out with lashings of Jefferson’s mad philosophy that goes on for a bit too – it seems like about a quarter of the book – and whilst important to the novel as a whole it does not have to be anywhere that length.
Kings has more plot and more action. It introduces a whole load of new characters – including Grimes’ father a retired Union bruiser and ex-marine, a young female soul singer, a DA who things he’s a bad ass but he’s way out of his depth, a hillbilly pilot who’s thinking of turning Muslim – ‘you get to choose a cool name for yourself’ – and Gul, the greatest canine character in any book I’ve read. This time the maguffin they are all chasing after are Jefferson’s files on all the corruption he’s been involved plus there is a unbelievably twisted revenge story subplot.
It’s not quite as good as Green River Rising though – but then, not a lot is.
November 6, 2013
Si vous envisagez de lire du Willocks, sachez que Les rois écarlates fait suite à Bad City Blues, que je n’ai pas lu. Donc, ne faites pas comme moi, lisez-les dans l’ordre, même si ce n’est pas indispensable à la compréhension de l’intrigue, ça aide à mieux situer les personnages et comprendre quelques allusions. Tant pis pour moi !
Les rois écarlates est la quintessence du roman noir glauquissime et hyper violent. L’intrigue démarre tranquillement, mais les choses s’accélèrent pour plonger le lecteur dans un tourbillon de sombre violence. Violence physique, mais aussi violence psychologique. L’action est omniprésente, on ne s’ennuie pas une seconde à suivre les péripéties des personnages, tous plus intéressants les uns que les autres. Chacun supporte sa propre souffrance, aux origines parfois mystérieuses, et survit tant bien que mal. Le charisme de certains protagonistes fait frémir, on regrette alors de ne pas les avoir rencontrés dans Bad City Blues, histoire d’en savoir plus sur leurs casseroles. Willocks explore le Mal et la violence avec autant de talent que dans La religion. Si Les rois écarlates est moins spectaculaire et moins dense, (mais peut-on comparer un polar à une fresque historique ?) le fond reste le même, le terreau de noirceur est bien présent. La vengeance est aussi un thème largement développé ici, elle atteint même le paroxysme du raffinement. On notera aussi la présence d’un personnage canin, qui rappellera au lecteur averti l’amour de l’auteur pour les toutous.
Les rois écarlates est la quintessence du roman noir glauquissime et hyper violent. L’intrigue démarre tranquillement, mais les choses s’accélèrent pour plonger le lecteur dans un tourbillon de sombre violence. Violence physique, mais aussi violence psychologique. L’action est omniprésente, on ne s’ennuie pas une seconde à suivre les péripéties des personnages, tous plus intéressants les uns que les autres. Chacun supporte sa propre souffrance, aux origines parfois mystérieuses, et survit tant bien que mal. Le charisme de certains protagonistes fait frémir, on regrette alors de ne pas les avoir rencontrés dans Bad City Blues, histoire d’en savoir plus sur leurs casseroles. Willocks explore le Mal et la violence avec autant de talent que dans La religion. Si Les rois écarlates est moins spectaculaire et moins dense, (mais peut-on comparer un polar à une fresque historique ?) le fond reste le même, le terreau de noirceur est bien présent. La vengeance est aussi un thème largement développé ici, elle atteint même le paroxysme du raffinement. On notera aussi la présence d’un personnage canin, qui rappellera au lecteur averti l’amour de l’auteur pour les toutous.
January 23, 2018
" C'è troppo odio nel mondo. Ma dovrà pur servire a qualcosa, altrimenti non esisterebbe. "
L'odio. L'odio è il principale motore di questo straordinario libro di Tim Willocks, uscito la prima volta nel 1995 e che ora viene riproposto nella bella collana Revolver.
In una Louisiana violenta e corrotta l'odio sembra muovere tutte le azioni dei personaggi della storia, a partire da Lenna Parillaud, ricchissima vedova che sembra vivere solo per vendicarsi e odiare. Ma si sa, l'altro volto dell'odio è sempre l'amore, un amore così intenso che, quando viene violato, può trasformarsi solo nel suo opposto. Il viaggio che Lenna e lo psichiatra Cicero Grimes fanno dalla Louisiana alla Georgia, alla ricerca dei fantomatici documenti del capitano Jefferson, in realtà è un viaggio alle radici di questo odio, alla ricerca del suo punto di partenza, di quell'<> così amato e perduto. I sentimenti si contrappongono e si mescolano all'interno degli stessi personaggi, fino alla violenta deflagrazione finale.
Willocks racconta una storia sanguinosa e drammatica con uno stile lucido e allo stesso tempo visionario, elegante e intriso di filosofia. Uno stile che rende questo libro ancora di grande bellezza.
L'odio. L'odio è il principale motore di questo straordinario libro di Tim Willocks, uscito la prima volta nel 1995 e che ora viene riproposto nella bella collana Revolver.
In una Louisiana violenta e corrotta l'odio sembra muovere tutte le azioni dei personaggi della storia, a partire da Lenna Parillaud, ricchissima vedova che sembra vivere solo per vendicarsi e odiare. Ma si sa, l'altro volto dell'odio è sempre l'amore, un amore così intenso che, quando viene violato, può trasformarsi solo nel suo opposto. Il viaggio che Lenna e lo psichiatra Cicero Grimes fanno dalla Louisiana alla Georgia, alla ricerca dei fantomatici documenti del capitano Jefferson, in realtà è un viaggio alle radici di questo odio, alla ricerca del suo punto di partenza, di quell'<> così amato e perduto. I sentimenti si contrappongono e si mescolano all'interno degli stessi personaggi, fino alla violenta deflagrazione finale.
Willocks racconta una storia sanguinosa e drammatica con uno stile lucido e allo stesso tempo visionario, elegante e intriso di filosofia. Uno stile che rende questo libro ancora di grande bellezza.
January 8, 2015
This is such an improvement compared to his his first book, Bad City Blues. Some of the same characters are here, in this sequel, but he's done so much more with them as well as his new characters. They have much more complexity. Of particular note is George, the hero Cicero's father, and the lawyer, both ex-Marines, one of WWII and the other of the Korean War. He gives them the grit that such men were made, an austere willingness to offer their lives for something greater than themselves. Willocks is sometimes self-indulgent, still, offering pages of hard-to-understand musings on the inner workings of one or another of his character's motivations, spinning off into cosmic meanders of the meaning of existence, but the flip-side indulgences of jarringly unattractive obscenities is gone. There are a few shocks, but they are of outrageous humor rather than disgust.
There is some beautiful writing, lyric among the dead bodies and the gore, and as another reviewer notes, Gul the dog is the best part of the book.
There is some beautiful writing, lyric among the dead bodies and the gore, and as another reviewer notes, Gul the dog is the best part of the book.
November 8, 2013
In keeping with his first outing in Bad City Blues, in which he was forced to go head to head with the juggernaut that was infamous law enforcement officer, Captain Clarence Jefferson, sometime psychiatrist Eugene `Cicero' Grimes is reluctantly compelled to step into the breach once more as he finds himself enmeshed within the web spun by the machiavellian machinations of the giant fat man.
The story is, as might be expected from anyone familiar with Willocks' work, gut wrenching, visceral stuff characterized by the odd philosophical rumination between lulls in the carnage. Perhaps, it's this seemingly odd juxtaposition of musings on the mysteries of existence and the meaning of life and the frenetic action the major players are forced to engage in by the dark, primal forces that drive them that explains the book's attraction. It's brilliantly written, compellingly page-turning stuff!
The story is, as might be expected from anyone familiar with Willocks' work, gut wrenching, visceral stuff characterized by the odd philosophical rumination between lulls in the carnage. Perhaps, it's this seemingly odd juxtaposition of musings on the mysteries of existence and the meaning of life and the frenetic action the major players are forced to engage in by the dark, primal forces that drive them that explains the book's attraction. It's brilliantly written, compellingly page-turning stuff!
September 6, 2014
J'ai lu La religion et Les 12 enfants de Paris avec un plaisir qui ne s'est à aucun moment démenti. C'est en toute confiance que j'ai commencé Les rois écarlates, et c'est un peu déçue que j'ai fermé le bouquin. Peut-être aurait-il été plus sage de ma part de lire le tome precedent, toujours est-il que je n'ai pas retrouvé ce qui selon moi faisait la beauté des deux romans susnommés. La violence est la, la vengeance et le talent de l'auteur n'est pas amoindri, mais il manque un petit quelque chose qui aurait sans doute fait la différence. Peut-être est-ce Tanhausser que je voulais bien trop retrouver, inconsciemment, quoi que j'en doute. En vérité, il y a selon moi une superficialité dommageable tout au Long de l'ouvrage et qui me fait dire que 200 pages de plus n'auraient pas été du luxe.
Je ne regrette pas ma lecture et considère tout de même ce bouquin comme bon, je regrette seulement d'en avoir trop attendu.
Je ne regrette pas ma lecture et considère tout de même ce bouquin comme bon, je regrette seulement d'en avoir trop attendu.
Want to read
August 13, 2009Cicero Grimes traverse une grave dépression : il n’émerge de sa torpeur que pour prendre conscience du dégoût qu’il s’inspire à lui-même.
Lenna Parillaud vit dans la peine et la souffrance depuis la perte de sa fille.
Seules les humiliations qu’elle inflige à son mari, drogué et enfermé dans une bâtisse du Mississippi, donnent un sens à sa vie. Lenna Parillaud et Cicero Grimes ne se sont jamais rencontrés. Jusqu’au jour où ils reçoivent chacun une lettre qui les entraîne dans un cataclysme de vengeances et de violences.
La Petite Bibliothèque Américaine s'ouvre à d'autres littératures (auteurs français, francophones ou étrangers) et devient La Petite Bibliothèque de l'Olivier.
Lenna Parillaud vit dans la peine et la souffrance depuis la perte de sa fille.
Seules les humiliations qu’elle inflige à son mari, drogué et enfermé dans une bâtisse du Mississippi, donnent un sens à sa vie. Lenna Parillaud et Cicero Grimes ne se sont jamais rencontrés. Jusqu’au jour où ils reçoivent chacun une lettre qui les entraîne dans un cataclysme de vengeances et de violences.
La Petite Bibliothèque Américaine s'ouvre à d'autres littératures (auteurs français, francophones ou étrangers) et devient La Petite Bibliothèque de l'Olivier.
June 10, 2009
this is a tremendous book. It's a manly book too, all about doing the right thing at any cost and standing up for friends and family even when it seems impossible. It's about the horrible things people do for love and about finding forgiveness in the strangest places. It's also about explosions and shootings and toughness and hard men doing hard things for reasons that sometimes only they can understand.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
April 2, 2016
A British doctor writing noir fiction set in the deep South. Not as good as Willocks debut novel, Green River Rising, although similar in style and even one plot device (the scorned wife imprisoning and torturing her evil husband after faking his death). A page-turner, but many of the characters felt underdeveloped.
Read
June 30, 2015La suite hallucinée des aventures du Dr. Grimes, de son père avec dans l'ombre la figure de Clarence Jefferson, flic corrompu incarnation du mal http://leblogdupolar.blogspot.com/201...
March 8, 2009
Complicated plot, race issues key to the story line, as well as power, corruption and just plain insanity. Interesting read, good writing.
Want to read
October 2, 2012I've recently met this author at a book festival, and he completely won me over. Can't wait to see if his books will as well!
December 12, 2012
Grim picture of depression era Louisiana. The plot was fairly predictable, but his writing style reminded me of old Black & White noir films.
August 1, 2013
way good for a book i picked up used cuz of the title
July 4, 2016
Willocks is a bloodstained king. An unforgettable novel
January 2, 2021
I read Tim Willocks' "Green River Rising" several years ago and really enjoyed it. This one, not so much...
January 22, 2016
This book reads like a bad action movie.
May 1, 2017
DNF after part 3.
Loved the writing. It was almost too good; the characterization of evil was too disturbing for me. Couldn't find the stomach to finish.
Loved the writing. It was almost too good; the characterization of evil was too disturbing for me. Couldn't find the stomach to finish.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews