The Death You Deserve

May 19, 2003
Bowker concocts a heady blend of satire and action in his U.S. debut about British mobsters and a writer who gets caught in their web. Billy Dye gets his big break after writing a magazine feature on Manchester crime kingpin Malcolm Priest. Dye's editor had transformed his serious article about the gangster's brutality into a puff piece on Priest's charitable side, and Priest so enjoys the fawning article that he asks Dye to write his biography. But the irreverent Dye does not endear himself to Priest, and it's not long before the kingpin hires a hitman to kill him. Luckily, that hitman turns out to be a childhood friend of Dye's named Steve Ellis, now known in professional circles as "Rawhead." He decides to hide Dye and save him from Priest's assassination attempts, but Dye sorely tries Rawhead's patience by making an ill-advised effort to contact a cop friend, who then becomes one of Priest's victims. Bowker spices up the subsequent mano a mano
struggle between Priest and Rawhead with a few savvy, humorous touches, such as his exploration of Dye's lifelong fascination with the horror genre and an outrageous plot twist in which Dye's agent and his publisher fall victim to the carnage. Bowker's tight, smart style keeps the action clipping along, and his characters range from tragically hip to comically thuggish. For readers who like their mobsters with a side order of smart satiric writing—and these days, who doesn't?—Bowker is a welcome addition to the U.S. scene.