Russell James has been named “the Godfather of Noir” by Ian Rankin. Russell writes crime novels - about criminals and victims, not the cozy procedural or whodunnit. He is the editor of Great British Fictional Detectives.
Here’s a superior piece of crime writing, written in a punchy, filmic style reminiscent, surprisingly enough, of Damon Galgut’s Booker Prize winning The Promise. But their plots are very different.
Set in Montevideo it begins with the attempted robbery of an armoured car, foiled by two other crims, Ursula and Diego, watched and then hunted down by Antinucci the crooked lawyer, all three of whom are pursued separately by a cop and a private detective (both female) – with the book taking us into the minds of each one of them, and the scenes flicking by as in a movie while the hapless Diego disappears with the loot and everyone chases everyone else and he hides in a darkened room until, inevitably, he emerges with the money and everyone goes after Ursula, the unlikely but enjoyable heroine of this madcap introduction to chaotic but equally enjoyable Uruguay. A bonus is, that unlike too many crime novels today, this comes to an unexpected and fine climax, set appropriately enough in a graveyard where ghosts of the past wait to be appeased.
