The hollow man A novel

Oliver Harris, 1978-

Book - 2012

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MYSTERY/Harris Oliver
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Subjects
Genres
Mystery fiction
Published
New York : Bourbon Street Books c2012.
Language
English
Main Author
Oliver Harris, 1978- (-)
Edition
1st U.S. ed
Item Description
Originally published: London : Jonathan Cape, 2011.
Physical Description
470 p. ; 21 cm
ISBN
9780062136718
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

A few pages into this British procedural, we recall Norman Mailer's observation that the police are a criminal class whose antisocial impulses are harnessed for the common good. London police detective Nick Belsey is a mess, even by noir standards: we meet him passed out facedown in a car park. Reporting for work, he's the only one around when a missing-person report floats in. He investigates just to flee the office and discovers the vanished man is filthy rich. His IDs are on a desk, there for the taking. Wouldn't it be nice if Belsey could don the fellow's identity and disappear with millions? The dream goes dark when Belsey finds himself hunted by shadowy men with automatic weapons. The narrative is buoyed by good writing and piercing insights, but the overlong midsection slows just enough for readers to notice the plot is growing murky rather than complex. And is our heel-hero really a study in conflict or a have-it-both-ways fraud, true blue under a raffish surface? That's the real puzzle, and one thoughtful readers will relish.--Crinklaw, Don Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

British author Harris's searing first novel, a noir police procedural, features the anti-est of antiheroes, Det. Constable Nick Belsey, who wakes up one morning on Hampstead Heath, bruised, bloody, keyless, walletless, watchless, homeless, and bankrupt. From this low point, Belsey undertakes a personal investigation into the apparent suicide of Alexei Devereux, a high-flying international financier, whose ritzy Hampstead house becomes his secret pied-a-terre for his attempt to use Devereux's resources as startup capital to escape the mess he's made of his life. Supported by a convincing cast of reporters, policemen bent and otherwise, and villains great and small, Belsey draws on his intimate knowledge of London's criminal underworld to unravel Project Boudicca, a multimillion-euro scheme to make gambling Britain's 21st-century version of heroin. At one point, during an extended London pub crawl, Belsey feels "mystery settling in layers, like snow." Readers should be prepared for a mind-bending resolution that hurtles down as remorselessly as an avalanche. Agent, George Lucas, Inkwell Management. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Nick Belsey's life as a police detective in London is out of control, and he is almost out of time before it all falls apart. Bankrupt and homeless, Nick finds himself crashed on Hampstead Heath in a stolen police car. Trying to string along a few more days before the disintegration of his life is revealed, he begins to think he's found a way out of the mess when he investigates a missing persons call in wealthy Bishops Lane and finds a Russian oligarch who appears to have walked away from his life and a great deal of money. Nick steps into the Russian's shoes only to discover that people known to be working with the Russian are ending up dead. VERDICT Debut author Harris maintains the tension and suspense from the first sentence to the last. His antihero is engaging, and readers will be rooting for him all the way to the final plot twist.-Lisa Hanson O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Lib., Winnipeg (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.