Hard Man
A Novel
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A Scottish ex-con is drawn into a violent whirlwind of family drama in this crime novel by the award-winning author of Kiss Her Goodbye.
Has Pearce finally found his match? A time-served Edinburgh hard man, Pearce is still recovering from the recent loss of his mother in a stabbing incident in a post office robbery. He’s invited by the dysfunctional Baxter family to protect their pregnant 16-year-old daughter from Wallace, her 26-year-old husband, a man with a penchant for killing family pets. Having found out that the baby’s not his, Wallace has sworn vengeance. Pearce declines the job: he’s no babysitter. But when Wallace kills Pearce’s dog, he goes too far. Now it’s personal. It’s time to find out who the real hard man is.
Praise for Hard Man
“By turns hilarious and horrifying, Guthrie’s original voice grabs the reader and doesn’t let go.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Dark, twisted, violent and brilliant.” —Stuart MacBride, international bestselling author of the Logan McRae novels
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Acerbic wit leavens over-the-top violence in Scottish author Guthrie's third "tartan noir" (after Edgar-finalist Kiss Her Goodbye). Jacob Baxter's married 16-year-old daughter, May, is pregnant with another man's baby; May's 26-year-old husband, Wallace, is a karate expert and in a seething jealous rage. To protect May, Jacob, along with grown sons Rog and Flash, confront Wallace, and none of the Baxters emerges unscathed. Their next idea is to enlist the aid of a local "hard man," and they reach out to loner ex-con Pearce (who appeared in Guthrie's first novel, Two-Way Split). After inflicting still more injuries on the Baxter clan, Pearce refuses to help, and the Baxters continue to wage a decidedly inept war against Wallace. The violence is nonstop and intense (Wallace crucifies a man-literally), but Guthrie makes the macabre funny. When Pearce finally gets involved, the story goes off the rails, but Guthrie contrives to make the hapless, hopeless Baxters into something more than mere cartoons, and their bungled blood feud is grotesquely fascinating.
