Saturday's Child

by Ray Banks and Ray Banks

Book Overview

Cal Innes is fresh out of prison, working out of a gym closet as a private investigator, and trying to sever his ties to local gang lord "Uncle"Morris Tiernan. But when Tiernan hires him to track down a rogue casino dealer who's absconded with a hefty chunk of cash, Innes is thrust into a cat-and-mouse game with Tiernan's pill-popping son, Mo--a game that turns ever more deadly as the case points north to Newcastle.With Tiernan's son on his tail...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156034573
• ISBN13: 9780156034579
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Strong Voices and Amazing Descriptions

Ex-con and unofficial PI Callum Innes has no choice but to help gang lord Morris Tiernan find an employee who's disappeared with some of Morris's money. But Tiernan's nasty son, Mo, has sinister plans for Cal, when the time is right. The badly beaten man left for dead in this novel is only a subplot. The main story is Cal's quest to find the employee and figure out how he's going to stay out of trouble while doing so. The police think he's responsible for the beating, and every time Cal gets a little closer to finding the missing employee something violent happens. There's plenty to like about this fast paced novel. The dialogue's terrific and the author's narrative descriptions are amazing. Check out Cal's sparring match with his friend, Paulo, on pages 109 to 112. Wow. Also strong are Cal's and Mo's voices. The story's told from two points of view, both first person and in present tense, yet it's easy to identify who's speaking simply by the language used. Of course, Mo doesn't have much of a vocabulary beyond the usual four-letter assortment. Although Cal's not the world's smartest protagonist, he is an intriguing character. A down-on-his-luck man addicted to tobacco and alcohol is a stereotype, sure, but I rooted for this guy. Despite his many mistakes and lack of common sense, Cal wants to do a little better, be a little better. Yet for every step he takes forward, he falls back two. And still he doesn't pack it in. Great books aren't just about engaging plots and interesting characters. They're about emotion. Emotion in the story and an emotional response from the reader. SATURDAY'S CHILD certainly got a response from me, which was why I wanted more from the ending. To explain further might give too much away. So, read the book and enjoy.

Rejoice that this UK crime thriller has landed on the US shores

SATURDAY'S CHILD by Ray Banks is about as good as modern crime novels get. It's got plenty of blood, street action, and a semi-sympathetic anti-hero protagonist for you to root for and shake your head at, by turns. Cal Innes is the kind of character you learn to love despite all his failures, mistakes, and generally abrasive personality. Because through his own internal dialogue we come to understand him, even those parts of him that we wish we didn't. SATURDAY'S CHILD is a fast-paced, action-packed, completely cynical story written in a lean mean style. ALthough some of the UK idioms may be losto n US readers, don't let it stop you--the language is all part of the draw and atmosphere. If you're a fan of neo-noir writing, give this one a try along with works by Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes, and Allan Guthrie.

"The difference between a pub and a bar is that a bar has more mirrors to show you how [messed] up y

Dark, violent, and filled with non-stop action, this British PI novel, set on the meanest streets of Manchester and Newcastle, features Cal Innes, a PI who claims that he became a detective because "I got good at tracking down ex-offenders, maybe because I was one." Newly released from prison, Cal has been talked into doing a "favor" for Morris Tiernan, a Manchester crime lord responsible for more than thirty murders. Afraid that his psychopathic son Mo will mess up the job, Tiernan has "persuaded" Cal to find Rob Stokes, a dealer in Tiernan's private gambling club who stole ten thousand dollars and disappeared. Once Cal finds Stokes, he is to contact the sadistic Mo, who will then take over. Cal and Mo have a "history." Cal considers Mo responsible for the more than two years he had to spend in jail. Mo, in turn, is jealous that his father has assigned Cal to find Stokes, and he wants to find Stokes first. The narrative, alternating between the point of view of Cal Innes and that of Mo Tiernan, is easy to follow, since Mo is terminally dense, and his narrative, peppered with local street slang and obscenities, becomes mordantly humorous. Cal, who often finds his fists more useful than his brain, is not much more literate than Mo, but he is looking for a direction in life--if only to stay out of jail--and he does understand how the world works. As the search for Stokes moves from Manchester to Newcastle, where Stokes appears to have fled with a sixteen-year-old girl, the action--and gore--ratchet up. Cal is not only dodging vicious Mo Tiernan, he is also trying to avoid a brutal Manchester policeman who has accused him of assault. As Cal comes closer to finding Stokes and the girl, he also becomes a real detective, discovering aspects of Mo Tiernan's life which make the search for Stokes and the girl even more pressing--and make Mo's determination to find and stop Cal more urgent. Bleak and full of violence, the novel features fights, an attempted drowning by toilet bowl, beatings, and legs broken by cricket bat--and that's by the "good guys"! Cal, of course, is on both the giving and receiving ends of this brutality. The characters throughout the novel are universally unlikable, the twists and turns of the action reveal even more depravity than previously imagined, and the "surprise" ending brings no catharsis with it. Banks creates vivid scenes filled with specific details--everything from brands of cars, complete with dents, to close-up depictions of torture and maiming. Focused on man's inhumanity to man and the unavoidability of misery, this is noir fiction at its "noir-est." n Mary Whipple The Big Blind

"Back then I was my own worst enemy. Nothing's changed."

Saturday's Child is in a world of hurt. After doing two and a half years of a five year stretch, out on parole with six months left to do, Callum Innes is a backroom PI, without a license but doing all right. Until "Uncle" Morris Tiernan calls in a favor Cal doesn't owe. Nobody turns Tiernan down. With thirty-seven dead men behind his name, Tiernan is not a man to ignore. The job he wants Cal to do is simple: locate a card dealer who took off with a bundle of Tiernan's money and call Tiernan's son, Mo, a drug-addled thug. Expecting to do the job himself, Mo cops an attitude towards Innes, determined to put Cal in his place and prove to his father that he is the right man for the job. With his two equally pathetic sidekicks, Mo sets out to shadow Cal and mess up the investigation and the investigator, stopping along the way for random acts of violence and tough-guy posturing, fueled by an assortment of pills that would take down an elephant. Cal isn't making much progress when he learns that the missing guy may be in Newcastle, up the road from Manchester. And he finds out there is another twist to this plot, an essential link Uncle Morris left out when he hired Innes. Like Mo, Cal has his own demons, notably a tendency to get drunk and lose his place, often falling into trouble for lack of clear thinking. But Cal is a stand-up guy who only wants to finish a dirty job and stay out of jail for another ride. Bruised and battered by the freaks along the way who don't appreciate his questions, Cal is working in the dark, frequently blindsided by unforeseen circumstances: "Fear, otherwise known as the body's own caffeine." A would-be hard man in a world of petty crooks and posers, Innes is about to make good on the case when events once more spiral into chaos, Mo's lack of impulse control and street patois filling the odd chapter with the menace of the unpredictable. Banks writes with authority and a keen voice, his transplanted lad from Leith struggling to survive the ordeals of Manchester, dodging career criminals like Tiernan and his dodgy son and not doing too good a job of it. Throw in a violent cop who targets Innes for a trip back to prison and this is a guy who can't get a break- at least at his level of society. Low and mean, Cal's world requires grit and courage, all of which this young protagonist has in abundance. A wild read, Banks holds nothing back, the street as ugly as the denizens who prey on one another. Innes will count himself lucky to escape this convoluted dilemma, to live to outwit another day. Luan Gaines/ 2007.

The PI Novel brought up-to-date

Ray Banks makes me want to give up on writing. I hate him, but I want more. Lucky for me, that's going to happen soon.