Synopsis
A riveting and darkly humorous accidental "murder" mystery.
Meet Martyn Pig, a boy with a terrible name, trapped in a terrible life. His mother has left him. His father is a belligerent, abusive alcoholic. It seems like his life can't get any worse.
And then it does.
Faced with the sudden, accidental death of his father, Martyn realizes that for the first time ever, he has a choice. He can tell the police what happened -- or he can get rid of the body and go on with the rest of his life. Deciding on the latter, Martyn and his pretty new neighbor come up with a seemingly foolproof plan. Then, just as Martyn begins to think his life is finally under control, a twisted turn of events leaves him stunned beyond belief.
Reviews
Grade 8 Up-Martyn Pig's mother left years ago; his father is an abusive alcoholic. Living in a dreary English seaside town, he thinks that things can't get any worse. But, in the week that readers spend with him, his life takes an even worse turn. He makes the mistake of yelling at his father; as the drunken man comes at his son with his fist raised, he stumbles, falls (with just the merest shove from Martyn), hits his head on the fireplace wall, and dies. Faced with the possibility of living with his dreadful aunt, and feeling no sense of having done anything really wrong, he decides not to notify the police. With the help of his friend Alex, he concocts a macabre, blackly humorous scene to fool Aunty Jean into thinking Dad is very ill in bed. He and Alex then sew him and some rocks into a sleeping bag and pitch him into a quarry. When Martyn stumbles across a letter informing his father of a substantial inheritance, he thinks he and Alex will be set for the future. Then blackmail and double-crossing enter the picture. She steals the money and disappears, but not before she does away with her boyfriend. In a brief epilogue, readers see Martyn in his aunt's house, in sunnier times. They will be fascinated with the gripping plot twists and turns, and fully engaged by Martyn's distinctive voice. While there are some heavy issues here, the characters are surprisingly likable, and the bleakness is tempered by some tongue-in-cheek and zany humor. Fresh and edgy, Martyn Pig will have tremendous teen appeal.
Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Like its eponymous hero, British author Brooks's self-assured debut manages to be at once hard-boiled, wide-eyed and despite its downright grisly subject matter laugh-aloud funny. When Martyn Pig accidentally kills his slovenly and abusive alcoholic father several days before Christmas, he decides not to call the authorities: he is afraid the police won't believe him and, besides, he doesn't want his aunt given custody of him. An avid reader of murder mysteries, he instead works with his next-door neighbor (and secret crush), the aspiring actress Alex, first to hide the death, then dispose of the body. As if the plot weren't already thick, Martyn soon discovers that his father recently inherited a handsome sum of money. Just when it seems that Martyn is coolly transforming himself into a junior version of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley, the story takes another hairpin turn. The crisp, perceptive storytelling, like the works of writers Martyn admires (Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie), indirectly but unmistakably raises moral questions. One minor frustration: although the novel is set in England, inconsistent editing has sprinkled the landscape with disorienting Americanizations (e.g., Martin scrounges up "a dollar here, fifty cents there" for bus fare and shops at a CVS drugstore). Happily, these discrepancies don't dim the substantial pleasures of this satisfying and oddly buoyant story. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
(*Starred Review*) Gr. 7-10. Teenager Martyn lives alone in a rundown neighborhood with his drunken, abusive father until one day, in a struggle, Dad falls, knocks his head, and dies. Martyn doesn't call 911, and the longer he delays, the harder it is to explain why he didn't call. Alex, his attractive friend across the street, gets pulled into the cover-up and so does her slimy boyfriend, Dean, who's especially interested in the big inheritance Dad had just received. Martyn's an avid mystery fan, so he knows how to cover his tracks. To trick his aunt, he and Alex lug the corpse into bed, make up the face, cover up the stink, and pretend Dad is sick and sleeping. They dump the body in a quarry, but first Martyn plants some of Dean's hairs under the corpse's fingernails. The macabre details are as compelling as the edgy realism, and Martyn's first-person narrative is dark and desperate. Suspense builds one day at a time while the corpse rots and Martyn lives with his loneliness, depression, and guilt. Did he murder Dad? No, "none of us has any control over what we do." Is the cover-up working? Not in the way he planned. This first novel is filled with surprise and reversal that make for a breathless read. (Note: there is one silly "translation" error. Many references show that the story is set in England, where it was first published, but for some reason, all money, including the inheritance, is in dollars.) Hazel Rochman
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