Mission Flats by William Landay Reviewed by Steve Rudd

Interview with William Landay by Steve Rudd

Crime-thrillers come no better than this edge-of-the-seat masterwork from American writer William Landay, who here delivers a truly superb debut novel that attacks the senses and ultimately leaves you reeling from the brilliantly-staged shock ending. It's amazing how some Crime writers make their stories sound so authentic courtesy of the detailed lengths that they go to in order to ensure all the correct police procedures are followed in their fiction. Very few writers have personally tasted the grit of police-work or the atmosphere of working in a courtroom for real, in which case their individual imaginations have to work overtime when it comes to creating convincing scenes in their stories.

William Landay is different, because he worked as an Assistant D.A. for some years before deciding to concentrate on his writing. Having no doubt dealt with some downright dirty court cases in his time, the reader realises that they can rely on Landay's writing from the off. He knows what he's talking about when it comes to the procedures and rules and regulations that uphold the law, and this enables him to spend more time on developing the characters and the plot-line instead of having to waste valuable time researching such procedures.

As a result, Mission Flats is a perfect mix of tense action and suspenseful courtroom drama that follows a small-town cop called Ben Truman, from Maine, who becomes embroiled in a nasty murder case that takes him to the big city of Boston. Thankfully, Landay was born and raised in Boston and thus knows the city like the back of his hand. In the same way that George P. Pelecanos brings the best (or should that be the worst) out of his Washington DC settings, Landay's characters strut around Boston with confident verve.

As the plot thickens magnificently, there are more than enough surprises and red herrings to embrace before the breathtaking climax leaves you gagging for more. Mission Flats is, surely, one of the most captivating first-time crime novels to come out of the States in years, and hopefully this outstanding piece of work will mark the start of a long and successful career for William Landay. Interview with William Landay by Steve Rudd ISBN 0-552-15350-8 (CORGI) www.booksattransworld.co.uk

Reviews, Theatre - Friday 17th February - The Hull Blokes Present Love - A Night Of Comedy, Drama And Passion at Northern Theatre By Jane Foster
	The Hull Blokes are a talented bunch of 13 local, er, blokes! who I have had the pleasure of seeing twice before in their relatively short life. So I thought it was high time to do them justice and write a review. The Blokes have been lucky enough to secure themselves a home in the new Northern Theatre building, which in my opinion is more welcoming and Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Loop by Nicholas Evans Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	This is the second breathtaking novel from Nicholas, the first having being the international best-selling weepy, The Horse Whisperer which shot the English-based writer to fame. The Loop has nothing to do with horses whatsoever, and instead focuses on the trials of a wild pack of wolves that is terrorising a farming community in Montana. A 29-year old wolf expert called Helen is Read more...

Reviews, Books - Rising To Obscurity and How To Remain Anonymous by AAA Aarbon (Bitterne Books) Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	Published by Hull-based Bitterne Books, the first two titles in this humorous series offer a different take on the modern world that we live in. Part satire, part social comment, they follow the story of AAA Aarbon, a self-confessed seeker of anonymity. AAA Aarbon is described by his editor as being best forgotten for many reasons. Rising To Obscurity charts the absurd Read more...

Reviews, Books - Notes From a Small Island By Bill Bryson Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Good old Bill is a natural comedian and never holds back when it comes to being honest. He's one of the world's best-loved and most famous travel writers, and this volume of 'notes' is exclusively concerned with a number of weeks that Bill spent investing in the art of travelling around Britain back in the mid 90's. His travel writing talents first came to prominence when he released Read more...

Reviews, Books - Flashback By Jenny Siler Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	The past is a puzzle for everyone, a tattered collection of memory and desire. Even those people we most long to understand remain no more than a sum of those static moments we've chosen to hold them in. This is a must-read novel for any discerning fan of high-octane, Steve Hamilton-esque thrillers, as the drama-drenched action flits the length and breadth of the Read more...

Reviews, Books - Book Recommendations by Steve Rudd
	Here are some short and sweet book recommendations in place of the usual fully-fledged reviews, quite simply because I haven't had time to write up these reviews in more detail. The fact is that there are too many great books, and far too little time to read them - let alone write about them in gushing retrospect. Anyway, here's some mention of some of the books I've recently been Read more...

Reviews, Films - Films Kong By Michelle Dee
	Visually stunning. Terrific pace. Jackson winds up the tension to breaking point and never lets you go till the final frame. This is what you would expect from a Christmas Blockbuster, but this reworking of the original King Kong film, has so much more than the usual thrills and spills. Naomi Watts is very striking to say the least and the ill-fated love Read more...

Reviews, Books - Complicity by Nick Quantrill Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	The rain refused to ease as Coleman made his way through Queens Gardens and on towards King Edward Street. He pulled his collar up and hurried his pace... This is a staggeringly enthralling showcase for Hull-based writer Nick Quantrill's unmistakable talent for writing fiction - and crime fiction, to be more precise. He has written a fair few short stories that revolve around crime Read more...

Reviews, Books - Ian Newton - The Night Shift Reviewed By Kevin Maguire
	The guy in a sharp business suit glowered as if I was mad for laughing out loud while waiting for a flight in Washington Dulles International Airport. No exhibitionist, I rarely laugh out loud. Indeed, I rarely read anything worth laughing about, let alone out loud. But the story about two on-the-run robbers holding a group of Hull factory workers hostage after a fish Read more...

Reviews, Books - East Of The Mountains By David Guterson Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Alright, so you might not have heard of the author before, but you might actually be already familiar with some of his 'work,' as his debut novel was called Snow Falling On Cedars... a staggering bestseller that came to be made into a Hollywood movie starring Ethan Hawke. Such a debut made it apparent that Guterson is one hell of a story teller who goes to great Read more...

Reviews, Books - Scott Phillips - The Walkaway Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	It is imperative that you keep your wits about when reading this novel more than with almost any other mighty slab of fiction ever published. If you've never read Phillips' awesome debut novel The Ice Harvest, then there's actually little point whatsoever you even making a beeline for The Walkaway, for this mesmerisingly cool epic crime-drama is the incredible Read more...

Reviews, Books - Robert Adams - Antman (Bitterne Books) Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	Antman is the latest crime novel from prolific Hull-based author Robert Adams. It is his interest in ant behaviour that forms the heart of this book, and one that allows him to craft a dark narrative that absorbs and terrifies in equal measure. The novel starts with the discovery of a dead pig at a remote location in the Hull area. Forensic investigation reveals that the animal was reduced Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Two-Bear Mambo By Joe R. Lansdale Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Lansdale certainly is one hell of a prolific author, and this is something like the tenth novel of his that I have had the pleasure of reading. The vast majority of his novels follow two buddies, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, as they manage - without fail - to get into all kinds of violent predicaments through being often overly stubborn and too-proud-by-half men. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Wobegon Boy by Garrison Keillor Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	I have a responsible job and pay my taxes and keep my lawn mowed, but because I dare to be an individual, people whisper about me behind my back. Why is life like this? This epic novel is an absolute masterpiece that is drama-driven and hugely poignant, as it follows a man called John Tollefson as he bumbles through his life over a pronounced period of time, with the Read more...

Reviews, Books - Down By The River Where The Dead Men Go by George P. Pelecanos Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	As the novel title must suggest, this is a crime thriller... and one of the highest order. I first heard of the author in Pelecanos through him heaping praise on the 'action-thriller' writing of Steve Hamilton. Like with Hamilton's work, Pelecanos weaves an engrossing story around a series of hugely believable and genuinely exciting set-pieces. Interestingly, many authors Read more...

Reviews, Books - Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	You can get something out of a book, even a bad book. First published in France in 1934, this extraordinary piece of writing never saw the light of day in the United States and the wider world at large until after 1961, following a mighty legal battle that resulted in the book finally being published elsewhere. Human beings make a strange fauna and flora...More than anything Read more...

Reviews, Books - Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Bret's work, it seems, is either loved or truly loathed. Almost all of his past novels have been as controversial and as feared by some people as hell itself, especially as Bret focuses on taboo subjects with intense abandon. His best known book is the huge-selling American Psycho masterpiece, yet his other work is most definitely worth reading too - if you like that kind of thing. Alright, Less Than Zero isn't half Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Hunting Wind by Steve Hamilton Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	This is the fourth thriller of Steve's that I've devoured with a heady, stance-steady vengeance. He really does reside in the top drawer of American-based thriller writers, living in New York but writing about the state in which he was raised… the often cold and bleak Northern state of Michigan, near to the border with Canada. The previous three novels that I've read of his Read more...

Reviews, Books - Fury by Salman Rushdie Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	I must live until I die. Perhaps best known for his hugely controversial book The Satanic Verses, Indian writer Salman Rushdie is one of the most famous writers in the world, which is understandable when his writing is so utterly extraordinary in timbre. Mysteries drive us all. We only glimpse their veiled faces, but their power pushes us onward, Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Nineties by John Robb Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	If you remember the Nineties... you were there! This incredible book, written by the singer for punk rock 'n' roll band Goldblade in John Robb, truly is a breathtaking overview of an exhilarating decade. And it isn't just music that is covered, as the always-opinionated Robb proffers his honest opinions about anything and everything that had a Read more...

Reviews, Books - Lost Souls by Michael Collins Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	We only live once. I don't think we ever really confront that until it's too late. Understandably shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Lost Souls is not your average mystery-thriller novel, with this engrossing 'whodunnit' focusing on a small-town cop trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious death of a three-year-old girl. The prime suspect is the local football star, Read more...