Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #233423 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 282 pages

Synopsis
Take four ne'er-do-wells, add some plastic guns, the IRA and a white Merc with fins and you have a plan - to walk into Michael Winner's private bank and walk out with half a million pounds.

Customer Reviews

Probably the dullest book ever
This has to be the all time dullest book ever written - giving it 1 star out of five is being nice

How does this guy get into print?
I found the humour non-existent. The storyline was laboured and the characters seemed so hackneyed.

Another poor book from a very unfunny writer.

Fast, Funny And Furiously Readable!
It beats me why they made Hawes's subsequent novel, the appalling 'Rancid Aluminium', into a movie when 'A White Merc With Fins' could have been made in to a new Italian Job for Generation X - instead of letting Mark Wahlberg get cheesy with it.

But I digress...this story is a wonderful fin-de-siecle roman-a-clef for all Gen-Xers stuck in the temp land of their twilight twenties.

Even without my BS, I strongly recommend you buy and read this book. Hawes has created wonderful characters that are entirely believable to anyone who has descended from a proto-middle-class university life and into the twilit world of semi-legality, where 'Black Widow' Suzie, Mr Superservice and Dai Substantial are archetypes amongst one's aquaintances.

I had my doubts that Hawes would be able to maintain this high standard and although I am not holding my breath (for this is as good as it gets) I still give 'White Merc' 5 stars for its cheek, its cheer and the fact that I saw myself in it many times over.