Overview
How much blood would you spill to avenge those you love?
Andy Park passes out at the sight of blood, but he thinks he’s discovered a way to make his family’s enemies pay. He isn’t prepared for the fallout, though, when his teenage son is put in mortal danger and his daughter and her fiancé are forced to carry out his dirty work.
And yet Park’s world is peachy in comparison to Tommy Savage’s. A masked man known only as Mr. Smith is blackmailing Savage—for what, he has no idea. And after an attempt to gain the upper hand has near-fatal results, Tommy and his brother, Phil, find themselves heading to a graveyard with only a couple of swords and a bag of cash for company.
Will they survive the night?
Will anyone?
With equal parts blood phobia and blood lust, Allan Guthrie’s Savage Night unfolds over six short blood-blind hours in Scotland’s capital city.
Synopsis
How much blood would you spill to avenge those you love?
Andy Park passes out at the sight of blood, but he thinks he’s discovered a way to make his family’s enemies pay. He isn’t prepared for the fallout, though, when his teenage son is put in mortal danger and his daughter and her fiancé are forced to carry out his dirty work.
And yet Park’s world is peachy in comparison to Tommy Savage’s. A masked man known only as Mr. Smith is blackmailing Savage—for what, he has no idea. And after an attempt to gain the upper hand has near-fatal results, Tommy and his brother, Phil, find themselves heading to a graveyard with only a couple of swords and a bag of cash for company.
Will they survive the night?
Will anyone?
With equal parts blood phobia and blood lust, Allan Guthrie’s Savage Night unfolds over six short blood-blind hours in Scotland’s capital city.
Publishers Weekly
Set in Edinburgh, this gutsy crime novel from Edgar-finalist Guthrie (Hard Man) tweaks the tired conventions of the genre in refreshing ways. Seasoned ex-con Andy Park is doing his best to keep his family together: son Richie is a contract killer and currently in prison; his psycho daughter, Effie, is recently released; and his invalid wife, Liz, needs the kind of care he can't afford. Effie comes up with the perfect scheme to solve all their problems—blackmail the sleazy businessman, Tommy Savage, who put out the hit on her boyfriend's father. When Savage starts getting calls from a "Mr. Smith" demanding 50 grand or else, Savage enlists his ne'er-do-well brother, Phil, and son Fraser as back up for a money exchange with the Parks. In the ensuing mayhem the two families wreak enough havoc on each other to satisfy Shakespeare. Fans of Ken Bruen, Derek Raymond and Jim Thompson will love this stylish, blood-drenched tartan noir. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Set in Edinburgh, this gutsy crime novel from Edgar-finalist Guthrie (Hard Man) tweaks the tired conventions of the genre in refreshing ways. Seasoned ex-con Andy Park is doing his best to keep his family together: son Richie is a contract killer and currently in prison; his psycho daughter, Effie, is recently released; and his invalid wife, Liz, needs the kind of care he can't afford. Effie comes up with the perfect scheme to solve all their problems—blackmail the sleazy businessman, Tommy Savage, who put out the hit on her boyfriend's father. When Savage starts getting calls from a "Mr. Smith" demanding 50 grand or else, Savage enlists his ne'er-do-well brother, Phil, and son Fraser as back up for a money exchange with the Parks. In the ensuing mayhem the two families wreak enough havoc on each other to satisfy Shakespeare. Fans of Ken Bruen, Derek Raymond and Jim Thompson will love this stylish, blood-drenched tartan noir. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
The Edinburgh of Ian Rankin becomes far darker and bloodier in Guthrie's latest crime novel (after Hard Man), with only occasional comedic relief. This one is a kind of noir farce in which two families, at first unaware of the connection, systematically try to kill off each other in especially unpleasant ways. Tommy Savage, a smuggler gone straight, is being blackmailed, but he isn't sure why. His brother and his older son are beheaded at the direction of Andy Park, who believes that Tommy is responsible for his own son's death 20 years earlier. Unfortunately for Park, he faints at the sight of blood, so he must involve his family in the vendetta, and the bodies pile up. Some chapters are preludes to explain events we already know and the point of view varies, but the whole is skillfully told, with all the events occurring in just a few hours. Edgar nominee Guthrie's earlier works may have more humor, but all emphasize the mean Scottish streets with just a few heroes in sight. This contemporary version of the hard-boiled pulps is not for the squeamish. For larger crime fiction collections.
—Roland Person