Product Description

It's a cold November night, and DS Dennis Milne is waiting to kill three unarmed men. Cynical and jaded, Milne earns money on the side by doing what he does best: punishing the bad guys. But he's been set up. This time, instead of shooting drug dealers, he kills two customs officers and an accountant. The hunter has become the hunted. With his colleagues and his enemies closing in on him, Milne must use all of his skills, just to stay alive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4742 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 464 pages

Review
DS Dennis Milne is a hard 'hero' to like. A jaded policeman, he has been corrupted and turned himself into an avenging angel on those he feels are unworthy of life. But one job goes wrong. He's duped into killing three innocent men in cold blood and, as his contrary morals kick in, finds himself out of his depth in a world of drug dealers, pornographers, and organised crime. At the same time his 'day' job must continue on the right side of the law - the hunt for a killer of young prostitutes - and an innocent facade must be maintained. The dual storyline is cleverly brought together by Simon Kernick, in this his first crime novel. Whilst at the same time as despising Milne for his vigilante violence, Kernick drags the reader into his unsatisfactory personal life till something akin to sympathy is felt and an overwhelming urge for him to triumph over adversity - even if it is unlawful in the extreme. Tightly paced and twisting at every turn, the plot rushes through to the climactic end, keeping the reader on their toes until the final page is turned. A surprisingly good read. - Lucy Watson

Time Out
'is just the sort of fast-paced, intelligent thriller that cries out for a TV adaptation.

Literary Review
'An uncommonly assured first novel, quite brilliantly plotted ... Formidable stuff'

Customer Reviews

Great first novel
This is the debut novel by Kernick, and one I picked up at the Bodies in the Bookshop in Cambridge event in July 2004. Given that a usually slothful reader like me managed to whip through it in less than a week is testament to the pace of the book.

Before the event, I hadn't heard of Kernick, but a brief bit of research beforehand made it clear that he was probably for me the most interesting bloke there. His novels (there are three currently published, including this one) are variously described as 'dark', 'savage' and 'rancidly rendered' - which makes perfect crime reading for me.

The Business of Dying, despite being pretty bleak at times, is nothing like as depressing as, say, David Peace or James Ellroy. There isn't the sense of total desolation that seems to accompany books by those gloomy writers, and indeed throughout the book, until perhaps the climactic closing chapters, a black humour is ever present. I'm never certain about so-called 'humorous' crime books, though here the laughs are on the periphery and largely stem from the fairly misanthropic hero. The writing is less stylised too, and perhaps more in line with the likes of Rankin and Booth. No fancy typographical tricks here, which makes for a pacy read.

The story, then. DS Dennis Milne is a pretty fed up detective with too many unsolved cases on his hands than he'd like. Oh, and he also earns a bit of cash on the side as a hit man for a dodgy local 'businessman'. The story begins with Milne capping three blokes in a hotel car park before rushing to the scene of another murder, this time of a teenage prostitute. As Milne digs deeper, his grip on both his police work and his grisly side line begins to loosen and by the last third of the book he loses control almost completely.

Kernick manages to control the plot superbly, the twists and turns are never obvious nor unlikely, and Milne is a likeable yet flawed anti-hero.

This is an excellent crime novel, particularly when you consider that it is his first. More crime fiction should be like this, where the lines between the good guys and the bad are blurred, and the ending is not really all that happy. With The Business of Dying, Kernick has proved that he should do well in the business of writing.

Gritty and entertaining
I was lead to this by links and positive reviews on Amazon and I was pleased I made the effort.

An apparently experienced and dedicated CID officer acts as an occasional hit man for a local gangster. In this tale the repercussions of a 'hit' become more and more significant during the investigation of a murder. As the net closes in on our CID officer, he struggles with the need to make a run for it while wanting to identify the murderer.

This was a very enjoyable page-turner and the author managers to make you root for a man who is actually a bad guy. Very refreshing and entertaining throughout.

An electrifying and unputdownable debut
This is top-drawer hard boiled Brit crime that knocks spots off Guy Ritchie et al. DS Milne is a tough, jaded, boozing copper straight from Raymond Chandler, with a sharp mind but flexible morals. Milne has a sideline - he's paid by lowlifes to kill other lowlifes, so when he has to investigate a triple murder he's just committed, and he finds the victims were two customs men and an accountant, he sets out to find answers. At the same time a girl of eighteen has been found cruelly murdered and Milne is drawn into the investigation, uncovering a depravity that even his fading conscience can't ignore. While that case offers some redemption, Milne's criminal paymasters start to put on the squeeze and his colleagues begin to piece together the evidence from his homicides. With time running out and his paranoia growing Milne has to work fast and tough, to unravel the conspiracy of the girl's killing, dodge the police investigation and get payback for being double-crossed.

This is what hard-edged crime fiction is all about. The London drawn by Simon Kernick is a totally believable moral wasteland, with the anti-hero Milne at the centre riddled with guilt and paranoia and with ever-fewer cards to play. This gripping novel is a rollercoaster through a place we glimpse in the headlines and crime statistics where violence, power and money all go hand-in-hand, and where you have to be cynical to stay sane. Moreover this story is rooted right here and right now by Kernick's sharp sense for good characters, grimy detail and real dialogue. The narrative is so taut and fast-moving you'll struggle to put this book down. Anyone who likes The Long Good Friday or Get Carter, Quentin Tarantino or Philip Marlowe will get a real kick from this, and I can't wait for Kernick's next.