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Shovel Ready

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LoveReading Says

LoveReading Says

A Maxim Jakubowski selected title.

Dystopias come and go, but some hit you in the gut with a vengeance. This is one of them. A dirty bomb has exploded in New York's Time Square and the whole city's fabric has fallen apart. Against this apocalyptic background Spademan is a killer for hire with a mortal touch with a box-cutter, disillusioned, his own background a terrible mystery.

Hired to eliminate the daughter of a high-profile evangelist, the ex garbage man stumbles across a major conspiracy that disturbs his pragmatic status quo and upends his life. Troubling, witty, near future hardboiled noir with an anti-hero with a touch of the Philip Marlowes but without the sentimentality.

A most pleasing blend of crime and science fiction that appears the be the first in a series. I will certainly read the next instalment.

Sarah Broadhurst's view...

A hard-boiled, violent tale of life and death in a dystopian future. We are in New York but it is a New York that is a sick place. A dirty bomb packed with nuclear waste went off in Times Square and ever since the city has been a lawless near-wilderness. The poor get by the best they can. The rich have an interesting way to escape.

Our protagonist is a tough, amoral, efficient killer. Told in a staccato style with lots of horrible characters and serious violence, the author drives his story forward fast following the twisted logic of the world he has created to a gory conclusion. If you like your thrillers hard and fast this is terrific.

Denzel Washington is reputed to want to play the lead should it be filmed – I expect it will be. Dark and violent, it is not for the squeamish.

Maxim Jakubowski
Reviewed by Maxim Jakubowski
Maxim Jakubowski is a London-based novelist and editor.
More reviews by Maxim Jakubowski
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About Shovel Ready

'I don't want to know your reasons. I don't care. Think of me as a bullet.

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