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NoirNovels.com - A unique repository for all things noir
The Death You Deserve
Reviewed By Steve Nester Billy Dye is a Manchester horror novelist whose books go unsold and whose journalism may very well be the death of him. In David Bowker's fifth novel The Death You Deserve Billy lands an interview with notorious gangster Malcolm Priest who then hires cheeky Billy to ghost write his memoirs. Soon Billy's job description is no longer a euphemism; Priest puts out a contract for smart aleck Dye's murder. It turns out that Priest's longtime trusted hit man, Rawhead, is an old schoolboy chum of Billy's; in fact, Billy was Rawhead's (then known as Steve Ellis) only friend, a kindness Rawhead refuses to ignore. A psychopath and a loner, Rawhead spirits Billy away to his lair in an old vicarage in a remote village, where he demands Billy remain for one year until Priest's extreme discontent blows over. Rawhead is a fan of horror novels and he finds it difficult to understand why the publisher and the public ignore Billy's work. And so begins the work of righting the many wrongs in the world of Billy Dye and Rawhead. Publishing professionals and gangsters alike come to feel the wrath of Rawhead's savage justice. When Priest discovers that his number one hit man has double-crossed him, he sends out a squad to track them down. Priest's organization is massacred. The climax of the book results in Billy resuming his old life as a writer with a new wife and child, while Rawhead is dispatched to an uncertain fate, which may be revealed in another volume of the adventures of Billy Dye to by published next year. The Death You Deserve works on several levels. As a good-natured novel of criminals and murder, readers get to witness how organized criminals operate when they aren't busy organizing crimes. There is quite a bit of down time mobsters have to deal with and in general, without the pistol play and dreaming and scheming, their lives are as dull and full of ennui as the man's who sits behind the counter at the Post Office. For instance, Priest lives with his elderly mother and his days at home consist of caring for her and her poodle. Rawhead, a man of action if there ever was one, spends his spare time reading and collecting rare books. The Death You Deserve is also a kick in the pants to the publishing business. Billy's novels don't sell because the publishing house refuses to commit money to promote them. Why bother to spend the money to publish books if one doesn't spend money to sell them? Let's hope the publisher of The Death You Deserve gets behind it, for it is well worth reading. |
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