Dead I Well May Be is a new generation of hard-boiled noir, featuring a young Irishman brought over to early-nineties New York to work as muscle for a mobster.
Adrian McKinty’s strong and fast-moving debut benefits greatly from his writing style, with a strong sense of place and a great ear for the Irish dialect and idioms. The plot is fast and furious, with great pacing and inevitability. It’s one of those novels that keep you reading way too late into the night.
Dead I Well May Be does suffer a bit from the narrator’s lack of pathos, coming across more as if he’s suffering from Asperger’s than from a violent childhood in Belfast during the Troubles.
That aside, though, it’s a gripping read.
Posted Monday, 07 May, 2007 by Nic Lindh
Another book roundup, including some stellar athletes and soldiers, what might be the most jaded, soul-weary protagonist ever, and some grimdark fantasy.
The Internet is getting creepy, and Nic is breaking out his tinfoil hat after newspaper paywalls push him over the edge.
Nic is tired of tech sites obsessing over Apple’s financials and business strategy. So very tired.
Nic reads a book about the processed food industry and is incensed.
Computers are complicated. This brings out the irrational in people.
Nic proposes the loan word Rechthaberei be incorporated into American English.
The Core Dump is back! Books were read during the hiatus. Includes The Coldest Winter, Oh, Myyy!, Tough Sh*t, The Revolution Was Televised, The Rook, Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, Gun Machine, Fortress Frontier, Standing in Another Man’s Grave, and The Memory of Light.
This site will return in February.
From a true patriot to a world-weary detective, a dead god, and a civilization about to sublime from the galaxy, this book roundup spans the gamut. Includes Where Men Win Glory, Wild, Inside the Box, The Black Box, Three Parts Dead, Red Country, and The Hydrogen Sonata.
Springsteen gives a concert in Phoenix. It’s fantastic.