Davie Craig is a Dead Man
Anyone who follows my reviews will know that I
am a big fan of Ryan Bracha. To try and
sum up his writing style would be trite ..I just couldn’t do it justice. However I was talking to a very well read
friend recently about Bracha and a few other authors who have grabbed my
imagination and he advised that my description of Bracha’s writing style would
sit comfortably as similar in style to Ernest Hemmingway (Having not read any
of Ernie’s books to date, I can’t confirm). What I will say (again) is that he
writes in a manner that grabs the reader’s attention right from the off. It’s
all about dialogue and interaction. You
won’t find any paragraph-long descriptions of the ripples in a puddle that a
character has just walked through to show off the writers writing prowess. It’s
all about the story and the characters. I find this is ideal for me, as a
dyslexic reader who struggles to remember what he’s read. It’s no coincidence
that I am able to plough through his books at a much quicker speed that most
other writers.
It was the same with his latest offering,
“Davie Craig is a dead man”. This is the third and final part of his dead man trilogy (check my reviews for
“Paul Carter is a dead man” and “Ben Turner is a dead man”..if you haven’t read
them, then I would strongly urge you to do so). Each of the books depicts a
“New Britain” that has literally closed its doors to the rest of the world,
Scotland and Ireland included, where law enforcement penalties are decided by a
gullible and susceptible British public via “the Network” ..(social media gone mad).
Books 1 & 2 see an uprising started by a
small and very motley group of rebels led by the irascible Paul Carter. He is
joined by the cute but deadly Katie and the downright mad bastard that is Ben
Turner..and later in book 2 we meet the terrifying, but oddly attractive Nat
Sweeney.
By Book 3 Davie Craig is a Dead Man, the group
have initially dispersed and Ben and Nat’s psychopathic tendencies rise to new
and enthralling heights. In fact I would go as far to say that in this book
their characters rise to the fore to such an extent that they are probably the
main characters despite the books title (Davie Craig is also a psycho like, but
he has nothing on those two).
Davie Criag is a dead man also reveals a new
twist, showing how New Britain has become the laughing stock of the world, as
the world looks on with malevolent enjoyment at the uprising, which in turn brings out the
most sadistic acts of violence from our heroes and heroines yet.
There are new characters, such as Gareth, Roan
and Jacob (Jacob reminding me of a character called Bracha in Mark Wilsons
Deadinburgh trilogy) that speed the
story along to its inevitable conclusion. I don’t want to ruin the plot so I
will finish here and just add that I cannot recommend this book highly
enough..violent, thought provoking, funny as fuck and even a little romantic.
It says it all that I was kinda heartbroken
when the book finished and I realised I won’t get to read anymore about this
wonderful bunch of mad bastards. I am
genuinely gutted.
Please take my advice and read all 3 of these
books immediately and once you have read them, go and seek out the rest of
Bracha’s works. For me he remains the most exciting writer around and only
seems to improve with each book.
An easy 5 out of 5
