Book Of The Month July, 2009
Paying For ItTony Black
Gus Dury once had a high-flying career as a journalist and a wife he adored. But now he is living on the edge, a drink away from Edinburgh’s down-and-outs, drifting from bar to bar, trying not to sign divorce papers. But the road takes an unexpected turn when a friend asks him to investigate the brutal torture and killing of his son, and Gus becomes embroiled in a much bigger story of political corruption and illegal people-trafficking. Seedy doss-houses, bleak wastelands and sudden violence contrast with the cobbled streets and cool bistros of fashionable Edinburgh, as the puzzle unravels to a truly shocking ending.
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Our next online chat will be with Tim Clare on 25th August – we’ll be discussin his book We Can’t All Be Astronauts.
What We Think
Harvey Marcus, Preface Marketing, on Paying For It:
Tony Black: never a more appropriate name for an author. Pitch black humour emerges out of his dark picture of Edinburgh in this gritty noir crime novel. Gus Dury is a hopeless drunk, the kind of man you would look the other way from on the street, yet out of this wreck of a man Black has found someone we can root for. As the city around him is gentrified beyond recognition, he remains unreconstructed: his only love is his bottle of “scoosh”, his only friends the other barflies at the back alley taverns he frequents, yet he has a scathing wit, and an eye for the truth.
The novel begins in classic crime fashion: Dury, long fallen by the wayside, reluctantly accepts one last case from a friend. His son has been tortured and murdered, and may himself have been mixed up with the wrong people. From here Black segues into Edinburgh’s underbelly as Dury stumbles, often literally, on clues and leads, each one embroiling him in a conspiracy that goes far beyond murder. Black has a great ear for dialogue: you don’t read the book so much as hear it. A gripping read from the first pages, Rankin had better watch out: there’s a new man in town.
Tony Black talked live online about his book to book clubs – read his answers and comments to their questions!
Our next online chat will be with Tim Clare on 25th August – we’ll be discussin his book We Can’t All Be Astronauts.
Posted by Nicole on 2009-08-19
Sadly I missed the online chat – when will your next one be?
Posted by Sam on 2009-08-19
A huge thank you to Tony Black who joined us live to discuss his book with reading groups. If you missed the online talk, you can read up on Tony’s answers and comments here: http://bit.ly/VdnUA
Posted by Nicole on 2009-08-04