Winner of the inaugural Spinetingler
Best
Novel -- New Voice
hard man
shortlisted for the Last
Laugh Award for humorous crime novels.
The full shortlist is:
Declan Burke, The Big O
Ruth Dudley Edwards, Murdering Americans
Chris Ewan, The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam
Allan Guthrie, Hard Man
Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
Mike Ripley, Angel's Share
L. C. Tyler, The Herring Seller's Apprentice
Donald Westlake, What's So Funny?
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"If this novel had emerged from a
high school creative writing class its young author would now be under
heavily guarded psychiatric care." |
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____________________________ Has Pearce finally found his match? The time-served Edinburgh hard man is still recovering from the loss of his mother when he’s invited by the dysfunctional Baxter family to protect their pregnant 16-year-old daughter from Wallace, her 26-year-old husband. Having found out that the baby’s not his, Wallace – a man with a reputation for violence – has sworn vengeance. Pearce declines the job: he’s no babysitter. But when Wallace starts taunting Pearce, he goes too far. Before long, Pearce is forced to confront him. Now it’s deeply personal. Time to find out who the real hard man is... |
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____________________________ "Hard
Man is actually a couple of books, both of them excellent" "dramatic
and fun" "Chandler meets Titus Andronicus on the blasted heath of Scotland's urban underclass." The Age "Allan
Guthrie has followed up his snappy Two-Way Split
and the so-cruel Kiss
Her Goodbye with a novel of violence, humor and deeply cynical pathos....Guthrie keeps his
edge sharp and the reader on edge with Hard Man." Crimespree
Magazine "a
brisk and suitably boisterous read, punctuated by some bone crunching fights and
inventive swearing" "Guthrie's
blithe sense of humor and inventive approach to the worst-case scenario make
this a recommendation." Booklist |
____________________________ "If
there's going to be a better crime novel in 2007, it's one that will have to do
a lot to beat Hard Man." "very funny" Do The Math "impossible to put down" "character-driven
and exciting" "one
of those books that makes you wonder what the writer will come up with next"
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____________________________ "HARD MAN is at once
highly stylized and brutally realistic--the love-child of hardboiled fiction and
crime reporting--and the experience of reading it is like none you've had."
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WHAT SOME VERY KIND AUTHORS SAID
“What Robert Aldrich and Sam Fuller did to cinema, Allan Guthrie is doing to
British crime fiction, and Hard Man is a perfect example of Guthrie's
godless world: violent, grotesque, hilarious and offensive in equal
measure. The man is the king of Tartan Noir and I'll cut anyone who says
different.” Ray Banks
“Blew
me to hell and gone … line on line of wondrous expression … moved me in ways
that hurt.” Ken Bruen
"Allan Guthrie is a bare-knuckle
storyteller with a twinkle in his eye and a knife in his boot. Hard Man
kept me grinning, wincing, and guessing right up until the wicked, wistful end.
I loved it." Sean Doolittle
"a book of
savage extremes – boisterous, violent, unflinching, and utterly
brilliant" Chris Ewan
“I
managed to get my hot little hands on an advance copy of Allan Guthrie's
forthcoming novel Hard Man. I was knocked out by Guthrie’s Kiss Her
Goodbye…which didn’t take the ‘06 Anthony for best paperback original,
but should have. Hard Man is just as brilliant only blacker, uglier and
really fucking funny. And did I mention Scottish? Yeah, Scottish Noir. It rocks.
Mistress Christa highly recommends it. Meanwhile, go read Kiss while
you’re waiting for Hard Man. You won’t be sorry.” Christa Faust
“Scorched
earth writing. A hurtling, high-wire ballet of hard-boiled violence. The last
two-thirds of Hard Man is one screaming aria. Riveting, nasty,
dark, violent and utterly compelling. I couldn’t put it down.” Denise
Hamilton
“Fantastic—humor
noir! Guthrie’s skill in creating lovable maniacs, quirky animal behavior and
entertaining slang far surpasses the boundaries of crime fiction with uniqueness
and heart. A memorable treat!” Vicki Hendricks
"Dark, twisted, violent, and brilliant." Stuart MacBride
"The characters of Allan Guthrie's Hard Man suffer all the consequences that pluck and thick-skulled stupidity can bring upon them, and Guthrie describes it all with skill, wit, and originality: I promise this is a story you haven't read before." Thomas Perry
"Hard
Man is bursting not just with violence, energy and realism, but with
heart, soul and humour. It's the book that sees Allan Guthrie step up
from being one of the most ferociously talented and talked about new crime
writers to emerge in
