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Shaking Hands with the Devil

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Shaking Hands with the Devil

By: Bryan J. Mason
Narrated by: Bryan J. Mason
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About this listen

WE ARE ON THIS CASE LIKE A BONER FIDO BLOODHOUND...
AND MY MEN ARE BARKING AT THE LEASH

In this darkly comic novel, Clifton Gentle is an ordinary man without much to distinguish him. Not much, that is, apart from being a serial killer who is leaving bits of his young male victims scattered around North London.

DCI Dave Hicks is the larger than life policeman determined to catch him. His attempts to find ‘the nutter' through a combination of spoonerisms, personal abuse and a belief that something will turn up don't go well. All that turns up are yet more body parts.

In a sleazy London dogged by growing squalor and an IRA bombing campaign in the last days of Margaret Thatcher's premiership, the gruesome murders spur an over-the-top media and merchandising frenzy.

The hunt becomes an increasingly personal one and a race against the clock as Clifton, Dave Hicks, a would-be victim, and a copycat killer each try to uncover what - or who - they hold responsible for their own problems.

©2021 Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Ltd (P)2023 Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Ltd Crime Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Fiction Crime Murder Suspense England
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Shaking Hands With The Devil is set in late 80s/early 90s London and is very evocative of the atmosphere and daily life in ordinary places like the tube, supermarkets, and Soho. The story is told via the alternating perspectives of a policeman and a killer. DCI Dave Hicks is a sort of North London Inspector Clouseau, who despite his ridiculousness is thankfully more relatable and likeable than buttoned up serial killer Clifton Gentle, based loosely on Dennis Nilsen. The comedy around Hicks is more broad and his thoughts and Malapropisms frequently made me laugh out loud. The dilemmas and farce around Clifton Gentle drive the plot forward. There's a reasonable amount of death and sex seen from Clifton's detached point of view, which read like a cross between Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and Mark Corrigan from Peep Show - treading a fine line between disturbing, cringe and amusing. The twists and resolution were unexpected and work well - and like all the best crime fiction it ends at the very end, without needing a multi page explanation. In the passing character names and locations, there are many half-hidden references to the cases of other serial killers - little easter eggs for true crime fans. And Bryan Mason's reading of his characters is great - very funny. Bring on the next one. I'd like to spend more time with DCI Hicks.

Funny and very enjoyable comic literary crime fiction, brilliantly read by the author

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