storyman's review
4.0
A cracking book with an ending which will make you angry, heartbroken, and just resigned to life's injustices all at once - and all in a good way. This is brutal noir which doesn't skip the violence. You'll feel every punch and broken bone, but it’s necessary to get to the story's emotional punch of an ending.
It's about two reluctant heavies doing the dirty work for Neil Doyle, a man on the warpath when his daughter loses an eye by accident. Heatley does a great job getting under the skin of the protagonists, giving what could have been a regular gangster story a lot of heart.
A top read - and on I go to its sequel, The Runner.
It's about two reluctant heavies doing the dirty work for Neil Doyle, a man on the warpath when his daughter loses an eye by accident. Heatley does a great job getting under the skin of the protagonists, giving what could have been a regular gangster story a lot of heart.
A top read - and on I go to its sequel, The Runner.
eleellis's review
5.0
My first exposure to Paul Heatley's writing was of another of his novellas. That particular novella was quite graphic and was just one of several novellas in a series. It left me meaning to read other writings by Heatley. I read about this novella over at Do Some Damage which piqued my interest after one of the writers spoke of it with high praise.
An Eye For An Eye is a stand-alone novella which shows Heatley can aptly produce plain, ole hardcore pulp noir. The tale is about the accidental harming of a local powerful mobster's daughter and his quest to punish the offender.
Crime lord Neil Doyle's daughter and a group of her friends are in a local tavern when she is accidentally permanently injured. Most in her group flee immediately after the injury and the father enlists an aging associate, Graeme Taylor, to seek out those present so Doyle can dole out the punishment after finding out which person caused the injury and what happened.
Along the way, Taylor enlists help of his own with that of a son-like man named Tony Gordon.
Surprisingly for a novella, Heatley provides enough of a back story to the prominent characters to allow the reader to develop a bond with each character and to appreciate the decisions characters like Graeme Taylor are forced to make.
Heatley's writing in an Eye For An Eye novella creates a story where the violence is necessary and each blow is not lost in a gratuitous fashion for the sake of violence.
Highly recommended to readers that enjoy Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos novels and writings where often times violence does leave its marks.
An Eye For An Eye is a stand-alone novella which shows Heatley can aptly produce plain, ole hardcore pulp noir. The tale is about the accidental harming of a local powerful mobster's daughter and his quest to punish the offender.
Crime lord Neil Doyle's daughter and a group of her friends are in a local tavern when she is accidentally permanently injured. Most in her group flee immediately after the injury and the father enlists an aging associate, Graeme Taylor, to seek out those present so Doyle can dole out the punishment after finding out which person caused the injury and what happened.
Along the way, Taylor enlists help of his own with that of a son-like man named Tony Gordon.
Surprisingly for a novella, Heatley provides enough of a back story to the prominent characters to allow the reader to develop a bond with each character and to appreciate the decisions characters like Graeme Taylor are forced to make.
Heatley's writing in an Eye For An Eye novella creates a story where the violence is necessary and each blow is not lost in a gratuitous fashion for the sake of violence.
Highly recommended to readers that enjoy Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos novels and writings where often times violence does leave its marks.
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