I cannot believe I have only now got round to reading an Iain Banks book. I have been meaning to for ages. Then at the library recently, while looking through the crime novels, I picked up Complicity. Boy, what a writer. Highly charged, tense, well crafted and totally absorbing. - I rarely put it down.
Cameron Colley is a journalist, who in his spare time is obsessed with a computer game called Despot, smokes spliffs, does other narcotics, drinks and does a little mild S&M with his friend's wife. He is on to a big story, chasing around after clues until he is picked up by the police and suddenly he is in the frame for murder and serious assault. There was a time I thought I knew who the baddie was - no - I was wrong. The novel keeps you guessing. There is backstory where Colley views his life, his friends, trying to piece together how he came to be here until he finds the one name to offer the police - one he cannot believe. That puts in play the chase as the police pursue this person, but is it already too late for those close to Colley?
I loved the way Iain banks used the second person viewpoint for the killer and how he ramped up the action with the killer's thoughts and methods. From those opening lines I knew the killer had a moral bent (only restrained those who happened to be there when he attacked and seemed sorry if he had to hurt someone else - his violence was for the person he came for).
Brilliantly written, explicit in detail - an all consuming read. I see Banks wrote Stonemouth, which was adapted for TV recently. I toyed with the idea of watching this but never got round to it. Maybe I will read the book instead. After reading this I wonder, could another be as good? I shall have to find out!
Cameron Colley is a journalist, who in his spare time is obsessed with a computer game called Despot, smokes spliffs, does other narcotics, drinks and does a little mild S&M with his friend's wife. He is on to a big story, chasing around after clues until he is picked up by the police and suddenly he is in the frame for murder and serious assault. There was a time I thought I knew who the baddie was - no - I was wrong. The novel keeps you guessing. There is backstory where Colley views his life, his friends, trying to piece together how he came to be here until he finds the one name to offer the police - one he cannot believe. That puts in play the chase as the police pursue this person, but is it already too late for those close to Colley?
I loved the way Iain banks used the second person viewpoint for the killer and how he ramped up the action with the killer's thoughts and methods. From those opening lines I knew the killer had a moral bent (only restrained those who happened to be there when he attacked and seemed sorry if he had to hurt someone else - his violence was for the person he came for).
Brilliantly written, explicit in detail - an all consuming read. I see Banks wrote Stonemouth, which was adapted for TV recently. I toyed with the idea of watching this but never got round to it. Maybe I will read the book instead. After reading this I wonder, could another be as good? I shall have to find out!
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