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.
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.
'I don't want to know your reasons. I don't care. Think of me as a bullet. Just point.'Spademan used to be a garbage man. That was before the dirty bomb hit Times Square, before his wife was killed, before New York became a burnt-out shell. Now the wealthy spend their days tapped into virtual reality; the rest have to fend for themselves in the streets. Now there's nothing but garbage.So he became a hit man. He doesn't ask questions, he works quickly, and he's handy with a box-cutter. When he's hired to kill the daughter of a high-profile evangelist, Spademan's life is upended. He will have to navigate two worlds - both the slick fantasy and the wasteland reality - to finish the job, clear his conscience, and make sure he's not the one who winds up in the ground.
| Primary Genre | Fiction |
| Recommendations: |
'I don't want to know your reasons. I don't care.
Shovel Ready features in the following genres: Fiction, eBooks of the Month, Recommendations
Paperback. Not Available.
Shovel Ready was written by Adam Sternbergh and published by Headline an imprint of Headline Publishing Group
Shovel Ready has 256 pages
