Publication Date: Available Now from Serpents Tail
Source: Review Copy
Didi’s dead. That’s sad. Jack Price isn’t sad, because Jack Price doesn’t care about Didi. Jack Price is just angry, because if anyone was going to brutally murder his cranky old neighbour, it was Jack Price.
The thing you’ve got to know about Jack Price is he is a very modern kind of coke dealer. High-grade zero-hours free-market no-strings narcotics start-up type operation. And some cold-blooded fuck murdering his neighbour doesn’t bode well for business.
But when Jack takes matters into his own hands, he gets a contract taken out on him. An assassination-by-internationally-renowned-terrorist-organisation type contract. Now, on a level playing field against a team of professional killers, Jack would be seven shades of grey matter in a back alley. But Jack Price doesn’t play fair. Jack Price is the Ho Chi Minh, the Warren Buffet, the Miley fucking Cyrus of avenging psychopaths And these guys are gonna pay.
Not your Grandma’s crime novelist. I have no clue who hides behind the pseudonym of Adrian Truhen but whoever it is buy that writer a drink or several because my weekend was just stolen by their creation, the indomitable Jack Price.
This book is cracking. From the opening to the closing it is brilliantly witty, indelibly violently funny and I don’t think I’ve inappropriately giggled and indeed laughed out loud at so many twisted, dark and horrible things as I have whilst reading this book. Ever.
Meet Jack Price. He’s actually quite a lovely drug dealing type. He doesn’t hook children, or use mules, he pays well, earns well and pretty much minds his own business. Then his downstairs neighbour is brutally killed. Jack is vaguely annoyed by this, asks a couple of questions, finds himself the subject of a contract and well, then he gets REALLY pissed off and chaos ensues…
In a nutshell this book is it’s subject matter. Told entirely by Jack, a thinking man’s psychopath, you are entirely dragged along in his wake as he sets out to take down those who seek to destroy him. He doesn’t care who they kill to get to him, he occasionally has a vaguely thoughtful moral moment but soon blows that off and his ingenious and extraordinarily ghastly plans come to fruition in a horrifying yet really really entertaining way. So sue me I laughed at severed heads and fist pumped the air at random blood, death and violence – I just simply could not help it.
From his opinion on Finding Nemo – “the darkest most f***** up thing I have ever seen in my life” – to his admittance that “everyone’s the morally conflicted hero of their own narrative” to his internal ironic snigger at “I’m Jack Price – that’s the Price you pay” he is one of the most amusing, captivating and downright engaging anti-heroes ever. The plot fairly rocks along, there’s no time to take stock, what I loved was he wasn’t infallible by any means, so it’s not at all predictable and things just get darker as you go.
The Price You Pay is simply intoxicating, I almost did feel a little inebriated after reading it. This is one of those books that is exhilarating for all the wrong reasons which of course make them all the right literary reasons and I loved every single last word of it. Bring on more.
All I can shout now is “LUCILLE!”
You’ll see. This one is not to be missed for those that like their crime drama dark and twisted as all hell.
Get Mad. Get Even. Get Paid (What type of loser stops at getting even…)
HIGHLY Recommended.
Happy Reading!
