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Those familiar with Allan Guthrie’s work so far will
already be familiar with his Edinburgh. Though not
mutually exclusive from the Edinburgh of Ian Rankin,
it is a city with a very different voice.
Told from the point of view of the criminals and those
that mix with them, the books have started to build
their own world - not an easy thing to do in a city
with such an established place in British crime
fiction. With his latest book, HARD
MAN, Allan is starting to show off. Featuring
the return of Pearce, last seen in TWO WAY
SPLIT, and a cast made up of both old and new
characters, the plot boils down to a family squabble
taken to some very violent extremes.
What really elevates the book above many other crime
novels is the risks it takes, and the growing strength
of the writing. It’s the work of a writer who seems
aware of his strengths, and who is pushing them to
extremes.
If you liked the layered casts of the previous books,
and the way the characters' lives intersected through
violence and chance, then this book pushes that to new
heights. Told from the points of view of seven
different characters, the narrative switches from one
to the other without ever getting confusing. Each
character has a different voice and a different
motivation. The truth is a relative stranger here,
something that twists and turns for both the
characters and the reader. It is whatever each
character chooses to reveal at any given moment,
allowing the reader to discover the motivations behind
the story as it unfolds.
There is also a fun play on morality, with all the
cast being guilty of some form of deception or
brutality; but each for different reasons, and their
punishments don’t always match their crimes.
The title is at the very centre of the story, looking
at people’s perceptions of what being a ‘hard man’
means. There are so many points in the novel where
different characters are shown to be pretending to be,
or reacting against, their idea of a ‘hard man’. To
debate which character most fits the title would be to
give too much away, but my choice isn’t one of the
obvious characters.
Above all, what strikes me most is the humour. Always
an undercurrent in hard-boiled fiction, black humour
finds a great balance here with violence and
characterisation. It really is a rare book that can
make you wince both with pain and laughter.
If there’s going to be a better crime novel in 2007,
it's one that will have to do a lot to beat HARD MAN.
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