The Fall of Billy Hitchings, is the debut novel by American Author
Kirkus MacGowan. A stay at home dad looking after a couple of kids, I connected
with Kirkus through Twitter and clearly knew that he was on the verge of
publishing but I did not investigate or ask what the book was about. But when it was published in late November I
thought I would give it a go.
It starts with an explosive episode with John, clearly not the
character of the title, in a vehicle with a couple of civilian bodyguard
colleagues transporting their client, Khalid, to the airport when they are
suddenly attacked. Good, the kind of
book I like. But then it got a bit
confusing.
John, although hurt, manages to retrieve the client from the
overturned vehicle as it is sprayed by bullets and is shot, while Khalid
suffers a broken leg in the crash. The
two of them manage to get into an old abandoned mill building and John phones
the mysterious Rachel who is at home, we assume, watching a movie with
Katy. John tells her that he is in a,
“bit of a pinch” which results in Rachel leaving Katy to watch the movie on her
own while she disappears to another room and fires up her computer and on being
giving the location of where John is immediately informs him that he is in an
abandoned mill and she proceeds to pull up the floor plans to direct him on the
safest route to safety!
I could live with all that, let’s face it, when reading a
book or watching a movie the reader/viewer has to suspend some belief, so I was
there and believing what was happening and thinking this was going to be a fast
paced thriller..................
Chapter one ends and
chapter two begins entitled ‘Billy’.
We have no idea who John was and how he got Khalid out of
the situation, although we did briefly find out that Rachel was multi tasking
and while giving directions she had also called the local law enforcement and
then we got ‘Billy’. ‘Billy’ we discover
is 19, works in Borks Burger Palace, lives with his gran and has an
asshole for a manager along with an assortment of deadbeats as colleagues, oh,
and a friend who does not work in the Burger Palace, but who smells of fish!
During the course of the introduction to our ‘hero’ we
discover that his parents died a few years ago and that while he should have
moved out of his gran’s, who had taken him in, a long time ago, he felt guilty
every time he thought about it as she had broken a hip and he worried if he
were not there, what would happen if she did so again? He is also an insomniac
with bad dreams and is attending a shrink....
I was nearly booking myself into one by the end of chapter two,
especially as when we move on we are introduced into what is seemingly more
random characters, characters who are given a bit of a back story, but back
stories that did not seem to fit anywhere, it all seemed rather disjointed and
not going anywhere......
We suddenly turn up in
bar with ‘John’ from the beginning of the book, who clearly has survived
his ordeal/mission and we therefore assume so too did the client Khalid, where ‘John’
is getting hammered and about to commit the ultimate sin of having a one night
stand while his fiancé is away...
confused yes, well so was I.
The book continues like that for the next couple short
chapters and it is quite confusing as you cannot really see where it is
going....
BUT
right out of left field MacGowan makes the book explode, literally
and in your face, no spoilers here, but clearly he has been watching some
horror movies and I suspect he is a big fan of Carrie and The Exorcist, and he
has taken inspiration from that genre for his book.
From here on in things begin to become clearer and the
characters that seemed to be haphazardly appearing: suddenly their back stories began to make
more sense, than they had in the previous chapters.
What we ended up with was a book that began with a forgettable
stroll around the park, jumped over the railing onto the running track and into
a gentle jog and then burst into a sprint as the story progressed.
It was a tale of an ancient Cherokee Indian legend that had
been protected and hidden for over 500 years, which had been discovered but not
understood. It was a tale of a 19 year
old youth who was full of anger and despair at losing his parents and who drew
power from the legend that he did not understand or control. And as the book
built to a climax it ended in the most unexpected way ..........
It is difficult not to give spoilers, but buy the book, take
the stroll and be patient. Stick with it
to the jog and you will become as intrigued as I became and then when you start
the sprint in the last quarter of the book, you will be turning pages to find
out what happens next and I guarantee you will be as surprised as I was by the
ending. It will not be what you expect, but you will, I think, like me, say to
yourself, “Yes, that was a good ending”
This was Mr MacGowan’s first book and he clearly took a lot
of time over it. He needs to be less disjointed in character and story
development at the beginning to keep the reader interested but on this first
outing I suppose it is to be expected and as the book progressed, so too did
his writing style making it a good and worthwhile read. Some
people may not get past the first three chapters as it does seem a bit
disjointed but as the book progresses, so too does his clarity and cohesion of
bringing it all together, so from my early thoughts of maybe giving it 2 or 3
stars I have no hesitation in giving it a final 5 out of 5 stars.
Good Reading
So, he's a good storyteller but needs a little work on telling his story? Sound interesting.
ReplyDeleteI tried it but gave up long before you did. I really wanted to like this book but life is short.
ReplyDeleteI'd be willing to give the next one a try though.
Mar, thanks for stopping by and for your comments. I think you should give it a go. Jump forward to about the middle of chapter 4 or dtart of chpt 5. It really does turn a corner and becomes an interesting little book and worth sticking with.
ReplyDeleteAs I said to someone about another book, from one of my favourite authors and a book I had been waiting to be published, it was very disappointing, so welle established authors don't get it right all the time either. I stuck with that one too, but I think that is down to the fact that as I am the archetypal Scot 'I spent money on so I am damned well going to finish it'
Howdy Tom. :)
ReplyDeleteAlready said this on Twitter, but realized I never said so over here.
Thanks for taking the time to write a great review! And also for being bull-headed enough to forge on to Chapter 4, haha.
Greatly appreciated.
I'm happy to say book two will NOT have the same problem. Live and learn. :)
Kirkus, Hey thanks for stopping by and commenting and for your appreciativeness to my 'critique' of your book.
ReplyDeleteI meant what I said, it was worth reading, and am now waiting for the next one...
I think I might give it a miss and wait for the next one(like the number 7 bus)
ReplyDeleteI need reading to flow and be joy, not pain, but good for Kirkus even getting a book out there! I couldn't so how can I criticize.
Morig, what can I say that I haven't said before. I bought it so I was going to finish it!
ReplyDeleteAnd, as I said in my review, as the book progressed, so did the story and the cohesion of the players, so it was worth stick with... glad to have your comments
I read the "look inside" on Amazon and ate up one of the best openings I've seen. It felt more like watching a movie unfolding than reading the written word, such was the quality of the writing. Of course, I've just bought the book -- I had to -- and I had to Google to find out something about the author. I'm amazed to discover this is his first offering. Hell, how good is the man's writing going to be four or five books down the track?
ReplyDelete