The Henry Thompson Trilogy – Charlie Huston

The Henry Thompson Trilogy
Caught Stealing, Six Bad Things, A Dangerous Man.
By Charlie Huston
Pub Ballantine Books

First of all, a confession. I got these books for free off Stanza, the iPod app thingmy. All perfectly legal and above boarded. I’m not sure about ebooks, and much prefer a paper copy all things being equal. I have, however, been stuck on a tractor for quite some weeks now (hence a lack of updates) and managed to work through the three books by snatching a page or two at a time. But that’s an aside, on with the review.

Henry Thompson makes the first of many mistakes when he agrees to look after his neighbour's cat. But, to be fair, what happens next isn't the cat's fault. Henry finds himself being followed by Russian mobsters, bent cops and criminal gangs. We enter the story shortly after Henry has been given a, supposedly random, beating so sever that it ruptures one of his kidneys. Further beating and torture follow, handed out on all sides as those involved scramble for possession of a key left in the cat's carry basket. Henry makes hard choices and bad decisions as he moves further and further from an already bleak world into one of death and violence. Henry transitions from victim and unwitting participant to an active and dangerous character, trying to do the right thing. As the trail of bodies begins to grow, Henry becomes a wanted man, blamed for the death of both friends and enemies alike. And that's just book one.

Let’s get this out the way. I really like Charlie Huston books. The trilogy is unabashedly hard boiled noir of the darkest sort. In Chandler someone will come trough the door with a gun. In Charlie Huston books they’re probably lying in wait for you with a shotgun to your best friends head as their mates beat down the back door. It's that kind of world. The protagonist is also going to have to take some very hard knocks during the story line. Not that they are doing well before we meet them. As already mentioned Henry has been knocked around hard enough to need surgery even before we met him. And this is only his latest problem.

The writing is fantastic, sticking to a relentless first person narrative, and letting the reading experience every punch and blow, given or received. All three books have fantastic chase sequences, whether on foot or in vehicles. There's a real sense of motion and tension. Even when Henry is lying low it is the nature of the book that it can only be so long before something goes wrong. There’s a vein of pitch black humour, which made me laugh once or twice, but didn’t interfere with the tension and menace the books build.

Violence is delta with well. There's a sense of horror mixed with an almost practical view on the situation. This ties in nicely to Henry’s hardening to the situation as he become more desperate, and jaded.

Henry is a man beset by addictions. In Caught Stealing it’s booze, a problem exasperated by having only one kidney. In book two it’s cigarettes, as part of a doctor’s advice. And by A Dangerous Man, Henry is very much addicted to pills.

Sport matches addiction as a constant theme. The books are even broken down into seasons for this purpose. We get baseball, American football and grudgingly back to baseball again.

The locations used add to the story. Caught Stealing is set entirely within New York, and captures the city well. The other books move further a field, but remain cohesive and solid with their geography.

Go and find the books online or in a shop and read them. Consider this warning that the last book doesn’t end well for anyone, but did you really expect it to?