Author:Zane Radcliffe
'She emerged from a flurry of windblown rose petals, her pale skin interrupted at regular intervals by bands of red - scarlet bob, scarlet lips, cropped scarlet top, scarlet mini, scarlet knee socks, scarlet boots. She looked like a barber's pole, or a lolly that had to be licked.'
Scarlet plucks her twelve-string guitar with nails the colour of glazed cherries and Belfast music hack Jessie (Jay to his friends) Black is smitten. He charms his way on to her tour bus as her band head for Dublin, but the second they cross the border he feels the heat of a sniper's bullet...
Who wants Jay dead? Or rather, who doesn't want him dead? Any number of people might, with some justification, have pulled the trigger. There's Scarlet's stalker, the gun-toting shoe fetishist. And the still-grieving widow of Northern Ireland's international goalkeeper, Miles Huggins, who Jay inadvertently killed. Not to mention the property magnate who was blackmailed into handing Jay the key's to Belfast's first-ever million-pound flat. Or the RUC Chief Constable who has given Jay an ultimatum. Or, now you come to mention it, how about Sinn Fein numero uno Martin O'Hanlon, whose cover Jay's been strong-armed into exposing? However it's when Scarlet goes missing that things start getting serious and Jay has to go it alone.
A story of blackmail, corruption and exploding peacocks, 'Big Jessie' is the new firecracker thriller from the author of the WHSmith Award-winning 'London Irish'.
Coe has huge powers of observation and enormous literary panache
—— Sunday TimesJonathan Coe's a fine writer who seems to try something new with every book
—— David NichollsThere are bits that make you laugh out loud and others which make your heart ache
—— Guardian (on The House of Sleep)Wonderful writing...there is not much fiction around that is as good as this
—— Daily TelegraphDelightful...this is rich prose which demands thought. It's also wickedly funny and a great read
—— thebookbag.co.ukQuite brilliant in every sense of the word
—— David Evans , Independent on SundayA very funny book about a sensitive subject ... Ben Elton the writer might even be funniter than Ben Elton the comic
—— Daily MailSomething rarer than a great novel -- it is a perfect novel, so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving, that it takes your breath away...few stories this sad could be so secretly triumphant, or so exhilarating.
—— New York TimesA beautiful and moving novel, as sweeping, intimate and mysterious as life itself
—— Geoff DyerThe most extraordinary work of fiction I've read in a long time... If you're looking for a book that's simple and subtle, warmly human and at the same time utterly pitiless in his rendition of the vicissitudes of an ordinary existence, here's one you will read again and again
—— New StatesmanUnquestionably one of the finest novels of the 20th century, its genius lies in its candour and in prose that simmers with subtle intent.
—— Irish TimesThe word-of-mouth hit of the summer. Read it and you’ll see why
—— Daily TelegraphIt’s as if this novel is about all of us: our hopes, disappointments and sorrows… a lesson in values, told with love and awe
—— Bel Mooney , Daily MailA wonderful novel, rich and sombre, a record of pain and less but also of moments of vision and tenderness... flawless
—— Adam Foulds , IndependentThis short-but-striking novel quickly reveals itself to be…crime fiction, yes, but also a subtle and deeply introspective consideration of the inertia of lonely middle-age, its philosophy existentialist in the manner of Jean Paul Sartre, Ingmar Bergman and certain novels of Georges Simenon. The result is a highly complex and accomplished work
—— Billy O'Callaghan , Irish ExaminerIntriguing tale… Solstad expertly navigates the bizarre mind of a clever but lonely man locked in an existentialist nightmare
—— TelegraphThis is no straightforward crime novel…an exploration of guilt, inaction and moral quandaries
—— Nic Bottomley , Bath Life
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