Faithless - Softcover

Williams, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852425164 ISBN 13: 9781852425166

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2000

Synopsis

Jeff and Frank could have a relationship, well sort of. But that would involve talking, talking about Ross the rock star who left Frank to die and who sacked Jeff from his band. Instead of talking maybe it would be better to do something, something like blackmail Ross about the skeletons in his closet - and who better to pull a blackmail scam than an ex-girl friend and ex-sax player.
Tough and tender, Faithless reflects the cool edginess of London today.

About this title

About the Author

John Williams was born in Cardiff in 1961. He wrote a punk fanzine and played in bands before moving to London and becoming a journalist, writing for everyone from The Face to the Financial Times. His novels include Bloody Valentine, the London-set Faithless, and The Cardiff Trilogy. He now lives in Cardiff with his family.

Reviews

An earnest postmortem on the early '80s London club and music scene, framed in a somewhat formulaic murder mystery and narrated by a sadder-but-wiser punk band washout. By the time his fellow record-store clerk Neville is slashed to death in the shop, Jeff is already a has-been in the punk world. Dropped by band magneto Ross, who then swiftly became a pop phenomenon, Jeff has also had to suffer the indignity of watching a woman he might have had feelings fordark-haired, doe-eyed Frankpulled effortlessly from his orbit into Ross's. She briefly comes back to him once, full of venom but no less appealing; for a few weeks they scheme to blackmail Ross, a plot that goes awry, and then she and Ross disappear together. Shortly thereafter, though, Neville is killed, and Jeff thinks the killers meant to get him, in revenge for his ill-conceived scheme. He's ridiculed for this view, but his own amateur sleuthing nevertheless reveals the drug-ravaged, Mafia-cinched underbelly of London clubbinga bleak world in which both Ross's manager and Frank are part of the game. When the same thugs who knifed Neville come after Jeff, he narrowly escapes, only to be further endangered by another encounter with Frank, to whom he tells what he knows and who brings him face to face with the mobster responsible for Neville's murder. An unlikely series of events ensues in which Jeff not only survives but sees the tables turnedand lives on to reflect into the '90s on what might have been. Set wisely if plotted none too well, Williams's US debut has just enough true London grit to be engaging as a map of city life, a kind of nostalgic clubbers' A to Z in which intersections of style within the demimonde are artfully done. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1852425164
• ISBN 13: 9781852425166
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 168