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What society chooses to call Daniel Adamson's crime is the extreme fondness he has for women's ears. This preference has led Daniel to commit deliberate murder and involuntary arson, to consort with rent girls, even to sink to autobiography as he languishes in a mental hospital. Confession is good for the soul? Daniel confesses in spades. Daniel confesses in buckets and spades. Can he really cajole us into believing that he is an innocent victim of society, upbringing, the ozone layer, biology, O-level history, his own DNA? Can he coax a smile out of us even as he horrifies us? Where do Lola Montez, Miss Jean Brodie, Cleopatra, a prie-dieu and a pib-corn come into it all? And is Inspector Angus Macbriar really unique in the annals of recorded crime by dint of his utter lack of interesting traits? Slip into this wig and judge for yourself.
'Hannibal meets Dolph Lundgren's character in Universal Soldier'
- Daily Mirror [read the full review]
True crime takes a spoof journey into the mind of 'Jock the Ripper', currently penning his life story at Her Majesty's pleasure. With a penchant for ears - yes, ears - this most anti of heroes tells nasty tales of prostitutes whose aural faculties he has known and loved before committing murder most foul. An intellectual snob, he has more chance of sleeping with Jane Austen than of release. This is Hannibal meets Dolph Lundgren's character in Universal Soldier. Funny peculiar. Three Stars.
Daily Mirror
'a darkly comic novel about murder, confession and car fetishism'
- Ham and High [read the full review]
The excellent No Exit Press presents a darkly comic novel about murder, confession and car fetishism. Daniel Adamson is said ear addict whose mission is to convince the powers-that-be, and the reader, that he is simply the victim of society's double standards. Adamson is eloquent and funny, a narrator wh thinks he is Hannibal Lecter starring in Reservoir Dogs. Best of all is Inspector Angus McBriar, a detective who, unlike Holmes, Maigret and Columbo, has no eccentricities, foibles or quirks whatsoever. Austen fans beware: those of a sensitive disposition should read with all the lights on.
Ham and High
'an ambitious first novel, brilliantly realised'
- Steven Bell, Scotland Online [read the full review]
Daniel Adamson is Dundee's answer to Hannibal Lecter. Locked up in Camperdown Hospital, overlooking the Tay, he recalls the days when he walked the city streets killing prostitutes and eating their ears.
His memoirs are littered with stabbings and strangulations, determined cops and slick lawyers, and enough padded cell interviews to keep Clarice Starling busy for months.
But Sleeping with Jane Austen is no trash novel. Instead, David Aitken's debut it is an intelligent parody of society's need to be entertained by crime and the macabre, poking fun with all the accuracy of an icepick-armed Sharon Stone.
Nothing is sacred: there are a couple of brilliant takes on the stomach-churning scenes from American Psycho (including murder by winking gnome), while the narrator's haughty tone is a perfect parody of the arrogant Dr Lecter.
Yet the reader is constantly asked - how much sympathy can we feel for a perverted serial killer who blames faulty DNA, a difficult childhood and even the ozone layer for his proclivities?
Reminiscent of the late John Kennedy Toole's classic A Confederacy of Dunces, Sleeping with Jane Austen is an ambitious first novel, brilliantly realised.
Steven Bell, Scotland Online
'new test'
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