Andy Weston's Reviews > Shaker

There's a lot going on in this tremendous novel from Scott Frank. Set in LA just after a major earthquake, and amidst the aftershocks, this is a story of gangland violence and baseball.

It is crime noir at its very best, and deserves comparison to the other great novel in this genre in 2016, Bill Beverly's 'Dodgers'. Frank's cast of characters are the real strength. Roy Cooper is a hitman on a job from New York, but it is his background that is key to the story. LAPD detective Kelly Maguire has her own troubled background, but is central to the investigation centering around 'the hit' and an unrelated attack from five gang youths.

I have read quite a few dark and violent crime novels in the last three years or so, and this is certainly not for the feint-hearted. Some sections could even justifiably come with a warning. Yet Frank does what only the best writers in this genre manage, there is dark humour. It's not 'laugh out loud' humour, but it helps give the novel it's great appeal, that the violence on its own could not do.

This is great stuff.