RARA-AVIS: Recommendation: "Easy Money" by Jenny Siler

Peter Walker (pw@pw.cablenet.co.uk)
Wed, 2 Dec 1998 21:01:17 +0000 Every now and them a book drops into my lap which just blows me
away --- all the more so because its so unexpected. I don't go a
bundle on the "tough woman" book but this, for a debut novel,is a
cracker. So I feel compelled to share it with you.
Written with a narrative and descriptive drive which makes it
almost literally a book I couldn't put down (and I don't say that too
often) this has an authority that makes an immediate impact from the
opening pages. With a hard edge, convincing characters
and a good use of locations it is almost breathless in its execution.
The action set pieces, for example, are beautifully handled and very
exciting. For these reasons it almost reads like a kind of one woman
`Thelma and Louise' road movie. Despite the odd stylistic slip here
and there, it is an utterly compelling read.

The action starts in the outlaw world of freelance couriers. Allie is
given a straight forward `drop', the "easy money" of the title. Of
course the drop goes wrong and people get killed. Allie is pitched
into a nightmare where one false move is fatal. Siler refuses to take
any easy options in her writing and in so doing breaths new life into
a familiar plot. With the recent vogue for the word `noir' and along
with Joe Quirk's "Rush" perhaps I can be so bold as to suggest we have
a sub-genre here, namely "courier noir".

Siler's own life and the many jobs she's had, according to the cover
biography, have defined her and her writing. On the evidence of this
Siler must have one hell of a CV. There is room for improvement in
Siler's writing which is a good thing because I can only imagine we'll
be hearing more from her. I don't think the publishers are going to
get many people taking them up on their offer: "As good as Deja Dead
or your money back". And I didn't mention the word "feisty"
once....on, shit.

Recommended.

"Easy Money" Jenny Siler
Proof Pkb. Pub Orion 9.99
ISDN 0752821369.

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