CRIME:KEN BRUEN HAS a hit on his hands with American Skin(Brandon, €22.99). The narrative fairly vibrates off the page and the pace is rocket fast. And his villains are in the James Lee Burke parthenon of bad guys, writes Vincent Banville
Stephen Blake is on the run after a bank heist in Southern Ireland, heading for the desert near Tucson. He has the money and his girlfriend has the means of laundering it.
However, he is being pursued by a psychotic IRA man, who will give up at nothing to get him. There is also another psychotic in the picture, a guy called Dade, who kills for the fun of it. All hell breaks loose when they all meet up and most of them get their just deserts. American Skin is a gripping and un-put-downable book.
After reading the blurb of Arlene Hunt's Undertow(Hachette Books, £11.99) I believed I was in for a jolly, Agatha Christie-type thriller. I couldn't have been more wrong. The writing here is as hard as flint and twice as combustible. It is set in modern-day Dublin and it shows the dark underbelly of the city's crime. The two protagonists are Sarah Kenny and John Quigley, who run a private detective agency. They are hired by a pregnant young girl to find the father of her child, one Orie Kavlar. Orie is involved in people smuggling, especially Eastern European women who are put working in nightclubs. Finding him opens up an ant's nest for the two detectives and they are soon up to their armpits in violence and bodies. This is a gritty and action-filled offering that pulls no punches.
Next is Andrew Nugent's Soul Murder(Hachette Books, £11.99), and again I believed I was in for a light, inoffensive read, the author being a monk in Glenstal Abbey. In fact the book is near the cutting edge, including as it does child abuse and castration, not to mention a couple of throat cuttings and a murderous fall from a building.
The setting is a boys boarding school in Kerry, and the story kicks off when the body of a housemaster is found with his throat cut. There are plenty of suspects, even among the students. A side plot sees a young French boy being kidnapped, although the two strands do colllide later on in the narrative. The police are Superintendent Denis Lennon and Sergeant Molly Power, but they play no great part in the unravelling of the plot. All in all, Soul Murder is an entertaining read that holds the interest right to the end.
James Lee Burke is in top form with his Swan Peak(Orion, £14.99). In this one Detective Dave Robicheaux and his pal Clete Purcel are on a fishing holiday in Montana. They are in search of much needed rest and recuperation. It is not long, however, before they find that Montana is not the Eden they thought it was. A pair of student hikers are brutally murdered, and not long afterwards another couple are done to death. The more Dave and Clete investigate, the more they are led back to a powerful oil family named the Wellstones, who are headed by the horribly disfigured Leslie Wellstone and his crippled brother, Ridley. The novel is beautifully written, as always, and the towering peaks and silent valleys of Montana form a suitable backdrop to the deadly game of cat and mouse that ensues.
Then we have Peter Leonard's Quiver(Faber, £14.99). And who is Peter Leonard? Well, he is no less that the son of the great Elmore Leonard, and he is certainly a chip off the old block. His book is similar in nature to the old man's, with its complicated plot, its rapid-fire dialogue and its sudden outbursts of violence, but it can stand on its own legs.
Kate McCall's husband has been accidentally killed by her son, Luke, in a tragic bow-hunting expedition. Immediately Kate becomes a very wealthy woman. Soon Jack, an ex-con and former lover, turns up. When Luke takes off alone for their rural Michigan cabin, Kate and Jack follow. But they are not the only ones on his heels: two-time losers Teddy and Celeste, along with hitman DeJuan, are out to kidnap Luke and hold him to ransom. As they all head for the woods of Michigan, events rapidly move towards a dramatic life-and-death confrontation. For a first novel, Quiver shows remarkable maturity and technique, and marks the debut of a powerful new voice in contemporary crime fiction.
Finally, a mention for Henning Mankell's The Pyramid(translated from the Swedish by Ebba Segerberg and Laurie Thompson, and published by Harvill Secker at £12.99). This is a compilation of stories featuring Mankell's series detective Kurt Wallander. They are more novellas than short stories.
The stories here, with an introduction by the author, tell of Wallander's early life while he was still on the beat, but they all show the care for detail that marks the novels.The Swedish settings, too, form part of the overall tapestry that have made these books so popular. From the stabbing of a neighbour in 1969 to a light aircraft accident in 1989, every story is a vital part of the Wallander series, showing Mankell at the top of his form. Lovely stuff.
• Vincent Banville is a writer and critic