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Henry Hobbes
El Rey Perdido
El 25 de agosto de 1974 la estrella de glam rock Lucas Bell, más conocido como el Rey Perdido, murió en trágicas circunstancias, dejando tras de sí un aura de leyenda. Siete años después, en 1981, uno de sus más devotos seguidores es asesinado. En su cara, han marcado con sangre los símbolos con los que Bell aparecía maquillado en su último disco. El caso es asignado al inspector Henry Hobbes, un policía sobrio y metódico, pero odiado por sus compañeros, que lo responsabilizan de la muerte de un colega. En un país sombrío gobernado férreamente por Margaret Thatcher, Hobbes se encamina hacia un submundo que ni siquiera podría llegar a imaginar.
EL FENÓMENO FAN NUNCA ES INOCENTE.
EL FENÓMENO FAN NUNCA ES INOCENTE.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 24, 2019
11 people are currently reading
397 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Noon
57 books862 followersJeff Noon is a novelist, short story writer and playwright whose works make extensive use of wordplay and fantasy.
He studied fine art and drama at Manchester University and was subsequently appointed writer in residence at the city's Royal Exchange theatre. But Noon did not stay too long in the theatrical world, possibly because the realism associated with the theatre was not conducive to the fantastical worlds he was itching to invent. While working behind the counter at the local Waterstone's bookshop, a colleague suggested he write a novel. The result of that suggestion,
Vurt, was the hippest sci-fi novel to be published in Britain since the days of Michael Moorcock in the late sixties.
Like Moorcock, Noon is not preoccupied with technology per se, but incorporates technological developments into a world of magic and fantasy.
As a teenager, Noon was addicted to American comic heroes, and still turns to them for inspiration. He has said that music is more of an influence on his writing than novelists: he 'usually writes to music', and his record collection ranges from classical to drum'n'bass.
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May 30, 2022
Jeff Noon told an interviewer that he always wanted to write straight crime fiction but bizarre images and crazy scenes kept pulling him off in wild and weird ways. Thus we have, among others, the author's four Nyquist private eye novels. However, Slow Motion Ghosts is very much straight crime fiction. In many ways, a reader will be reminded of Tana French, Arnaldur Indriðason and Jo Nesbø.
The novel's opening chapter takes place on April 11, 1981, "Bloody Saturday," the day of the Brixton riot, a series of clashes between mostly black youths and the Metropolitan Police in Brixton, London. Jeff Noon's fictional Detective Inspector Harry Hobbes finds himself at the epicenter of the violent fray.
Chapter Two opens with a murder scene: four months hence, August 1981, DI Hobbes enters a semi-detached house in the affluent London suburb of Richmond to find the dead body of twenty-six-year-old Brendan Clarke. The young man's face is sliced up as if to create a gruesome, macabre mask. Hobbes discovers a record playing a song from Backstreet Harlequin by Lucas Bell, a singer Hobbes recognizes from the previous decade's glam rock era. The detective also comes across sheets of paper filled with perhaps poetry or song lyrics and the signature of Lucas Bell added to the bottom of each sheet.
As for why the bizarre murder, that's for Jeff Noon to tell. I'll make a quick shift to a key underlying theme running throughout the entire novel: What it means to be an outsider.
HARRY HOBBES
Following his initial visit to the murder scene and his first emotionally high voltage interview with a young woman very much part of Brendan Clarke's life, DI Hobbes walks down the side passage toward his flat only to find the word SCUM scrawled in red paint across the panels of the door. Who would have done such a thing? Hobbes knows everyone on the police force hates him, for his odd ways, his attitude, and most of all for what had happened to DI Jenkins in the aftermath of the Brixton riot.
Oh, yes, DI Jenkins, his onetime best friend. We're not clued in on the details of what exactly transpired until many chapters later but Harry Hobbes is now a man who stands alone, a despised outsider. And in addition to his job, his personal life is a shambles: Hobbes left his family home once any remaining love between himself and his wife had grown icy cold and his teenage son Martin ran away and remains missing.
Hobbes tells someone he judges redemption an impossibility as he's simply seen way too much human cruelty and depravity. Hearing this, his interlocutor asks the detective if he takes after his namesake, philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who famously stated men and women are essentially evil and brutish. The detective's words: "It's one way of looking at it."
BRENDAN CLARKE
Turns out, Brendan Clarke was the lead singer in the rock group Monsoon Monsoon. As part of their investigation, Hobbes and another officer speak with the band's drummer.
"The drummer was in his early twenties. Jet-black hair, long on top, cropped at the side, gelled into a weird shape like something out of a science fiction movie. He wore a lilac shirt, a paisley silk scarf and close-fitting purple trousers, the bright colours set against the pallid grey of his face. He was fidgety, wound up, his eyes focused on an ever-moving dot some few feet ahead of him."
The deeper Hobbes probes, the more he comes to appreciate just how alienated from mainstream society these young people who are part of the glam rock scene. A common thread: as kids and as teenagers, they were seen as the weaklings, prime victims for bullying, beatings and humiliation. Is it any wonder they gravitated to drugs, radical fashion and a form of music that spoke to their status as outsiders?
LUCAS BELL
Lucas Bell strutted and sang as a top 1970s glam rocker, right up there with the likes of David Bowie. Bell's suicide in his twenties proved traumatic for thousands of his avid fans. There was one part of Lucas Bell's performance raised to the level of the sacred: when Bell wore his King Lost mask. But, wait, did Lucas Bell really commit suicide or was he murdered?
Guess who counts as a fanatical, obsessive Lucas Bell fan, a man who even created a fanzine dedicated to the rocker? Of course, Brendan Clarke. Hobbes speaks with a Lucas Bell fan about the Monsoon Monsoon concert the very night when Brendan Clarke was murdered. Here's what she tells the detective:
"I stayed at a friend's place in London after the gig. But I couldn't sleep. I kept having these terrible thoughts. So I got up very early and took the tube over to Brendan's house. I wanted to talk to him, that's all. I hated him for what he'd done at the gig, taking on the spirit of King Lost like that. It's not fair. It shouldn't be allowed."
What! Brendan Clarke actually wore the King Lost mask during his performance? Sacrilege!
RACE
If women and men think of their England as the proud land of white Brits, where does that leave individuals living in cities like London who are from African or Afro-Caribbean decent? Will they be forever outsiders? The novel address this sensitive topic.
WEIRD AND WEIRDER
Again, Slow Motion Ghosts is straight crime fiction, right up there with In the Woods, Jar City and The Snowman. Nevertheless, Jeff Noon does infuse generous dollops of the freaky and even the occult, things like tarot cards and references to Aleister Crowley. I echo what Tony White had to say in The Guardian:
"Slow Motion Ghosts is his first crime novel, and it’s a belter. Hobbes’s journey into the underworlds of occult obsession and police violence is rich in social and subcultural detail, and Noon’s storytelling is assured and compelling."
British author Jeff Noon, born 1957
June 19, 2020
Una investigación clásica que mejora por el entorno en el que se desarrolla, el gobierno de Thatcher, la violencia policial y el racismo.
October 23, 2019
Remember the song "The End" by The Doors? It was constantly in my head while reading this book. I think it captures the mood of the story perfectly.
In fact, this book is about the death of a rockstar from the seventies.
Enter the early eighties, just a few months after the Brixton Riots in London. The body of the singer of a coverband is found. Murder or suicide, not quite clear, but the crime scene reminds the police of this other singer found dead in the seventies. Time to investigate both incidents and find out if there is a connection.
The story is well crafted and moves effortlessly from one time period to the other.
I liked the dark atmosphere, the mystic scenery of Hastings and the imaginary village created by teens.
There are just too many characters involved, both in the police force and in the music scene.
On top of that there is a third part to this tale that covers the Brixton Riots.
Although the book has a pleasant enough pace, it took me a long time to finish and I still haven't figured out all the characters.
Thank you Netgalley and Black Swan for the ARC.
In fact, this book is about the death of a rockstar from the seventies.
Enter the early eighties, just a few months after the Brixton Riots in London. The body of the singer of a coverband is found. Murder or suicide, not quite clear, but the crime scene reminds the police of this other singer found dead in the seventies. Time to investigate both incidents and find out if there is a connection.
The story is well crafted and moves effortlessly from one time period to the other.
I liked the dark atmosphere, the mystic scenery of Hastings and the imaginary village created by teens.
There are just too many characters involved, both in the police force and in the music scene.
On top of that there is a third part to this tale that covers the Brixton Riots.
Although the book has a pleasant enough pace, it took me a long time to finish and I still haven't figured out all the characters.
Thank you Netgalley and Black Swan for the ARC.
August 21, 2021
Todos los clichés del género policial mal enlazados. No me gustó, me costó terminarlo y los personajes me resultaron insulsos y poco convincentes. Una portada muy buena, una temática que me encanta y sin embargo me resultó un embole.
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January 3, 2019After a long period under the radar, Jeff Noon's last two books were a sort of slipstream noir; alas, I was sufficiently underwhelmed by the first not to even attempt the second. This time out he's written a straight crime book, which could easily have been even further from the things which made his work around the turn of the millennium such a touchstone for me. Hell, there's not even any techno-weirdness; we open on the 1981 Brixton riots, before moving a few months and a few SW postcodes to Richmond, where Detective inspector hobbes* enters the ramshackle house lowering the tone of a middle class street to find a body. And already there's something unsettling at the edges, something distinctly Jeff Noon but also, given this context, reminiscent of the grim investigations of Derek Raymond's Factory novels. This mood will return about halfway through the book, as the investigation digs into other crimes a decade earlier, which seem to have some bearing on the recent killing, and which circle around the shared fantasy of the weird kids in a small town and the librarian who was their unsound mentor. And in these strands of the novel, their sense of unease and complicity, I was reminded of how good Noon can be. At least until the ending, which is seldom my favourite bit of a novel, especially a crime novel, but here felt especially tacked on to what had gone before.
In between, though, one has to struggle through a lot of deeply trying material about fictional musicians.
Now, you might object that Noon's work has often had nonexistent scenes or acts at the heart of the story, and you'd be quite correct. But in his early books he was creating these scenes or acts for stories set nowish, or in the future – an entirely legitimate creative gesture, and one for which he had a real knack. Here, though, he's altering music history – dead glam rocker Lucas Bell is a transparent Bowie/Bolan stand-in, and his freshly murdered fan/emulator Brendan Clarke is a sort-of-but-not-quite New Romantic cult figure. The most obvious problem with this is that Bell's Ziggy Stardust-style celebrity persona, King Lost, is just a bit rubbish. Nothing we hear about the image or the lyrics has the right note of seductive strangeness; it all sounds a bit teenage, and not in the good sense. Deeper even than that, though – you can't just swap bands out of history and keep the rest of the history the same. To stick with the example of Bowie, something like Velvet Goldmine is fine, because there the whole world is different; every band has changed, and the world beyond music is likewise a fairground mirror reflection of ours, recognisable but not. Here, though, or in any story stabbing at realism...if you try to change the history of art, but leave the world the same, you're saying art is without impact on the world. Which is fine in litfic novels about nonexistent litfic novelists, because most litfic is fundamentally interchangeable and impactless, extruded simulacra of meaningful literature. But swap out a pop star who mattered to millions for a pallid imitation? Within your art, you're unpicking the very foundation of the project of art. I've seen it carried off once or twice, where something like Iain Banks' Espedair Street finds a crack in the seventies big enough to hold one significant but unfashionable band. Here, though...it never settles right. Not with someone as weighty as Bowie gone, but the world proceeding unchanged.
*Never capitalised, and the capitalisation is recurringly weird on other words too. Perhaps this is a sign that while the SF elements of Noon's earlier books may have gone, the textual tricksiness remains; perhaps it's just the sort of odd textual corruption you sometimes get with a Netgalley ARC. Or perhaps if there's one thing we should have learned from Cobralingus et al, it's that the distinction isn't even meaningful.
In between, though, one has to struggle through a lot of deeply trying material about fictional musicians.
Now, you might object that Noon's work has often had nonexistent scenes or acts at the heart of the story, and you'd be quite correct. But in his early books he was creating these scenes or acts for stories set nowish, or in the future – an entirely legitimate creative gesture, and one for which he had a real knack. Here, though, he's altering music history – dead glam rocker Lucas Bell is a transparent Bowie/Bolan stand-in, and his freshly murdered fan/emulator Brendan Clarke is a sort-of-but-not-quite New Romantic cult figure. The most obvious problem with this is that Bell's Ziggy Stardust-style celebrity persona, King Lost, is just a bit rubbish. Nothing we hear about the image or the lyrics has the right note of seductive strangeness; it all sounds a bit teenage, and not in the good sense. Deeper even than that, though – you can't just swap bands out of history and keep the rest of the history the same. To stick with the example of Bowie, something like Velvet Goldmine is fine, because there the whole world is different; every band has changed, and the world beyond music is likewise a fairground mirror reflection of ours, recognisable but not. Here, though, or in any story stabbing at realism...if you try to change the history of art, but leave the world the same, you're saying art is without impact on the world. Which is fine in litfic novels about nonexistent litfic novelists, because most litfic is fundamentally interchangeable and impactless, extruded simulacra of meaningful literature. But swap out a pop star who mattered to millions for a pallid imitation? Within your art, you're unpicking the very foundation of the project of art. I've seen it carried off once or twice, where something like Iain Banks' Espedair Street finds a crack in the seventies big enough to hold one significant but unfashionable band. Here, though...it never settles right. Not with someone as weighty as Bowie gone, but the world proceeding unchanged.
*Never capitalised, and the capitalisation is recurringly weird on other words too. Perhaps this is a sign that while the SF elements of Noon's earlier books may have gone, the textual tricksiness remains; perhaps it's just the sort of odd textual corruption you sometimes get with a Netgalley ARC. Or perhaps if there's one thing we should have learned from Cobralingus et al, it's that the distinction isn't even meaningful.
December 19, 2018
I’m a fan of this author after the quirky mind blowing Nyquist novels, this time he enters the world of more grounded mystery but still that noir feel and off kilter sense remains. I loved this.
The setting is evocative, in the time of the Brixton riots, when the police were objects of suspicion, casual racism was rife and Thatcher was in her prime. Into this comes Henry Hobbes, already at odds with the world he lives in, ahead of his time in many ways. A shocking murder will test his will and nothing about it is quite as it seems…
The whole novel has an edgy, melancholy feel to it, it is as twisted as you could ask for in it’s plot and there is a haunting sense of authenticity throughout. The power of celebrity and the mythology that can surround some of life’s enigmatic characters is a strong theme here, one that absorbs our main protagonist into a world beneath the one he knows and one that is just as seductive to the reader as it is to Henry Hobbes.
Jeff Noon captures a sense of that era with gorgeous immersive writing and strongly built fascinating characters, then defies the usual crime novel tropes and goes entirely in his own direction. This is not a whodunit so much as it is an exploration of the human psyche and it is both sad and kind of beautiful at the same time.
Unpredictable and very very clever.
Highly Recommended.
The setting is evocative, in the time of the Brixton riots, when the police were objects of suspicion, casual racism was rife and Thatcher was in her prime. Into this comes Henry Hobbes, already at odds with the world he lives in, ahead of his time in many ways. A shocking murder will test his will and nothing about it is quite as it seems…
The whole novel has an edgy, melancholy feel to it, it is as twisted as you could ask for in it’s plot and there is a haunting sense of authenticity throughout. The power of celebrity and the mythology that can surround some of life’s enigmatic characters is a strong theme here, one that absorbs our main protagonist into a world beneath the one he knows and one that is just as seductive to the reader as it is to Henry Hobbes.
Jeff Noon captures a sense of that era with gorgeous immersive writing and strongly built fascinating characters, then defies the usual crime novel tropes and goes entirely in his own direction. This is not a whodunit so much as it is an exploration of the human psyche and it is both sad and kind of beautiful at the same time.
Unpredictable and very very clever.
Highly Recommended.
May 11, 2022
The overall plot was intriguing and unique but somehow the story just didn’t grab me. I feel this is Jeff Noon’s first traditional fictional book. I’ve loved his speculative/science fiction. I’ll be interested to see what type of book he writes next.
February 13, 2019
One of the finest crime novels I've read in a long time. Set just after the Brixton riots, Detective Inspector Hobbes has been sent to a new police station in London (there has been controvesy at his previous station). The brutal murder of a musician tests him and the men and women who find themselves working with Hobbes, who is a pariah to those around him.
Noon captures the period perfectly, I love the blend of 70's glam rock and the upheaval created by Thatcher's government, riots, mass unemployment and how the Tories created social imbalance and social injustice.
Am looking forward to the next outing of Hobbes and his team.
Noon captures the period perfectly, I love the blend of 70's glam rock and the upheaval created by Thatcher's government, riots, mass unemployment and how the Tories created social imbalance and social injustice.
Am looking forward to the next outing of Hobbes and his team.
June 10, 2020
In 1981 a Met DI shunned by his brother police due to his involvement in an Internal Affairs action becomes involved in the occult murder of musicians.
My dead tree copy of the book was a modest 385 pages. It had a 2019 UK copyright.
Jeff Noon is an British author of science fiction and fantasy novels. He has written more than ten (10) novels stand alone and in series. He has also written many short stories. This is the second novel of the author's that I have read. I have also read several of his short stories. This is the author’s first crime novel.
I’m a sucker for British crime novels. In addition, I typically enjoy crime novels with pop/rock music woven into the mystery. This book is that. Taking place in 1981, I thought that the model for the deceased rock star was Ian Curtis. However, the eventual model was more David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust inspired. That worked for me too.
In the story, its 1981. A Metropolitan Police (London), Murder, Detective Inspector is shunned by his brother officers because of an internal affairs investigation on racism and violent behavior he initiated. Life with his family and police officer friends falls apart. He’s shunted off to the suburbs to molder away. Serendipitously, he quickly pulls the bizarre, murder and mutilation of a cover band musician. The murder leads the investigation back to the suicide of the cover band’s mimicked rock star artist. An occult serial killer is flushed. In parallel to this there is an off the books investigation of the racist, bent coppers of the IA investigation.
Noon is a good writer with a lot of seasoning. Dialog and descriptive prose were good. Action sequences were compact and well-wrought. The story contained a modicum of sex, drugs and of course rock ‘n roll. The sex is discussed and not enacted. There is drinking, smoking and discussion of both hard and soft-core drug usage. I would have liked to have heard some of the songs whose lyrics appeared in the story. Violence was edged-weapon and physical. It was moderately graphic, but well done. Body count was higher than the genre's British norm. I found one piece of adopted technique to be annoying. Several times the author would end a scene with a revealed clue. The clue would be a snippet of conversation or a piece of evidence. Noon would purposely withhold, what was said or what was discovered from the reader. A couple of chapters later the information would be introduced in full. I got tired of this faux suspense pretty quickly.
Characters were good, but not great. There were an oddly large number of female characters for a story by a male author. There was a single, POV with DI Henry Hobbes being the protagonist. Hobbes is Hobbesian with regard to viewing humanity as innately selfish and cruel. He leads the murder investigation while pursued by his own demons. There were a lot of characters used only briefly for reader obfuscation. The better civilian supporting characters tended to end-up dead. However, in-general the characters were a bit thin and relied on well-known genre tropes. For example, Hobbe’s Major Investigation Team (MIT) could be found in any Brit police procedural. However, I think they were still called ‘Murder Squads’ in the early 1980’s?
Plotting was OK. It was split into three (3) main threads: The musician murders, the bent, racist brother cops, and Hobbes’ PTSD as a result of the events surrounding his ostracism. The musician murders was the main story line. It was reasonably well done. However, the introduction of the perp was very late and unexpected. Hobbe’s re-introduction to his former band-of-brothers, was lightweight. It felt very bolted on and not like part of the book’s structure. It also ended too neatly and melodramatically. Hobbes’ demons artfully haunt him throughout the story, but the story’s end didn’t convince me they were exorcised. Questions remained, like “What about Hobbe’s oft mentioned estranged wife and son?” One part I really liked was the string he tied around his ankle to prevent sleep walking. I found the several times he forgot he was tethered to his bed to be funny.
The 1981 world building was good. Frankly, I can’t remember the early 1980's. That there were no cell phones was the largest, noticeable difference from today. The missing lappys were less obvious. The vehicles were all in period. Bloke attire appeared to be correct. I didn’t realize how classic a G9 Harrington Jacket by Baracuta was? Musician and fan attire, transcends time. There was no mention of mullets or ‘Big Hair’. I thought it was interesting that this story didn't have an all-London locale. The use of the East Sussex town of Hastings mixed things up a bit.
I did have an issue with Noon’s police process and procedure. Police procedures keep them safe and ensure convictions. Hobbe’s ‘off the books’ investigation aside, police never interview a suspect or witness alone. An experienced DI would not do that. Too many times, Hobbe’s plunged ahead without backup or support. Although, when he did have a partner they tended to be ineffective. This increased the drama at risk of the protagonist's life and limb. Police work is more methodical to spare loss of limbs.
Noon is known as a good science fiction writer. (He is.) His first stab at the murder mystery/police procedural genre was only OK. Writing-wise it was good. Noon is a seasoned wordsmith. He also brought some interesting ideas to the genre. For example, his occult, underworld, of music fandom was well done. His knowledge of music was solid and enriched the story. The story’s police violence and racism was oddly topical with recent protests of racism and police violence. The 1980’s cultural and counter cultural detail appeared about right. However, I’m familiar with Met police procedures. Noon’s police didn’t consistently act like the trained and experienced coppers they were. Noon needed to cleave closer to police processes and procedures. There would be less drama, but it would have been a better story.
My dead tree copy of the book was a modest 385 pages. It had a 2019 UK copyright.
Jeff Noon is an British author of science fiction and fantasy novels. He has written more than ten (10) novels stand alone and in series. He has also written many short stories. This is the second novel of the author's that I have read. I have also read several of his short stories. This is the author’s first crime novel.
I’m a sucker for British crime novels. In addition, I typically enjoy crime novels with pop/rock music woven into the mystery. This book is that. Taking place in 1981, I thought that the model for the deceased rock star was Ian Curtis. However, the eventual model was more David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust inspired. That worked for me too.
In the story, its 1981. A Metropolitan Police (London), Murder, Detective Inspector is shunned by his brother officers because of an internal affairs investigation on racism and violent behavior he initiated. Life with his family and police officer friends falls apart. He’s shunted off to the suburbs to molder away. Serendipitously, he quickly pulls the bizarre, murder and mutilation of a cover band musician. The murder leads the investigation back to the suicide of the cover band’s mimicked rock star artist. An occult serial killer is flushed. In parallel to this there is an off the books investigation of the racist, bent coppers of the IA investigation.
Noon is a good writer with a lot of seasoning. Dialog and descriptive prose were good. Action sequences were compact and well-wrought. The story contained a modicum of sex, drugs and of course rock ‘n roll. The sex is discussed and not enacted. There is drinking, smoking and discussion of both hard and soft-core drug usage. I would have liked to have heard some of the songs whose lyrics appeared in the story. Violence was edged-weapon and physical. It was moderately graphic, but well done. Body count was higher than the genre's British norm. I found one piece of adopted technique to be annoying. Several times the author would end a scene with a revealed clue. The clue would be a snippet of conversation or a piece of evidence. Noon would purposely withhold, what was said or what was discovered from the reader. A couple of chapters later the information would be introduced in full. I got tired of this faux suspense pretty quickly.
Characters were good, but not great. There were an oddly large number of female characters for a story by a male author. There was a single, POV with DI Henry Hobbes being the protagonist. Hobbes is Hobbesian with regard to viewing humanity as innately selfish and cruel. He leads the murder investigation while pursued by his own demons. There were a lot of characters used only briefly for reader obfuscation. The better civilian supporting characters tended to end-up dead. However, in-general the characters were a bit thin and relied on well-known genre tropes. For example, Hobbe’s Major Investigation Team (MIT) could be found in any Brit police procedural. However, I think they were still called ‘Murder Squads’ in the early 1980’s?
Plotting was OK. It was split into three (3) main threads: The musician murders, the bent, racist brother cops, and Hobbes’ PTSD as a result of the events surrounding his ostracism. The musician murders was the main story line. It was reasonably well done. However, the introduction of the perp was very late and unexpected. Hobbe’s re-introduction to his former band-of-brothers, was lightweight. It felt very bolted on and not like part of the book’s structure. It also ended too neatly and melodramatically. Hobbes’ demons artfully haunt him throughout the story, but the story’s end didn’t convince me they were exorcised. Questions remained, like “What about Hobbe’s oft mentioned estranged wife and son?” One part I really liked was the string he tied around his ankle to prevent sleep walking. I found the several times he forgot he was tethered to his bed to be funny.
The 1981 world building was good. Frankly, I can’t remember the early 1980's. That there were no cell phones was the largest, noticeable difference from today. The missing lappys were less obvious. The vehicles were all in period. Bloke attire appeared to be correct. I didn’t realize how classic a G9 Harrington Jacket by Baracuta was? Musician and fan attire, transcends time. There was no mention of mullets or ‘Big Hair’. I thought it was interesting that this story didn't have an all-London locale. The use of the East Sussex town of Hastings mixed things up a bit.
I did have an issue with Noon’s police process and procedure. Police procedures keep them safe and ensure convictions. Hobbe’s ‘off the books’ investigation aside, police never interview a suspect or witness alone. An experienced DI would not do that. Too many times, Hobbe’s plunged ahead without backup or support. Although, when he did have a partner they tended to be ineffective. This increased the drama at risk of the protagonist's life and limb. Police work is more methodical to spare loss of limbs.
Noon is known as a good science fiction writer. (He is.) His first stab at the murder mystery/police procedural genre was only OK. Writing-wise it was good. Noon is a seasoned wordsmith. He also brought some interesting ideas to the genre. For example, his occult, underworld, of music fandom was well done. His knowledge of music was solid and enriched the story. The story’s police violence and racism was oddly topical with recent protests of racism and police violence. The 1980’s cultural and counter cultural detail appeared about right. However, I’m familiar with Met police procedures. Noon’s police didn’t consistently act like the trained and experienced coppers they were. Noon needed to cleave closer to police processes and procedures. There would be less drama, but it would have been a better story.
February 13, 2019
One of the finest crime novels I've read in a long time. Set just after the Brixton riots, Detective Inspector Hobbes has been sent to a new police station in London (there has been controvesy at his previous station). The brutal murder of a musician tests him and the men and women who find themselves working with Hobbes, who is a pariah to those around him.
Noon captures the period perfectly, I love the blend of 70's glam rock and the upheaval created by Thatcher's government, riots, mass unemployment and how the Tories created social imbalance and social injustice.
Am looking forward to the next outing of Hobbes and his team.
Noon captures the period perfectly, I love the blend of 70's glam rock and the upheaval created by Thatcher's government, riots, mass unemployment and how the Tories created social imbalance and social injustice.
Am looking forward to the next outing of Hobbes and his team.
May 26, 2019
I think maybe I need a new shelf for 'disappointing crime novels' as I seem to have read so many recently. Given Noon's admirable track record in science fiction I had high hopes for this but alas they were not to be fulfilled. Despite it's 400 or so pages it all just seems very sketchy, plot, characters, setting all very much underwritten. It's not just I didn't care what happened to the characters but that I could barely remember who they were from chapter to chapter. Adding to the mess there's a semi-detached subplot about a dodgy policeman thrown in for no apparent reason. Noon can and has done much better than this, maybe he should stick to the day job.
January 8, 2019
*** Disclosure - I received a free advance copy of this book from netgalley in return for an honest review ***
Jeff Noon is a writer of speculative fiction who has been on my reading list for some time (not through recommendation, but through finding his books in discount shops and liking the sound of them). Here he travels somewhat less speculative ground, telling the tale of a murder investigation during the aftermath of the Brixton riots of the early 80s.
The body of Brendan Clarke is found in unusual circumstances, with his face mutilated in certain odd patterns and with no apparent signs of struggle. The investigation into his murder leads the detectives to look into the earlier suicide of a Bowie-esque rock star as the links between the two are too big to ignore. There then follows an investigation into the cult-like group of misfit teenagers set up in Hastings and the cult status of King Lost, aka Lucas Bell.
There is the usual conflict within the investigative team - one jaded, opinionated DS, one DS that is hard-working and reliable and one DC that is off-screen most of the time researching things. An added element is the recent controversy surrounding DI Hobbes, as he recently shopped in his colleagues for battering a young black man in retaliation for the Brixton riots.
The main storyline is good, with enough mystery and emerging evidence to keep the interest. The link in to the past suicide of the cult figure adds an extra element. However it feels Noon went a little too far out of his way to make there a reasonable number of plausible suspects, all of whom are fairly interchangeable if I'm honest (I still can't remember which one of two characters died and which didn't).
It was interesting to read a crime book written about pre-Google times, so there really was a need for more hard work, door-knocking and evidence gathering.
There were some early incongruous pieces of dialogue that came across as quite needlessly jarring, for example when someone says they can't remember what someone looked like, it was only a quick glimpse, can't remember anything at all and then somehow when asked about facial markings (apropos of nothing) suddenly remembered a facial tattoo. A couple of instances like that really took me out of the book.
All in all, this was a reasonably well-told crime book with a decent setting, but not exactly a ground-breaking storyline.
Jeff Noon is a writer of speculative fiction who has been on my reading list for some time (not through recommendation, but through finding his books in discount shops and liking the sound of them). Here he travels somewhat less speculative ground, telling the tale of a murder investigation during the aftermath of the Brixton riots of the early 80s.
The body of Brendan Clarke is found in unusual circumstances, with his face mutilated in certain odd patterns and with no apparent signs of struggle. The investigation into his murder leads the detectives to look into the earlier suicide of a Bowie-esque rock star as the links between the two are too big to ignore. There then follows an investigation into the cult-like group of misfit teenagers set up in Hastings and the cult status of King Lost, aka Lucas Bell.
There is the usual conflict within the investigative team - one jaded, opinionated DS, one DS that is hard-working and reliable and one DC that is off-screen most of the time researching things. An added element is the recent controversy surrounding DI Hobbes, as he recently shopped in his colleagues for battering a young black man in retaliation for the Brixton riots.
The main storyline is good, with enough mystery and emerging evidence to keep the interest. The link in to the past suicide of the cult figure adds an extra element. However it feels Noon went a little too far out of his way to make there a reasonable number of plausible suspects, all of whom are fairly interchangeable if I'm honest (I still can't remember which one of two characters died and which didn't).
It was interesting to read a crime book written about pre-Google times, so there really was a need for more hard work, door-knocking and evidence gathering.
There were some early incongruous pieces of dialogue that came across as quite needlessly jarring, for example when someone says they can't remember what someone looked like, it was only a quick glimpse, can't remember anything at all and then somehow when asked about facial markings (apropos of nothing) suddenly remembered a facial tattoo. A couple of instances like that really took me out of the book.
All in all, this was a reasonably well-told crime book with a decent setting, but not exactly a ground-breaking storyline.
May 23, 2019
Despite an appealing summary of its storyline this is a slightly above average police procedural; rather a let down after expecting much. Set south of the river in London in the 1980s, with the police reeling after the Brixton Riots, experienced detective Hobbes is called in to help the Force to recover, and amongst is first jobs is to investigate the mysterious death of a rockstar.
I remember that era well; it’s social problems and it’s distinctive music. Noon’s plot wanders though and never ignites the sparks of intrigue that brought me to the book.
I remember that era well; it’s social problems and it’s distinctive music. Noon’s plot wanders though and never ignites the sparks of intrigue that brought me to the book.
August 15, 2020
Una de detectives en el Londres de Margaret Thatcher, en 1981. Bien hecha, adictiva, pero sin nada especial que la haga destacar sobre otras de su género.
March 10, 2019
One of the best mysteries I've read in a while, from the right side of the atlantic. Noon absolutely nails the whole group of superfans who obsess over every little detail of a bands songs. I was on the edge of my seat all the way through. I'm very much hoping for another book with the same characters.
September 12, 2023
I enjoyed this read from (usually) SF-ish novelist Jeff Noon, although this is basically a crime story without any fantastical trappings. Noon taps well into the genre, creating believable characters with faults and foibles, and the story hangs together tight. The central premise and the internal logic with it being followed through into murder is a bit of a stretch, but an enjoyable one. It's definitely worth picking up and is more of a 3.5 read than a 3. His language, as usual, is exemplary and often surprising.
May 16, 2019
Noir crime, music, historical it had all the elements of crime novels that I like but with Noon I love his imagination. The world's and ideas he creates in his scifi are just missing here unfortunately. Still a solid crime novel.
June 4, 2019
British cop crime . Thought I wouldn't enjoy it as it was set in the early 80s but I did. Set in London with locations familiar to me.
February 24, 2019
Not a huge fan of crime fiction, but Jeff Noon has the magic touch.
May 26, 2019
This book started well: a mysterious death with links to the past and an enquiries led by a detective with his own demons. As the plot progressed, it became more fantastical and the author failed to make the motivations of those involved at all plausible. And the idea of the local librarian as some Machiavellian character is just laughable.
The language was also unconvincing, with stilted dialogue which didn't ring true of the characters or of the time. Who in 1981 would say that they found themselves with child!
The resolution of the main plot was hackneyed and formulaic but the climax of the sub-plot (and the book itself) was so unlikely as to be farcical. It beggars belief that an editor would approve such lazy writing.
An unrewarding read.
The language was also unconvincing, with stilted dialogue which didn't ring true of the characters or of the time. Who in 1981 would say that they found themselves with child!
The resolution of the main plot was hackneyed and formulaic but the climax of the sub-plot (and the book itself) was so unlikely as to be farcical. It beggars belief that an editor would approve such lazy writing.
An unrewarding read.
June 7, 2019
As a long time fan of Jeff Noon, I feel this is probably his most polished bit of work and his most 'straight' - though with a band of outsiders and music influence there are still well loved themes within. Its a really well written, well paced crime/police story that paints this period/world really well. Whilst not wholly new spin on the genre I look forward to sequels!
If this had been the first book of his I had read instead of Vurt in 1994 aged 13, would it have impacted me so hard? Not a chance - but this doesn't diminish the enjoyment of this book and speaks volume for the quality and talent of the author.
If this had been the first book of his I had read instead of Vurt in 1994 aged 13, would it have impacted me so hard? Not a chance - but this doesn't diminish the enjoyment of this book and speaks volume for the quality and talent of the author.
April 14, 2020
Set in the aftermath of the 1981 Brixton riots, a young musician is found dead, his face mutilated in the style of a mask work by a glam rock star who died some seven years earlier. The investigation leads back to a group of teenage misfits a decade earlier still but the officer in charge, Inspector Hobbes, is also haunted by his own past.
The plot is complex and intriguing, but the writing is frustrating at times, dangling snippets of information just beyond reach. The resolution when it comes feels rushed and rather unsatisfactory, with that of the sub-plot involving Hobbes' past even more so. Also, although set in a particular era it fails to convey the feel of the time.
The plot is complex and intriguing, but the writing is frustrating at times, dangling snippets of information just beyond reach. The resolution when it comes feels rushed and rather unsatisfactory, with that of the sub-plot involving Hobbes' past even more so. Also, although set in a particular era it fails to convey the feel of the time.
November 8, 2019
I'm a fan of Noon's earlier SF with its weird urban vibe, and I quite enjoyed his first noir weird but this was just too flat for me. None of the tropes seemed novel and I was neither surprised nor excited by any of it. It's certainly not the worst detective story I've read. The main story was as contrived as anything Agatha Christie created but the characters didn't stand out, and the secondary story took time away from developing the main one more. I read it all on a plane, and may not have bothered finishing otherwise.
September 2, 2019
Noon has curtailed his style and written a fairly straight detective novel. Stylistically it has some of his hallmarks. Cleverly plotted and evocative of the early 80s. Enjoyed the ride.
April 9, 2019
England. 11th April 1981. While the music charts bubble with the froth of Bucks Fizz, Shakin’ Stevens, Adam and the Ants and The Nolans, London – at least the place south of the river called Brixton – is aflame with violence, racial hatred and mayhem. As the police struggle to control the streets a middle aged Detective Inspector called Henry Hobbes is bused in to help. No matter that Hobbes – and many other senior detectives likewise – is a stranger to riot control, it is a case of all hands on deck.
Later that year, with Brixton quieter, despite other English towns and cities erupting in copycat anger, Hobbes has become embroiled in a bitter internal dispute. A fellow copper, Charlie Jenkes (who rescued Hobbs from the mob on that fateful April night) after being indicted for savagely beating a black suspect, has taken his own life. And the officer who testified to Jenkes’s violence? Henry Hobbes, who, with that single act of honesty, is branded as a Judas by his own colleagues.
But now Hobbes has something to distract him from his disintegrating family life and his pariah status among fellow officers. A young man is found dead, wth his body gruesomely mutilated. Brendon Clarke was a minor celebrity, the lead singer with an aspiring band called Monsoon Monsoon, whose chief claim to fame is that they play the music of another dead rockstar – Lucas Bell. Bell’s celebrity rests on hs apparent suicide, his angst-ridden persona, and, most of all, his adoption of the identity of King Lost, a charismatic figure with a gruesome mask.
As Hobbes tries to unpick the complex knot which ties together the identities of Brendan Clarke and Lucas Bell, he discovers that the King Lost legend has its roots in a bizarre fantasy world created by a group of teenagers in the Sussex town of Hastings. With more murders being linked to the world of King Lost, Hobbes is drawn into an investigation whch exposes child abuse, blackmail, madness and revenge.
Genre compartmentalising books is not always helpful, but it is fair to say that Noon’s previous novels have used tropes from science fiction, psychedelia and dystopian fantasy. Slow Motion Ghosts adopts conventions of the police procedural, but is more adventurous, asks more questions and has a distinctly noir-ish feel. Noon uses his knowledge of the music scene to bore down into the strange phenomenon of the celebrity cult, and the lengths to which worshippers of dead heroes are prepared to go in order to keep their fantasies alive.
Jeff Noon was born in Droylsden in 1957. He was trained in the visual arts, and was musically active on the punk scene before starting to write plays for the theatre. His first novel, Vurt, was published in 1993 and went on to win the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He reviews crime fiction for The Spectator.
Slow Motion Ghosts is published by Doubleday, and is out now.
Later that year, with Brixton quieter, despite other English towns and cities erupting in copycat anger, Hobbes has become embroiled in a bitter internal dispute. A fellow copper, Charlie Jenkes (who rescued Hobbs from the mob on that fateful April night) after being indicted for savagely beating a black suspect, has taken his own life. And the officer who testified to Jenkes’s violence? Henry Hobbes, who, with that single act of honesty, is branded as a Judas by his own colleagues.
But now Hobbes has something to distract him from his disintegrating family life and his pariah status among fellow officers. A young man is found dead, wth his body gruesomely mutilated. Brendon Clarke was a minor celebrity, the lead singer with an aspiring band called Monsoon Monsoon, whose chief claim to fame is that they play the music of another dead rockstar – Lucas Bell. Bell’s celebrity rests on hs apparent suicide, his angst-ridden persona, and, most of all, his adoption of the identity of King Lost, a charismatic figure with a gruesome mask.
As Hobbes tries to unpick the complex knot which ties together the identities of Brendan Clarke and Lucas Bell, he discovers that the King Lost legend has its roots in a bizarre fantasy world created by a group of teenagers in the Sussex town of Hastings. With more murders being linked to the world of King Lost, Hobbes is drawn into an investigation whch exposes child abuse, blackmail, madness and revenge.
Genre compartmentalising books is not always helpful, but it is fair to say that Noon’s previous novels have used tropes from science fiction, psychedelia and dystopian fantasy. Slow Motion Ghosts adopts conventions of the police procedural, but is more adventurous, asks more questions and has a distinctly noir-ish feel. Noon uses his knowledge of the music scene to bore down into the strange phenomenon of the celebrity cult, and the lengths to which worshippers of dead heroes are prepared to go in order to keep their fantasies alive.
Jeff Noon was born in Droylsden in 1957. He was trained in the visual arts, and was musically active on the punk scene before starting to write plays for the theatre. His first novel, Vurt, was published in 1993 and went on to win the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He reviews crime fiction for The Spectator.
Slow Motion Ghosts is published by Doubleday, and is out now.
August 16, 2023
I remembered Jeff Noon from Vurt and Pollen, and was intrigued that he'd written a detective novel. The beginning - with its weird crime scene, detective hated by his colleagues for an undisclosed past, and story of a superfan who forms his own cover band to celebrate a celebrity suicide rockstar- was gripping; otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to pick up the book. But I found it increasingly disappointing as it went on, both in the increasingly convoluted plot (Hobbes' absent family, the whole Jenkes strand and the intermittent attempts at tackling Hey look, It's Racism (the married lady detective in a small seaside town who just happens to be revealed retrospectively to be black) could have been omitted, to the overall improvement of the novel, because they don't really go anywhere or contribute anything significant to what is already a baggy plot) and in the wording, which is something I definitely would not have expected of Jeff Noon.
Not only does the author repeatedly resort to the device of concealing the viewpoint character's vital clues/discoveries from the reader, breaking our immersion - a device that was discredited in detective fiction as far back as the 1930s - but he keeps coming out with clunky phrases in an attempt to tell us what is going on, in case we can't read the characters' emotions: The young man's eyes had now taken on a feverish glow as he brought the gig to mind...But then the door opened and Latimer stepped inside the room. Fairfax didn't like this. Shame painted his face red, and he gave Hobbes a push. Noon clearly *can* write - he has produced some very convincing rock lyrics for his fictional songwriter- which makes it all the odder that this book comes over as unexpectedly amateurish.
This is by no means the worst novel I have read, which makes me feel a little guilty about rating it at two out of five. But it definitely ended up coming across on the annoying side of average. There's a decent rock-groupie psycho-horror detective story buried in there, and Barbara Vine or P.D.James could probably have written it... unfortunately, Jeff Noon hasn't.
Not only does the author repeatedly resort to the device of concealing the viewpoint character's vital clues/discoveries from the reader, breaking our immersion - a device that was discredited in detective fiction as far back as the 1930s - but he keeps coming out with clunky phrases in an attempt to tell us what is going on, in case we can't read the characters' emotions: The young man's eyes had now taken on a feverish glow as he brought the gig to mind...But then the door opened and Latimer stepped inside the room. Fairfax didn't like this. Shame painted his face red, and he gave Hobbes a push. Noon clearly *can* write - he has produced some very convincing rock lyrics for his fictional songwriter- which makes it all the odder that this book comes over as unexpectedly amateurish.
This is by no means the worst novel I have read, which makes me feel a little guilty about rating it at two out of five. But it definitely ended up coming across on the annoying side of average. There's a decent rock-groupie psycho-horror detective story buried in there, and Barbara Vine or P.D.James could probably have written it... unfortunately, Jeff Noon hasn't.
October 29, 2019
My thanks to Random House U.K. Transworld Publishers/Black Swan for a digital edition via NetGalley of Jeff Noon’s ‘Slow Motion Ghosts’ in exchange for an honest review. It was published in early 2019 with its paperback edition due on 31 October.
It’s 1981 and Detective Inspector Henry Hobbes is currently out of favour with his colleagues following an incident linked to the recent Brixton riots. After paid leave ‘for his protection’ he has been transferred to the police station in Richmond-upon-Thames “to get him out of the way, thinking nothing much of interest could happen in these quiet leafy streets.”
Yet a week into his new posting he is called to the scene of a vicious murder. The victim, Brendan Clarke, is the lead singer in a tribute band for a dead glam rock icon, Lucas Bell. A Tarot card is found at the scene suggesting an occult connection. It quickly turns into a complex murder inquiry.
This was an excellent crime thriller/police procedural that perfectly captures its period setting. The central mystery is unusual and delves into darker aspects of the human psyche.
As with the tv series ‘Ashes to Ashes’ the 1980s setting allows for exploration of social and political issues that continue to resonate today.
I was very impressed with ‘Slow Motion Ghosts’, especially with the skilful plotting. I was very excited to read that Noon is working on a second Hobbes novel.
Highly recommended.
It’s 1981 and Detective Inspector Henry Hobbes is currently out of favour with his colleagues following an incident linked to the recent Brixton riots. After paid leave ‘for his protection’ he has been transferred to the police station in Richmond-upon-Thames “to get him out of the way, thinking nothing much of interest could happen in these quiet leafy streets.”
Yet a week into his new posting he is called to the scene of a vicious murder. The victim, Brendan Clarke, is the lead singer in a tribute band for a dead glam rock icon, Lucas Bell. A Tarot card is found at the scene suggesting an occult connection. It quickly turns into a complex murder inquiry.
This was an excellent crime thriller/police procedural that perfectly captures its period setting. The central mystery is unusual and delves into darker aspects of the human psyche.
As with the tv series ‘Ashes to Ashes’ the 1980s setting allows for exploration of social and political issues that continue to resonate today.
I was very impressed with ‘Slow Motion Ghosts’, especially with the skilful plotting. I was very excited to read that Noon is working on a second Hobbes novel.
Highly recommended.
May 12, 2019
Slow Motion Ghosts is a detective mystery thriller packed with twists and turns, set against the political and musical backdrop of 1981. Music is at the core of the story, as we follow Detective Hobbes who is on a mission to investigate the death of short-lived superstar Lucas Bell as well as following his own hunch surrounding the suspicious death of a former colleague and friend.
Local Bell is some kind of Morrison/Bolan type figure; an iconic rock star of the mid 1970s who died young and whose obsessive, hardcore fanbase long continue their celebration of his life and anguish at his death, long after the event. And this story, while set in the New Romantic era of '81, looks back into the glam rock era and the influence and hold that kind of iconic figure has on his fans and most intimate circle of friends and admirers. Slow Motion Ghosts focuses on that dark, maniacal side of fandom, and that's what really appealed to me, along with the time period in which it was set.
I'm relatively new to Jeff Noon's work and yet to read his more renowned earlier books, but that aside, I really could not find fault with Slow Motion Ghosts. A great story, with great characters; all strong enough not to warrant any of diversion into the strange. Let's face it, some music fans are strange enough!
Local Bell is some kind of Morrison/Bolan type figure; an iconic rock star of the mid 1970s who died young and whose obsessive, hardcore fanbase long continue their celebration of his life and anguish at his death, long after the event. And this story, while set in the New Romantic era of '81, looks back into the glam rock era and the influence and hold that kind of iconic figure has on his fans and most intimate circle of friends and admirers. Slow Motion Ghosts focuses on that dark, maniacal side of fandom, and that's what really appealed to me, along with the time period in which it was set.
I'm relatively new to Jeff Noon's work and yet to read his more renowned earlier books, but that aside, I really could not find fault with Slow Motion Ghosts. A great story, with great characters; all strong enough not to warrant any of diversion into the strange. Let's face it, some music fans are strange enough!
October 14, 2023
By the numbers -- but the numbers don't add up.
I stuck with this, in spite of the fact that it seemed hyper-formulaic. (Troubled Cop, with a Past. Always right -- in spite of the fact that he misses clues and connections that are practically tapping him on the shoulder, and patiently waiting to be noticed. Plucky band of subordinates, who are -- of course -- all equally troubled, in different ways. A murder who has 'way too much time on their hands ...)
And I was willing to consider giving it a sold 3-stars, for moderate readability, for reasonable grasp of its early 1980s setting. But then the ending just got silly. I was never really convinced by the messianic fervor of the fans of dead glam rocker Lucas Bell. If he's supposed to be a David Bowie/Marc Bolan mash-up, Noon doesn't succeed in imbuing him with the charisma of either. Making the children (past and present) who are devoted to him seem just a bit lame. At the end -- no spoiler, I think -- he doubles down on that and -- just feels silly.
I stuck with this, in spite of the fact that it seemed hyper-formulaic. (Troubled Cop, with a Past. Always right -- in spite of the fact that he misses clues and connections that are practically tapping him on the shoulder, and patiently waiting to be noticed. Plucky band of subordinates, who are -- of course -- all equally troubled, in different ways. A murder who has 'way too much time on their hands ...)
And I was willing to consider giving it a sold 3-stars, for moderate readability, for reasonable grasp of its early 1980s setting. But then the ending just got silly. I was never really convinced by the messianic fervor of the fans of dead glam rocker Lucas Bell. If he's supposed to be a David Bowie/Marc Bolan mash-up, Noon doesn't succeed in imbuing him with the charisma of either. Making the children (past and present) who are devoted to him seem just a bit lame. At the end -- no spoiler, I think -- he doubles down on that and -- just feels silly.
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