Murder Book - Hardcover

Rayner, Richard

3.51

73 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395836255 ISBN 13: 9780395836255

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (Trade), 1997

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The city is Los Angles, the birthplace and terminus of the American dream, a city that has come to symbolize both heaven and hell. Billy McGrath is an enigma, half American, half English, who once dreamed of pursuing a career as an academic philosopher, but for the last fifteen years he's been a homicide detective, one of LA's best. He knows the rules, playing them perhaps better than anyone while understanding the reality of a justice system that doesn't always work, that punishes the underprivileged and lets the rich go free. He's a deeply unhappy, possibly suicidal man, divorced from a wife he still adores and separated from a ten-year-old daughter for whom he'd readily die.
McGrath is called to a crime scene - a woman dead on a kitchen floor in one of the city's less than inviting neighborhoods, a seemingly routine assignment until he discovers that the murdered woman's son is LA's biggest crack dealer, an idol of the ghetto who offers him a one-million-dollar bounty for the name of the killer. Making entirely the wrong choice for what might be the right reasons, McGrath initiates both his own fall from grace and, as he strives to redeem himself, a series of wild and furious actions that hurtle him through each of the city's multiple layers and identities.

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Review:

For LA Without a Map

‘Clued-up, literate and gut-bustingly funny’
Gordon Burn, Arena

‘Brilliant... marvellously original, vivid and funny... sizzling energy, humour and atmosphere’
Sunday Express

‘Written in the fast lane... Hilarious’
i-D

‘Full of irony and masochism... a terrific piece of road comedy’
Daily Telegraph

From the Back Cover:

COMPELLING, DARK AND DIRTY, 'MURDER BOOK' IS A 'CHINATOWN' FOR THE NINETIES.

The city is Los Angeles, birthplace of the American dream. Billy McGrath is an enigma, half American, half English, a philosopher manqu�, but for the fifteen years a homicide detective – one of LA's best. He knows the rules, and understands a justice system that punishes the underprivileged and lets the rich go free. He's an unhappy man, divorced from the wife he still adores and separated from a daughter for whom he's willingly die.

McGrath is called to a brutal, but apparently routine, crime scene. Routine until he discovers that the murdered woman's son is LA's biggest crack dealer, an idol of the ghetto who offers him a one-million-dollar bounty for the name of the killer. Making the wrong choice for what might be the right reasons, McGrath initiates his own fall from grace and, as he strives to redeem himself triggers a series of wild and furious actions that hurtle him through the many identities of corrupt Los Angeles.

In McGrath, Rayner has created a sympathetic everyman who becomes both victim and victor. Set against a bleak cityscape, 'Murder Book' is a dark, violent and sexy thriller that is impossible to put down.

'Written in the fast lane...'.
I-D

'Full of irony and masochism...Terrific'.
DAILY TELEGRAPH

'High-class and distinctive'.
INDEPENDENT (of 'Los Angeles Without a Map').

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