Book Review: Killing Mum by Allan Guthrie

Title: Killing Mum
Author: Allan Guthrie
Cover Artist: Four Sheets
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Crime Express (Five Leaves Publications imprint)
Publication Date: June 1, 2009 (U.K.)

Ah to be back in the sick little world that is Allan Guthrie’s Edinburgh, where – unlike an episode of Three’s Company – misunderstandings do not yield hilarious results so much as brutally fucking deadly ones. This time around, the novella Killing Mum, the communication problems start on the very first page, with shit only getting stickier and more fucked up from there.

Carlos Morales receives a bundle of cash in the mail along with this note:

Charlie -

Advance for Valerie Anderson. You know her address. Second half of payment on completion of job.

Yeah, Carlos is used to getting money and instructions for a hit. His trade is brokering contract killings. But who in the Edinburgh underworld knows that Valerie Anderson is his mother? More troubling, who calls him Charlie besides his wife and his mother herself? So does his mother really know what he does for a living and really, you know, wanna off herself? Or does his wife simply hate her mother-in-law that much ever since “the incident” that she wants her murdered?

With neither party copping to having sent the package, Carlos comes up with a plan that is guaranteed to get him some answers. But as the faithful know, such guarantees don’t mean shit in Guthrie’s fucked up universe.

So Killing Mum is short, sweet and totally fucking hardcore – a real live one-sitting read. Nobody working today has Guthrie’s way with black humor and sweat-drenched suspense. But both of those qualities come from the itchy feeling you get while reading his shit that anything can happen. You laugh because you can’t believe he actually did just go that fucking far; you read on with dread because you fear he might actually go even fucking further toward the edge.

And not to be on the fucking hard sell here, but it should be noted that if you’re a Kindle-user, you can snatch this motherfucker up at amazon.com for 99 cents (Guthrie’s first two novels, Two-Way Split and Kiss Her Goodbye are also available for a fucking pittance in Kindle form as well if you’ve yet to catch up with his back catalogue). And the sharp-looking pocket-sized copy from Crime Express is nifty as all hell as well.

So if you’re not familiar with Guthrie, Killing Mum will give you a crystal fucking clear idea of whether or not his mad brilliance turns your crank – and in only about an hour’s time! And, you know, if you don’t dig this shit, enjoy the new fucking Dan Brown or whatever your white bread ass likes to read.

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