Beast of Burden

June 13, 2011
British author Banks's fourth and most definitely last Cal Innes novel (after No More Heroes) finds the self-destructive Manchester PI recovering from a drug-induced stroke that's left him barely able to speak. Spurred by the recent death of his addict brother, Declan, Innes vows to finally settle numerous scores with the people who have wrecked his life and destroyed his family. But after being manipulated into helping crime boss Morris Tiernan locate his missing son, Mo, Innes becomes a target for villainous Det. Sgt. Iain "Donkey" Donkin, who's been suspended from the force and is in the end days of his own psychotic downward spiral. While the alternating first-person perspectives of Innes and Donkin keep the action moving briskly, the heavy use of slang may daunt some American readers. Still, crime fiction doesn't get much grittier than this addictively readable narrative that's in turn ill-tempered, cynical, vulgar, and unapologetically violent.