Cycle of Violence

by Colin Bateman

Book Overview

Miller's ever-so-smart aleck mouth has earned him a disciplinary transfer from his downtown Belfast beat to Crossmaheart, a beleaguered and depressed outpost where the preferred response to murder is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0006479359
• ISBN13: 9780006479352
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Harpercollins Pub Ltd
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.7" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Compelling & Funny

This brings back the nightmare of ordinary life in those dark areas of Northern Ireland that I knew so well before I left, and reminds me of the wonderful magical humor of people in dire straits.

cheeky Ulster humour blended with an interesting plot..

One literary critic describes Colin Bateman as Ulster's (Northern Island's) equivalent of Carl Hiaasen. Being a fan of Hiaasen I can see his point. Bateman has a way of delivering great satiric humour is his (relatively) light mystery novels. But unlike Hiaasen, he doesn't seem to be overly negative and bitter (..sometimes Hiaasen seems to hate most everything).In Cycle of Violence we have the story of newspaperman being exiled to a rather nasty outpost (a town called Crossmaheart) to cover the usual reports of rape, murder and gang warfare. He is actually filling a post left vacant when some ambitious journalist disappears and is presumed dead. Things get interesting when he by chance develops a relationship with the missing journalist's girlfriend, and he discovers this woman has a rather bizarre past (, present ... and the future seems dubious too).Bottom line: a funny, breezy read. I hope its USA publishers decide to issue it in paperback. It's every bit as good as Bateman's earlier (and more famous) Divorcing Jack.

The book keeps you interested from beginning to end.

Colin Bateman has a simple way of thinking: He can take you wherever he wants if you want to go along. Death or "The Angel of Death" is a central character in this novel. It keeps you waiting, it keeps you feeling, but above all, it keeps you thinking. It's hard to say weather we are capable of having a political view.In this book, what matters is What is personal? and What is social? This division makes the whole story worthwhile.

Bateman, comedy thrillers as they should be!

I had thoroughly enjoyed Divorcing Jack, and moved onto Cycle of Violence! What a great job! I was sitting there wondering whether I should be laughing, shouting, or crying and ended up doing them all simultaneously! Read Divorcing Jack and then Cycle of Violence and you will learn more about the troubles in Ireland than you could by reading 100 news reports ever could!

Excellent tragi-comedy set in Northern Ireland.

Colin Bateman is a splendid writer. Here he juggles several well-fleshed out characters to extreme comic effect while an underlying mood of violence gives the book its dark edge. In common with his other two books - Divorcing Jack and Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men - his characters are all fast-talking, wisecracking larger-than-life figures that get caught up in the most absurd, and often tragic situations. If you like your comedy on the dark side but still want to sit rocking with laughter as you read it, I can give my whole-hearted recommendation for Cycle of Violence. Read it, it's really good