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‘ o . a ‘ O ‘ . o GEORG ST
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KENNEDY
Everythan You Need (£16.99)
l WEST END
QUENTIN :UUUDUNE
Wearing Purple (Headline $16.99)
I WEST ND
CH I STOPHER BROOKMYRE
One Fine Day In The Middle Of The Night (Little Brown 2999)
i
EAST END
COILIN BELL
Scotland’s Century (Harper doiiins £19.99)
I
ALL BR NCHES
H PY HARRY HO R
Harry otter and the Prison r of Azkaban (£2 off during listed time)
.West End,
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108 THE “ST 24 Jun-8 Jul 1999
books
reviews FUTURISTIC CRIME
Water Of Death
Paul Johnston (Hodder £16.99) 1: 1r
lllllTlEll iii lllEllTH -
Like New York, London and Paris,
Edinburgh is an ’imagined city’ - you don’t have to have been to Scotland’s capital to be familiar with it. Literary
activity is largely responsible for this -
think, for example, of Iain Banks' or Irvine Welsh’s images of the city. Johnston takes that notion a step
3 further and re-imagines Edinburgh as a
futuristic dystOpia, circa 2025. Global warming has reversed the traditional rain vs sun ratio: skin cancer is on the increase, water is rationed and tropical diseases plague the population. Meanwhile, rising sea levels are
flooding Glasgow and England is
buried in another Dark Age.
This is the setting for Johnston’s new Quint Dalrymple detective yarn, which pays its dues to pulp fiction. Unfortunately, this dystopia, which mixes the cons of post-Glasnost Russia
with an Orwellian socialist nightmare,
just doesn't convince. Neither does the
j Chandleresque tough talk or
‘CR
corruption in high places plot. It’s just so much dry pap. (MF)
ME FANTASY
Alison Wonderland
Helen Smith (Gollancz £9.99)
****
} Helen Smith’s debut novel worryingly
starts off in a Bridget Jones’ tone — all
nail varnish angst and ponderings over : the search for Mr Right. Thankfully, the fluff doesn't last too long and it
, transforms into a fantastical The/ma
And Louise meets Agatha Christie adventure story where private detective heroine Alison Temple and her space
cadet pal Taron go off to investigate
Project Brown Dog. On their travels they uncover all manner of odd things including philandering husbands, genetic experimentation and abandoned babies.
The dialogue is smart and the deadpan humour is perfectly judged, while the characters are well realised: the good guys are flawed but believable, while the bad guys try to be ruthless, but are comically crap.
A sweet, but not sickly debut, Smith chucks up a half dozen tasty sub-plots to keep things interesting, and a few
quality tWists and turns making a more than accomplished effort. (MR)
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE The Spell
Alan Hollinghurst (Vintage £6.99)
* t t * Superficially, The $pe// is less audaCIous
than Alan Hollinghurst's preVious
fictional meanderings — the substantial Swimming Pool Library or The Folding Star. Packed wrth rudiments of a late 19905 romantic comedy, it is laced with the lives and losses of four gay playmates during one long hot rustic summer.
Add to this smatterings of style, decadence, wit and hedonism, and Hollinghurst has all the ingredients of a
formulaic, albeit successful, deVice. But
beneath the veneers — the ecstasy, the
alcohol, the youth, the romance — lurks
a potent sub-plot exposing each
person's preferred drug of solace as an enchantingly brief diversion from the
search for stability. The idyllic pastoral retreat hints at this throughout. And, as the distracting
Arcadian delights finally dissolve, the
sad lifting of the spell reveals human —
and thus flawed - characters stumbling towards a greater understanding of themselves and each other. Delightful
and discerning. (AC)
PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR
Hannibal Thomas Harris (Heinemann £16.99)
?****
THOMAS
HANNIBAI-
It’s been seven years since Dr Hannibal 'The Cannibal' Lecter escaped federal
custody and disappeared while Agent
3 Clarice Starling’s career has flatlined as 2 she lacks the ability to play the political
game within the FBI. Dr Lecter's sixth victim is Mason
Verger, an extremely wealthy man who had his neck broken and his face fed to
some dogs. Although surviving the attack, he is now confined to a respirator and bed, spending much of his time attempting to exact revenge on Lecter. Meanwhile, Sterling's superior Paul Krendler sees the entire saga as an opportunity to further his career and push up his bank balance.
Thomas Harris has not deviated from the methods that made Red Dragon and Si/ence Of The Lambs so hugely popular. While he twists the plot with his usual ease, few will foresee the final outcome, which is exactly how a Harris novel should be. ($8)
I I I I