From Publishers Weekly
The worst thing about drug dealing, whether you're a classy top dealer trading millions or a down-and-out street pusher, is that you have to relate to a lot of total idiots - loudmouths and tough-guy wannabes who aren't afraid to "get nicked by old bill and thrown in the boob" (arrested by police and jailed). The unnamed main character of Connolly's flawless, lightning-swift pulp crime drama - rich in the language of the British underworld - is a smoothly diplomatic 29-year-old cocaine dealer who has earned a respected place among England's Mafia elite. He manages high-level trafficking with a tough old veteran partner, Mister Mortimer, a man who has seen his share of prison and deadly fights. Just as the young dealer is eyeing an early retirement from the business, big boss Jimmy Price hands down a tough assignment: find Charlotte Ryder, the missing rich princess daughter of Jimmy's old pal Edward, a powerful construction business player and gossip papers socialite. Complicating matters are two million pounds' worth of Grade A ecstasy, a brutal neo-Nazi sect and a whole series of double crossings. Navigating the many levels of the international underworld, Connolly convincingly chronicles his anti-hero's transformation from a turn-the-other-cheek diplomat to a revenge-charged hit man, setting his sights on anyone who stands in his way. It's the good bad guys against the bad bad guys in this brilliantly crafted, linguistically dense, European wise-guy tale, and readers will find themselves funning for the triumph of lesser evil. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Connolly's stunningly original debut tells the story of a young London gangster who is only 29 but has already made a mark for himself dealing drugs. His goal is to retire at 30 and spend his remaining years far from the danger and double-dealing of London's crime gangs. But like most high rollers, he finds it hard to walk away from "just one more" deal. His latest opportunity--unloading two million Ecstasy tablets--could be just the thing to top off his retirement fund. The deal's irresistible, but our hero soon finds himself undercut, double-crossed, hung out to dry, and struggling to survive. Connolly brilliantly captures the tawdry flamboyance, peculiar camaraderie, creepy characters, and flashpoint violence of the drug world, a place he makes both repugnant and strangely compelling. Even though the dialogue--a combination of drug jargon, vulgarities, British slang, and Cockneyisms--can be hard to grasp, and the plot is occasionally difficult to track, Connolly's slice of low life is utterly mesmerizing. A two-thumbs-up effort by a talented British newcomer. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Our narrator's too smart to tell you his name ("if I [did], you'd be as clever as me"), but he's not afraid to tell you everything else about the "layer cake"-London's intricately arranged constellation of underworld fiefdoms. He's a drug dealer who's planning to retire on his thirtieth birthday-after one last great score-to a life as "a gentleman of leisure." Only problem is his boss, the crime kingpin "don" Jimmy Price, has other plans. He can walk away from the life for good only if he can track down a runaway daughter for Jimmy's old friend. Complicating matters are two million top-grade Ecstasy tablets that were robbed from a factory in Amsterdam by a renegade outfit in Jimmy's employ who are now looking for someone to offload the ill-gotten loot. With an angry mob of German neo-Nazis in hot pursuit, and all crosses and double-crosses leading back to Jimmy, our narrator finds he may have to negotiate a new exit strategy. With a rich supporting cast of dozens of characters, Layer Cake is a gripping, linguistically inventive thriller, a cross between Irvine Welsh and Dennis Lehane that keeps you turning the pages until the very end.
Layer Cake FROM THE PUBLISHER
Our narrator's too smart to tell you his name ("if I [did], you'd be as clever as me"), but he's not afraid to tell you everything else about the "layer cake"-London's intricately arranged constellation of underworld fiefdoms. He's a drug dealer who's planning to retire on his thirtieth birthday-after one last great score-to a life as "a gentleman of leisure." Only problem is his boss, the crime kingpin "don" Jimmy Price, has other plans. He can walk away from the life for good only if he can track down a runaway daughter for Jimmy's old friend. Complicating matters are two million top-grade Ecstasy tablets that were robbed from a factory in Amsterdam by a renegade outfit in Jimmy's employ who are now looking for someone to offload the ill-gotten loot. With an angry mob of German neo-Nazis in hot pursuit, and all crosses and double-crosses leading back to Jimmy, our narrator finds he may have to negotiate a new exit strategy. With a rich supporting cast of dozens of characters, Layer Cake is a gripping, linguistically inventive thriller, a cross between Irvine Welsh and Dennis Lehane that keeps you turning the pages until the very end.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
For those who suspect that the British mob scene is all a matter of splendid talk ( la Bill James and Jake Arnott), additional evidence is supplied by Connolly's dark, quirky first novel, which offers up the verbal "layer cake" that is class-conscious British society, from its plummiest Oxbridge tones to Cockney rhyming slang. What plot there is has to do with the attempt of its nameless 29-year-old go-getter narrator to retire by age 30 alive. When he's introduced to crime boss Jimmy Price, a smoothie who floats effortlessly between the glossy pages of Hello magazine and the underbelly of London's Soho, the narrator thinks he spies his chance. Of course, it's not that easy. The promise of a forthcoming movie starring Daniel Craig and Michael Gambon is the cherry on top of this tasty tidbit. For all larger public libraries. Connolly lives in London. Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Coke dealer looking for easy way out of the criminal life-difficult, you say?As one would expect of a book that's already been filmed in London (to be released here in fall 2004) by a producer of the cinematic lad's bible, Lock, Stick, and Two Smoking Barrels, British author Connolly's first novel is a cool and sinuous crime story, smothered in street jargon and suffused with an abiding love of all that's illegal. The unnamed narrator is a young London dealer who has made himself a pretty piece of change by keeping out of the street muck and turf battles: "I try and turn away people who are messy, who are noisy, who'll get us nicked big time. . . People who are neat and tidy like ourselves we can do business with." Surprisingly, Connolly isn't very interested in jumping right into the meat of his story, but, instead, spends a good deal of time simply listening in as the dealer talks about his business, the ways he maneuvers through London's underground without getting pinched. Even when the plot gets ratcheted up-the dealer is called to a summit meeting at a posh restaurant with his boss, Big Jim, who wants him to locate a friend's missing daughter-the focus is still more on the telling of stories than on a blow-by-blow of who-did-what. There's rarely a moment here when the characters, a garrulous lot to be sure, won't take a dozen or so pages to relate some tale about a mate of theirs and some ruckus he was involved in; fortunately, though, Connolly knows how to spin a good yarn, so this way of proceeding is never a problem. There's more than a little fancifulness here, regardless of how spot-on the argot or knowledge of the vicissitudes of the cocaine game might be. The book still has awhiff of the Tarantino fan about it-meaning that it's an addictive read, for better or for worse. A walloping debut that could well presage a wave of Brit crime lit heading for these shores. Film adaptation directed by Matthew Vaughn, scheduled for 2004 release. Agent: Ed Victor/Ed Victor Ltd.
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