Complicity - Hardcover

Banks, Iain

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385475403 ISBN 13: 9780385475402

Publisher: Nan A. Talese, 1994

Synopsis

Cameron Colley, a cheerfully subversive journalist, is suspected of committing a series of revenge crimes against vicious criminals and must clear his name by finding the vigilante--but the real culprit turns out to be very close to home.

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Reviews

In 1984, Banks's first novel, The Wasp Factory, attained cult status in England for its accomplished yet brutal portrait of a serial killer. His newest novel (after Against a Dark Background) carries on that tradition by centering on a series of cruel, if poetically just, killings. The point of view shifts back and forth between that of the unnamed murderer, whose outrages are presented in the second person, and that of an Edinburgh-based journalist, Cameron Colley, who's tracking the killer and whose story is told in the first person. The police think that Colley, who models himself slavishly on "St. Hunter" (Hunter S. Thompson)-downing double whiskeys, smoking dope, speaking a gonzo slang and carrying on an S&M affair with a married woman- is the murderer. Certainly, Colley feels a certain admiration for that avenging angel, who tailors his punishments to fit his victims' supposed crimes, e.g., brutally raping a judge who once exhibited leniency to a rapist. Banks's handling of this volatile scenario is extremely graphic, sadistic-and rather obvious, though effective. He's a good enough writer to seduce readers into sharing not only Colley's admiration for the killer but also, through his use of the second person, the killer's relish in the act of murder: complicity, indeed.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An engrossing thriller in which all the murder victims apparently deserve, if not their cruel fates, at least a reckoning, leaving the hero (and the reader) with a guilty sense of admiration and appreciation for the clever serial killer. Scottish novelist Banks (Canal Dreams, 1991, etc.) takes as his protagonist Edinburgh journalist Cameron Colley, who smokes too much, drinks too much, plays seriously with hard drugs, and is addicted to computer games. A mysterious informant is feeding him just enough information to get him running about the countryside trying to track down a major story that shimmers enticingly just beyond his grasp. The stakes are raised when Colley, a not altogether likable but unfailingly interesting character, is implicated in a series of carefully planned assaults, most of them deadly and each with a message to send. Irresponsible businessmen, a pornographer, an incompetent doctor, a judge whose leniency set a convicted rapist free to strike again--vengeance is wreaked upon them and others like them, one by one, in a series of vignettes intercut with Colley's story. Both the journalist and the chief investigator on the case become convinced that the killer is someone close to Colley, who can determine who it is if he puts his mind to it. As Colley racks his brain, a series of flashbacks lead him inevitably to the vigilante's identity and, more importantly, to revelations about his past and his personality that give the book more-than-genre substance. Certain weaknesses will bother some readers--the revelation of the killer's identity seems not to have the dramatic impact that it should, for example--but these are overshadowed by the intriguing central character and a cleverly devised plot. Literate and satisfying, with a very nice ending. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Although this remarkable novel will first strike readers as a burned-out journalist's distasteful account of his pathetically shallow and lonely life, it soon becomes clear that author Banks is just playing cat-and-mouse with his audience. Before long, we are mesmerized by Banks' violent and disturbing story about a latter-day avenger who's lost faith in the system's ability to punish wrongdoers. Cameron Colley, a Scottish journalist, is a disillusioned but likable cokehead who treats life--and the articles he writes for his Edinburgh newspaper--with cheerful disdain. While Cameron is blithely snorting coke, somewhere in Scotland a "self-styled avenger" is busy designing his own psychotically savage punishments for the judge who was overly lenient with a rapist, the pornographer who made one too many snuff films, and the amoral businessman whose negligence caused hundreds of deaths. All the obvious clues are leading the police to Colley, who swears he's been framed--but by whom? If he can just figure out who knows him well enough to set him up--and who among his acquaintances is clever enough and deranged enough to extract such terrible justice--maybe he can solve the mystery and get the police off his case. Dark, cynical, shocking, but immensely satisfying, this one's a must-have. Emily Melton

Edition details

• Publisher: Nan A. Talese
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385475403
• ISBN 13: 9780385475402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 299