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There's a wonderful UK pastiche comedy called DETECTIVES ON THE EDGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, which pokes fun at all the different types of cop shows. I was reminded of it when I started reading BUZZ MONKEY and discovered that hero Top Kiernan runs an ostensibly respectable research company, but has a secret life as a mercenary, lives in a 1930s school (his bedroom is the basketball court) and collects spinning tops. Just as I was going 'yeah, yeah, any more cliches here?' I started to get hooked -- and remained so until the end. BUZZ MONKEY is one hell of a read. Yes, OK, you might feel author Sam Hill is piling on the weirdness just to stand out from the pack. But I can report that he more than gets away with it, and it looks like there's more than enough mileage here for a series. The plotting and tension are what makes BUZZ MONKEY a winner. Top has two childhood friends who hang out with him -- Bob John Wynn and Dee Lane. Bob John's a DEA agent and Dee Lane . . . well, he's gone AWOL leaving $1.5million stashed somewhere. And a load of undesirables reckon Top knows where it is. So he finds himself having to outwit a drugs baron, a former IRA killer and the DEA who either want him dead, want the money back, or both. With the help of his friend Benny, a reformed gang member who still knows all the tricks, Top must stay one step ahead. Hill, an experienced non-fiction writer, shows that he can also hack it as a fiction writer. The style is relaxed and tight, and he manages to weave in the oddities mentioned above without them seeing twee or precious. And if you have a love of trivia, you'll appreciate the testers that pop up all through that Top needs to memorise for his research firm. If you can overlook one or two glitches (the whodunit is signposted a long way off, and would a man with two dodgy knees really be a top mercenary?), BUZZ MONKEY is a cracking debut.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, February 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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