Review: KILLER REELS, Rob Kitchin

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 130 KB
• Print Length: 58 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Eostre Press; 1 edition (May 18, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0084OI18M
• Source: I bought it

 Synopsis (Amazon)

Jimmy Kiley is a keen amateur movie maker. He’s also the ruthless criminal boss of the north side of the city. When enforcing his own brand of law, he sees no reason why he shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. His kick is to provide a private viewing of his last venture to the star of the next. And his reluctant stars are only ever one hit wonders.

Killer Reels documents Kiley's movie making through a collection of interlinked short stories.

My take

Rob Kitchin has written a considerable amount of flash fiction and a growing list of drabbles. In an explanation in KILLER REELS, Kitchin says that the collection or 12 pieces of flash fiction "started life as a single piece of flash fiction focused on a fairly simple premise - an impending murder victim would be shown a video of the death of the previous victim and also get a sense of the movie in which he or she was about to star."

In each macabre story, the next victim is shown a snuff movie showing the death of someone who refused to give information to film "director" Jimmy Kiley and his thugs. Each of the victims has tried to cheat Jimmy in some way. Kiley eventually even turns against members of his own gang when they go against his orders. He extends his net to a crime reporter, a teenage drug peddler trading on his patch, a jockey who didn't follow instructions, a police detective who'd shown a keen interest in the operations of Kiley and his gang, a young member of a rival gang who executed one of Kiley's inner circle, and then his long time girlfriend makes a fatal mistake.

The stories are cleverly conceived and rather bizarre, and the reader moves seamlessly from one to another.

My rating: 4.5

Other titles (novels) by Rob Kitchin reviewed
5.0, THE RULE BOOK
4.6, THE WHITE GALLOWS 

Review: THE RULE BOOK, Rob Kitchin

Publisher: Pen Press, 2009
ISBN13: 978-1-906710-57-6
352 pages
Source: complimentary copy supplied by the author.

Blurb:

April in the Wicklow mountains and a young woman is found dead, seemingly sacrificed. Accompanying her body is Chapter One of The Rule Book – a self-help guide for prospective serial killers. The case is assigned to the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and headed up by Detective Superintendent Colm McEvoy. Since the recent death of his wife, McEvoy is a shadow of his former self – two stones lighter with a wardrobe of ill fitting suits, struggling to quit the cigarettes that killed his wife, and still getting used to being a single parent. Less than twenty four hours later a second murder is committed. Self-claiming the title ‘The Raven’, the killer starts to taunt the police and the media. When the third body is discovered it is clear that The Raven intends to slaughter one victim each day until The Rule Book is published in full. With the pressure from his superiors, the press, and politicians rising, McEvoy stumbles after a killer that is seemingly several steps ahead.

Is The Rule Book as definitive as The Raven claims?

My take:

This was a very ambitious first novel. So much action occurs in just 12 days, so much blood is shed, and from a writer's point of view, so many threads to be tracked, so many characters to be fleshed out. And for me, this is the best novel I've read so far this year.

I came to THE RULE BOOK having already met Detective Superintendent Colm McEvoy in the second novel from Rob Kitchin, THE WHITE GALLOWS. The author took pity on me after I had reviewed the latter, and sent me a copy. My local library still doesn't have either. 

McEvoy is still grieving the death of his wife Maggie, trying to cope, not very successfully, with being a single parent, when the serial killer, whom the media will label The Raven, hits. The first scene of crime is a gruesome one - the victim appears to have willingly swallowed a sword - and they really don't get any better. As McEvoy pits his brain against that of The Raven the murders pile up, tempers fray. The media, hot on the heels of McEvoy's superiors, bays for blood. There is even a member of McEvoy's team who does his best to gain glory for himself at the expense of the team effort. The personal cost as McEvoy struggles on working 16-18 hour days is huge.

An excellent read, one you must add to your list.

Obtainable at
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rule-Book-Rob-Kitchin/dp/1906710570/
http://www.amazon.com/Rule-Book-Rob-Kitchin/dp/1906710570/

My rating 5.0

Don't just take my word for it: check the reviews on the author's site.

My review of the next in the series:  THE WHITE GALLOWS

I'm counting THE RULE BOOK as my first book in the Ireland Reading Challenge

Review: THE WHITE GALLOWS, Rob Kitchin

IndePenPress 2010
ISBN 978-1-907499-37-1
322 pages
Many thanks to the author who kindly supplied a copy for review.

One of the characteristics of working in the 21st century appears to be that, despite all the technology that is supposed to help us work smarter, workloads are increasing. If you are in law enforcement, it doesn't help if the crime rate appears to be spiralling out of control either. As in many other professions early retirement by burnt out workers is reducing the number available to do the work.

That's the situation that Detective Superintendent Colm McEvoy finds himself in. McEvoy works for Ireland's National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the branch of the Gardai that investigates the country's most serious crimes. He's looking at the body of a young man, discovered on the banks of the River Boyne, when his boss contacts him about a suspicious death. An old man, 91, has been discovered dead in his bed. The local doctor says natural causes, but an observant policeman has his doubts.

It's not just the detectives who are stretched either - so are the technical crime scene people, and the pathologist, who are too often required in a number of places at once.

THE WHITE GALLOWS is not just a police procedural. Kitchin manages to build into it a number of elements - a story about German immigration to Ireland after World War II, another about modern gangs who are determined to see that the forensic evidence against them never makes it to court even if it means murder, and Colm McEvoy's own struggle to be a single father after the death of his wife from cancer only a year before.

I like McEvoy. He's a workaholic, but in his situation he needs to be - it is the only way he can cope. He often rubs people up the wrong way, and he's a bit worried that one of his female officers has designs on him. So there is a very satisfying "human element" to this novel, in addition to the mystery element.

The style of THE WHITE GALLOWS reminds me a lot of Susan Hill, Pauline Rowson, and Charles Todd. If you like any of them, then I think you'll like this.
THE WHITE GALLOWS is #2 in Kitchin's series, and I can see I really must get my hands on the first THE RULE BOOK. The references in THE WHITE GALLOWS to the case that is central in THE RULE BOOK are intriguing.

My rating: 4.6

Other reviews of THE WHITE GALLOWS can be found at Reactions to Reading, Crime Scraps,  International Noir Fiction, Mack Captures Crime, just to name a few.

Rob Kitchin has 2 copies to give away of THE WHITE GALLOWS, and if you read this before July 1, you might just be in time to enter. Rob blogs at The View from the Blue House.

Locate a copy at

bookdepository.co.uk - http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781907499371/

bookdepository.com (US) - http://www.bookdepository.com/book/9781907499371/

amazon.co.uk - http://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Gallows-Kitchin-Rob/dp/1907499377/