Critical Mick

Maybe it's all in the name: the "J" in "J".J. Connolly stands for "John." The writing in this debut novel, Layer Cake- ten years old already!- is every bit as full-on electric as the Irish John Connolly.

While making comparisons with other writers who have appeared on Critical Mick's Best Book Read list: Layer Cake by J.J. Connolly is a peer for Run by Douglas E. Winter. Both deliver first-person accounts from very hard men, making the pages fly by with the incredibly well-described inner workings of crime. In Winter's case, it was a completely convincing portrait of America's illegal arms scene. Connolly, in Layer Cake, reveals how the drug trade operates in London.

Like Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, character is presented with such vivid detail that it isn't until the conclusion of the novel that readers realize they have never been told their narrator's name. Every minor player, every scene, every explanation or observation is a fresh surprise. It's worth reading for the slang along- "the other people" as a term for the police. Class! Creamy. This is fantastic, engaging writing.

The novel does have its weaknesses, though. Without revealing any surprises: our narrator is a man who has decided that he wants to walk away from this trade and start a new life as a wealthy man. The One Last Big Score for "going straight" money is a cliché. Also, the mission that his boss gives him to find a missing girl: why the wrong-turn into classic PI territory-?

Those are minor points- don't be put off. It's hard to review Layer Cake in a way that can do it justice. Language, character, tone, style, weight, pace- all are so distinctive, so unique, so well executed. Want an example of a book with the power to win over lit critics, crime fic fans, and reluctant teens who hate reading? If Of Mice and Men doesn't light the fuse, Layer Cake will. Serve up a slice!