Neil Cross

Upside, Neil Cross has written some fantastic recent books.  Downside, LUTHER THE CALLING has a connection with a TV series which I've never seen.  So interesting to see if a fabulous author has written a fabulous book, regardless of whatever's been going on over on the small screen.  Especially as, I believe, this has been a reverse adaptation with the TV series coming before the book.

The most important thing about any of this author's books is that, particularly as he has such a name as a scriptwriter, there's nothing filmic or screen treatment about the books.  These are fully fleshed out stories, with strong characters, really good plots and whilst there's nothing staid about the books, there's nothing obviously "treatment" about them either.  This factor is a particular relief for this reader who has ploughed through way too many film scripts loosely disguised as novels over the years to be at all comfortable.  

What is particularly worthwhile about this book is the character of DCI John Luther, a moody, difficult, man with a volatile personality and absolute tunnel vision when it comes to getting the bad guy.  Rules are broken, lines aren't just crossed - they are obliterated and bridges go up in smoke as Luther strides through the world that Cross builds in LUTHER.  Despite the moodiness, despite the intensity of this character, Cross is also able to pull off a fantastic storytelling style.  Crisp, pointed yet descriptive, Luther and the world he occupies come vividly to life.

So in a poor attempt to take a leaf from the author's own book:  LUTHER's a fantastic character.  LUTHER THE CALLING is brutal, in your face, fabulous.

One of the things that I've really come to expect from author Neil Cross is not quite knowing what to expect when you pick up one of this books.  CAPTURED is the latest in a set of standalone novels that have just all been fantastic, and I'm happy to report that CAPTURED keeps up the standard.

When Kenny finds out he has a matter of weeks to live he draws up the sort of list that I guess many of us might draw up.  People that he wants to clear the air with.  He starts out tracking down the man who, as a little boy had been nearly abducted.  Kenny had seen the suspect trailing the boy, and yet, when the police questioned him, he wasn't able to provide much detail.  Kenny wants to apologise.  He wants to make things right with his ex-wife, and still closest friend, but somehow he can't quite get to her name just yet.  So he tries to track down his old school-yard friend.  Callie had been kind to Kenny when he was a loner, awkward, a kid that didn't quite fit in.  Callie, unfortunately, isn't easy to find, in fact she has disappeared in unexpected circumstances.  Kenny wants to to make things right, and yet, despite his best intentions it ends up not right.  About as far from right as you can possibly get.

CAPTURED is just one of the most fascinating novels I've read in a long time.  Kenny is a character that will endear you to him, freak you out completely, but in the end, you just can't help but feel so desperately for a man for whom the best of intentions somehow manage to go so incredibly wrong.  His complete inability to pull back from the abyss is intriguing.  Is it human nature or is it something to do with the ticking time bomb in his brain?  Tightly told, quick moving and tense, at no stage does CAPTURED read like a script despite Cross having credentials as a screenwriter.  It's also not just a story about Kenny.  There are other characters in this book who stand out from the page - the people who help Kenny and support him, and those who come up against him.

If there is anything at all that links Cross's recent books (NATURAL HISTORY / BURIAL and now CAPTURED) it is possibly the theme of the ordinary, flawed human being, pushed way outside their comfort zone.  Add to that a talent for creating bleak and vaguely threatening settings; crisp, spare yet beautifully flowing prose and characterisations that tear at the heartstrings even when they are doing the unforgivable and it just has to be said.  Do yourselves a favour.  CAPTURED is a one sitting, absolutely tremendous, extremely disturbing book that you'll not forget in a hurry. 

Neil Cross really knows how to put together a story.  More importantly, in BURIAL, his second crime fiction novel, he's absolutely not afraid to write a very morally ambiguous central character.  

When Nathan meets up with journalist Bob again at a drug fuelled party at his bosses house, he did something incredibly stupid.  He was young and restless but just maybe he wasn't the one that killed a young girl that night.  Maybe she wasn't actually killed but just died in very wrong circumstances.  He certainly had a part in covering up her death.  Somehow that isn't the worst thing he's ever done, not when you consider the circumstances of his marriage.  But then, what pathetic little Nathan has made of his life is badly threatened when Bob returns with some devastating news about that night.

Either way, BURIAL takes the reader into a world that's populated by some pretty unpleasant people.  Nathan's boss - the washed up radio DJ who is, well tacky.  The journalist Bob, just a bit off, or maybe a whole lot worse than that.  Nathan - on the one hand easily led, a loser who spends his life compensating for one night where he was too pathetic to do the right thing.  And now it's almost impossible to do the right thing, and keep his life comfortable, and happy and the way he wants it to be.  Maybe a job as a greeting card salesman is as close to retribution as he's ever going to get, it's hard to tell, Nathan's internal dialogue is pretty good at convincing him that there's nothing wrong with his life and he's not a loser, despite the distinct undertone that he thinks he probably really is.

The interesting thing about BURIAL is that the pace simply never lets up, and whilst it's just not easy to sympathise with Nathan, it's very very easy to want to know what happens to him, where he goes with his life, how is he going to make things normal or right.  You also can't help but care about some of the people around Nathan - his wife, her parents.  

Neil Cross is undoubtedly a very accomplished writer. You're not likely to enjoy the ride with BURIAL, you're probably going to end up disliking just about everybody and everything in this book.  For all of that I couldn't put it down, and I simply can't forget.  If you haven't read his first crime fiction novel - NATURAL HISTORY - then BURIAL is an option as they aren't part of a series (having said that no reason why you shouldn't read NATURAL HISTORY as well as BURIAL!).