Critical Mick

Reviews Free of Rules.

Reviews by the Clown that All Other Critics Want to Strangle with a Black Turtleneck

Crazy Man Michael
Jim Lusby
Victor Gollancz, 2000

Crazy Man Mick Meets Crazy Man Michael

"So ye've finally found a book on yerself," Mrs. Critical Mick nodded when she spied upon my nightstand Jim Lusby's Crazy Man Michael. "Ya nutter!"

At the time I could not counter that Mr. Lusby had cogged his title from a song of the same name, originally recorded by Fairport Convention and covered by Mary Black and the 10,000 Maniacs' Natalie Merchant. That I only found out after finishing the two hundred page novel, googling around and trying to figure out what it meant. Besides, even if Mrs. Critical Mick has never read my review of The Shot, The Keeper or Colm Toibin's The Master, she does have a point.

So, here's nutter's take on Crazy Man Michael:

Nutty summary:

On a County Waterford peninsula not far from Darkhouse, a Garda inspector named Carl McCadden goes skulking through the night interviewing faded pop stars with porn fetishes, voyeuristic stalker-sort Garda sergeants, brown cardigan civil servant hermits, and midget protesters. There is also the CEO of the giant American pharmaceutical company that has brought jobs to Ireland's south coast, fresh from his latest facelift and determined to make a movie. "What a weirdo," thinks McCadden, and flashes his detective badge to clear an official path to the front of the queue at the bar.

Enter the redheaded love interest. Is this beautiful young Irish starlet, returned to her local pub after making a big splash in Hollywood, the mysterious shadow prowling around town? Or is it the dodgy-dealing ex-Guarda colleague who now provides security on the rich plastic dude's movie set? Or is the scary, scar-faced crime figure that McCadden keeps asking everyone if they have seen?

A couple dead bodies turn up and, sixty percent of the way into the book, so finally does the scar-faced guy. He is of course the undercover cop on the run promised by the blabbermouth of a back cover. I hate it when the marketing shit gives important details away. Reviews, too, so I'll say no more other than Mr. Undercover, Tony Wallace, swears his questionable word that key politicians and senior Gardai are corrupt. There is more deciding the fate of McCadden's application for the plum post at the head of a national murder squad than there seems. McCadden goes into the Italian joint across the road, orders a dinner, then runs out again without paying.

Nuttiest fave part:

………………… ………………… eighteen ………………… ………………… ………………… ………………… ………………… ………………… ………………… ………………… ………………… ………………… million …………………….………………… ………………… ………………… ………………… ………………… ………………… ellipses ………………… …………………

Nutty opinion:

Crazy Man Michael is worthy week's companion for its outlook of edgy gloom. It was great to get stuck into a crime novel which did not begin with ye olde body-of-a-beautiful-young-dead-woman cliché, then to roll with the flow even if I hadn't a notion of where it was going. With the swirling, scheming overabundance of characters, I found the plot hard to follow but stylish. Ye-ha!

Shamelessly Nutty Plug:

More Letters from a Nut by Ted L. Nancy.

Nutty Mick says:

Crazy Man Michael is a book about a bloke who is more hardboiled than I am. Life in its Waterford is sad, often absurd, but serious. There is nothing looney in Jim Lusby, just pure crime. Worth a read even if an eejit like me couldn't completely connect.

I will probably get a swift belt in the nuts if Jim Lubsy ever reads this crit!

Yo! This review and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2006 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

Irate, huh? Managed to piss off another one? Direct your hatemail to mick @ mickhalpin dot com.

This Page Was Last Updated On 18 May, 2006.