Klik på en miniature for at gå til Google Books
Indlæser... Black and White and Dead All Over (2008)af John Darnton
Ingen Indlæser...
Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. Interesting plot, totally grips me...but writing is rather newspaper-ish... ( ) I loved this author's earlier The Darwin Conspiracy (though not so much his first novel, Neanderthal), so pounced on this when I came across it. A series of murders in the building of the New York Globe (i.e., the New York Times, where Darnton has for a long time been an illustrious fixture) shocks all the journos and indeed the nation. The tale is full of roman a clef elements -- no prizes for guessing who's the prototype for Antipodean media mogul Lester Moloch, for example -- but that's just icing on what proves, after a sticky first 50 or so pages, to be a very delectable cake. Those early pages are annoying because Darnton opts for a cheap way of trying to keep our attention -- repeating wacky urban-legend-style journo tales. Because the tales actually are funny/bizarre/whatever, this first part of the book isn't boring: it's just that I got fed up by the fact that as good a writer as Darnton can be was so lacking in confidence as to be resorting to this tactic. The early part of the book is, too, marred by P.D. James-esque orotundity. That hurdle over, the book got better and better. I laughed out loud quite a few times (as when the Globe boss, a man with a rare talent for mauling quotes, came out with "The only thing we have to worry about is worry itself", p198); meanwhile, I was turning the pages avidly to find out what was going to happen next. Great stuff. Entertaining, funny, informative, nostalgic as well as a good mystery-- I really liked this book and the writing and newspaper anecdotes and insider-speak kept me interested. Look at some of the character names: Guilliam Toothy (the PR guy), Elisha Hagenbuckle (publisher), Priscilla Bollingsworth (police), Vickie Gimmy (national editor), Peregrin Whibbleby (gossip columnist), Judith/Dinah Outsalot (food critic)-- see what I mean?
"But Darnton deftly captures the after-hours banter in neighborhood bars and the atmospherics of the big-city newsroom — the petty rivalries, the resentment felt by middle-aged burnouts, the deskbound ex-war-correspondents who pine for their swashbuckling youth." "In his deliciously sharp, wise and hilarious new novel, "Black & White and Dead All Over," John Darnton ("Neanderthal," "The Darwin Conspiracy"), a longtime scribe and editor for the New York Times, has created a menagerie of newsroom wags working for the fictional New York Globe -- and turned a serial killer loose to feast upon their sagging, pasty flesh." "A venerable New York newspaper becomes a crime scene in this multifaceted, gloriously entertaining thriller from Pulitzer-winning journalist Darnton"
Priscilla Bollingsworth, a young, ambitious female NYPD detective, investigates the killing of a powerful newspaper editor. She teams up with Jude Hurley, a clever, rebellious reporter, and together they navigate the ink-infested waters whose denizens include the paper's resentful old guard, scheming careerists, a bumbling publisher, a steely executive editor, and a rival newspaper tycoon named Lester Moloch. But the waters thicken considerably when more bodies turn up, dead all over--From publisher description. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsIngenPopulære omslag
Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
Er det dig?Bliv LibraryThing-forfatter. |