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The Sidewinder
There are three sides to every murder- yours, mine and the truth.The Sidewinder is the new multi narrative mystery thriller from Northern Irish Amazon Bestseller Simon Maltman.When two members of a former nineties band die in suspicious circumstances, the surviving members are embroiled in a web of murder, revenge, love and deceit. Follow the now politician, journalist, session musician and police officer as they attempt to uncover the truth, through many dark twists and turns. Nothing is as it appears in The Sidewinder.Recent “Lean, mean, fast and furious.”Gerard Brennan“What Raymond Chandler was to L.A, Maltman is to Belfast, a novelist with an eye for the seedy underbelly of a city.”Goodreads
230 pages, Paperback
Published October 10, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 19, 2018
Book Reviewed by Marcia on www.whisperingstories.com
What gripped my attention when I read the synopsis for the book was ’multi-narrative’, I love multi-narrative books and this one didn’t disappoint. I have to say there was one voice that stood out above all the rest though, for me this was Journalist Andrew.
The story is set in Belfast, Ireland and is split into three sections. There are a lot of voices and the timeline switches between the present and the past when Andrew was in a band. In the present day, one of the ex-band members has been found dead. The report into his death has Andrew convinced something isn’t right. He then begins to look closer at the death of another bandmate, Ted, who died whilst they were on tour.
The book is only 191 pages long. If it was longer some areas could maybe have been developed further and we would have got a real taste for what was going on. Unfortunately, with most shorter books whilst the pace is fast and the plot comes at you thick and fast, some of the substance seems to be left out meaning that we don’t get enough meat and I really feel this is needed with a multi-narrative book and especially a thriller.
The book was not what I was expecting from the synopsis, yet, I still invested my time to see how it all worked out and I really did enjoy it, especially the last part. I did like the switching from the past to the present to tell the story as this was done effortlessly and you always knew where in the plot you were. Even if it was different from what I was expecting, it was still a good read.
What gripped my attention when I read the synopsis for the book was ’multi-narrative’, I love multi-narrative books and this one didn’t disappoint. I have to say there was one voice that stood out above all the rest though, for me this was Journalist Andrew.
The story is set in Belfast, Ireland and is split into three sections. There are a lot of voices and the timeline switches between the present and the past when Andrew was in a band. In the present day, one of the ex-band members has been found dead. The report into his death has Andrew convinced something isn’t right. He then begins to look closer at the death of another bandmate, Ted, who died whilst they were on tour.
The book is only 191 pages long. If it was longer some areas could maybe have been developed further and we would have got a real taste for what was going on. Unfortunately, with most shorter books whilst the pace is fast and the plot comes at you thick and fast, some of the substance seems to be left out meaning that we don’t get enough meat and I really feel this is needed with a multi-narrative book and especially a thriller.
The book was not what I was expecting from the synopsis, yet, I still invested my time to see how it all worked out and I really did enjoy it, especially the last part. I did like the switching from the past to the present to tell the story as this was done effortlessly and you always knew where in the plot you were. Even if it was different from what I was expecting, it was still a good read.
November 25, 2018
Author Simon Maltman is carving out his very own niche in ‘Northern Ireland noir’, and this is his best book to date. He creates a convincing sense of place and time, using flashbacks to reveal what happened then and how it critically affects the now.
It’s a sneakily smart plot with a couple of gob-smacking moments, set in an entirely believable Belfast. Maltman crafts a near-perfect depiction of life in a gigging rock band; always inches away from the deal that might break them into the big time. It all has the slightly sticky, slightly sleazy, acrid tang of authenticity about it.
The bad guy is a brilliantly believable concoction. Superficially, he’s the typical bloke next door; a family man working 9 to 5. Maltman peels back that persona to reveal the scars on a psyche that can twist a personality, the wounds which warp a faithful husband into a philandering fraud. The author subtly suggests that even an opportunistic first kill doesn’t come out of the blue: it’s the culmination of a descent into darkness which might take decades. Murder doesn’t happen on the spur of the moment…
The narrative switches between two perspectives of pivotal characters and, as ever, I hugely enjoyed this device. I’m always fascinated by contrasting viewpoints, and seeing the same scenes played out from different angles. Mind you, I did struggle somewhat to differentiate between these two characters who spoke with very similar ‘voices’ and whose situations mirrored each other. Their personal journeys could’ve had more impact if the two people were more sharply separated.
There’s an awful lot going on in this novel. Maltman delivers a tense yet thoughtful page-turner, a couple of eye-opening surprises and a full-on finale.
8/10
There's more details about this book, and other reviews of crime / thrillers, over at http://www.murdermayhemandmore.net
It’s a sneakily smart plot with a couple of gob-smacking moments, set in an entirely believable Belfast. Maltman crafts a near-perfect depiction of life in a gigging rock band; always inches away from the deal that might break them into the big time. It all has the slightly sticky, slightly sleazy, acrid tang of authenticity about it.
The bad guy is a brilliantly believable concoction. Superficially, he’s the typical bloke next door; a family man working 9 to 5. Maltman peels back that persona to reveal the scars on a psyche that can twist a personality, the wounds which warp a faithful husband into a philandering fraud. The author subtly suggests that even an opportunistic first kill doesn’t come out of the blue: it’s the culmination of a descent into darkness which might take decades. Murder doesn’t happen on the spur of the moment…
The narrative switches between two perspectives of pivotal characters and, as ever, I hugely enjoyed this device. I’m always fascinated by contrasting viewpoints, and seeing the same scenes played out from different angles. Mind you, I did struggle somewhat to differentiate between these two characters who spoke with very similar ‘voices’ and whose situations mirrored each other. Their personal journeys could’ve had more impact if the two people were more sharply separated.
There’s an awful lot going on in this novel. Maltman delivers a tense yet thoughtful page-turner, a couple of eye-opening surprises and a full-on finale.
8/10
There's more details about this book, and other reviews of crime / thrillers, over at http://www.murdermayhemandmore.net
October 20, 2018
I have read The Sidewinder, thanks again for the copy!
So here is my review:
This is not just one story but several stories combined into a whole. And to do that within 221 pages is an accomlishment.
The book is divided into three main parts:
Opening theme, Contrafact and Coda(finale).
In the opening theme we meet Andrew, 47, working as a journalist. One day at work he watches a news program and learns that an old buddy of his, Mike, is dead.
Andrew and Mike started a band in the nineties, The Sidewinder, together with Craig, Lee, and Ted.
Andrew starts to think back to those days when the band was on the road. The gigs and the relationship between the members.
More news concerning Mike's death is revealed. The toxicology report shows that illegal substances were present in his blood.
But Mike has been clean for years!
Lee is disturbed by the news and he starts to think about another death. Ted, a member of the band, died quite suddenly on one of their tours.
Johnny, a former police, now on sick leave is also starting to ask questions, something is not right, not adding up.
Contrafact
Johnny meets with Lee and listens to his suspicions about the deaths of Ted and Mike.
They decide to meet up with Andrew and to listen to his version of the accidents...
Coda
This is really The Grand Finale!
Of course I can't disclose what's happening but my eyes were glued to pages and I could't stop reading.
So here is my review:
This is not just one story but several stories combined into a whole. And to do that within 221 pages is an accomlishment.
The book is divided into three main parts:
Opening theme, Contrafact and Coda(finale).
In the opening theme we meet Andrew, 47, working as a journalist. One day at work he watches a news program and learns that an old buddy of his, Mike, is dead.
Andrew and Mike started a band in the nineties, The Sidewinder, together with Craig, Lee, and Ted.
Andrew starts to think back to those days when the band was on the road. The gigs and the relationship between the members.
More news concerning Mike's death is revealed. The toxicology report shows that illegal substances were present in his blood.
But Mike has been clean for years!
Lee is disturbed by the news and he starts to think about another death. Ted, a member of the band, died quite suddenly on one of their tours.
Johnny, a former police, now on sick leave is also starting to ask questions, something is not right, not adding up.
Contrafact
Johnny meets with Lee and listens to his suspicions about the deaths of Ted and Mike.
They decide to meet up with Andrew and to listen to his version of the accidents...
Coda
This is really The Grand Finale!
Of course I can't disclose what's happening but my eyes were glued to pages and I could't stop reading.
May 5, 2019
With a well conceived multi-narrative driving a plot filled with unexpected twists, The Sidewinder is a must for fans of Ulster Noir. The characters are deliciously complex and believable as is the backdrop of Belfast and North Down which serve as the setting. Add in what can only be described as a playlist of musical references and you have an excellent read. Mr Maltman has done it again!!
December 10, 2018
Fantastic book with great musical entions and a pure addictive story, finished it in quick time.
September 17, 2018
[Note: This book was provided free of charge by the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]
As someone who has read a few stories and novels from the author [1], there are a few things that one reliably knows about a noir work that one is reading from the author. Someone will die. There will be music or poetry involved somehow. There will be flashbacks. Casual drug or alcohol use and/or unglamorous and possibly adulterous shagging will be involved. The story will have something to do with Belfast. Even knowing all of this going into this novel--and yes, all of these things are present here--there are still thrills and surprises to be found. Even when one knows what is going on, and that takes a while, one still has to figure out why, and while the clever reader will likely be able to figure out a few of the loose ends, the story as a whole is both dark and compelling and a worthwhile read. Maltman has a secure place in Belfast noir and that will only continue with this excellent novel that begins innocuously enough and then goes very dark.
The book is itself divided into three parts. In the first part, we see the point of view of Andrew, a beat writer for an Ulster newspaper, bad husband to wife Jenny, and someone who becomes far more interesting than he first appears. About a third of the way or so through the novel, the book changes from being an ineffectual novel about an ineffectual reporter writing about a dead friend and becomes a far darker story about a very evil man. The second part of the story is about Johnny, an outsider to the band but someone who felt more inside than the awkward and uncomfortable and emotionally repressed Andrew. He happens to be a police detective who is on leave because of stress and of course the novelist provides a lot of stress in his life through this look at the past and present of a band where everyone has gone their separate ways, but where two of the bandmates have been taken too soon in what appear at first to be drug overdoses but about which there is suspicion far more is involved than merely recreational drug use. The coda brings the two stories together in a compelling and dramatic and devastating way.
In reading a story like this, I have some definite and complicated feelings. For one, there is the dreadful suffering that results from engaging in and trying to bury secrets. Andrew is, although a very dark character, a very Nathanish character as way in some aspects, like his awkwardness and his writing and his concerts over masters of incest. The Sidewinder is, as is quite common in good fiction, a complicated reference in that it refers to the name of the fictional band that five young men were in that gave them some modest success before tearing them apart, as well as the complicated process by which one finds out dark truths about oneself and about others. Ultimately, this is a book without any real heroes, as all of the adult characters are engaged in some sort of dark game--whether that involve affairs, drug and alcohol use, violence, politics, or other sorts of corruption. If you like Belfast noir fiction, though, this book provides both the compelling story and characters as well as the flavor of Northern Ireland that one looks for in this sort of book, and it marks another triumph for the author.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
As someone who has read a few stories and novels from the author [1], there are a few things that one reliably knows about a noir work that one is reading from the author. Someone will die. There will be music or poetry involved somehow. There will be flashbacks. Casual drug or alcohol use and/or unglamorous and possibly adulterous shagging will be involved. The story will have something to do with Belfast. Even knowing all of this going into this novel--and yes, all of these things are present here--there are still thrills and surprises to be found. Even when one knows what is going on, and that takes a while, one still has to figure out why, and while the clever reader will likely be able to figure out a few of the loose ends, the story as a whole is both dark and compelling and a worthwhile read. Maltman has a secure place in Belfast noir and that will only continue with this excellent novel that begins innocuously enough and then goes very dark.
The book is itself divided into three parts. In the first part, we see the point of view of Andrew, a beat writer for an Ulster newspaper, bad husband to wife Jenny, and someone who becomes far more interesting than he first appears. About a third of the way or so through the novel, the book changes from being an ineffectual novel about an ineffectual reporter writing about a dead friend and becomes a far darker story about a very evil man. The second part of the story is about Johnny, an outsider to the band but someone who felt more inside than the awkward and uncomfortable and emotionally repressed Andrew. He happens to be a police detective who is on leave because of stress and of course the novelist provides a lot of stress in his life through this look at the past and present of a band where everyone has gone their separate ways, but where two of the bandmates have been taken too soon in what appear at first to be drug overdoses but about which there is suspicion far more is involved than merely recreational drug use. The coda brings the two stories together in a compelling and dramatic and devastating way.
In reading a story like this, I have some definite and complicated feelings. For one, there is the dreadful suffering that results from engaging in and trying to bury secrets. Andrew is, although a very dark character, a very Nathanish character as way in some aspects, like his awkwardness and his writing and his concerts over masters of incest. The Sidewinder is, as is quite common in good fiction, a complicated reference in that it refers to the name of the fictional band that five young men were in that gave them some modest success before tearing them apart, as well as the complicated process by which one finds out dark truths about oneself and about others. Ultimately, this is a book without any real heroes, as all of the adult characters are engaged in some sort of dark game--whether that involve affairs, drug and alcohol use, violence, politics, or other sorts of corruption. If you like Belfast noir fiction, though, this book provides both the compelling story and characters as well as the flavor of Northern Ireland that one looks for in this sort of book, and it marks another triumph for the author.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews