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in the red:
INCOMPETENCE by ROB GRANT
posted by Matt Drzymala, review by Curtis
'Nice Guy' Threadgold
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In
a previous conversation I learnt
that some believe Rob
Grant’s post Red dwarf work
has been all about nob gags,
however Incompetence may change a
few minds. It isn’t quite
the ‘Western Space Opera
Whatever’ that is Backwards
but its far far superior to Dark
Ages, which now I think about it
could have been written by a
character from Incompetence. Set
in the United States Of Europe
the backdrop of the story focuses
around the effect of Article
13199 of the Pan-European
Constitution – ‘No
person shall be prejudice from
employment in any capacity, at
any level, by reasons of age,
race, creed or
incompetence.’ While the
story focuses on pseudonym
aplenty detective Harry Salt as
he travels the world in search of
a killer that is predictably
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always
one step ahead of him.
This is
all well and good you may think, however
various blurbs on the book said that
Harry was a ‘possibly incompetent
detective.’ Very disappointingly
this is never explored in fact after
reading you are left knowing very little
about Harry, his organisation or the
world these characters inhabit. But all
this isn’t where the books strength
lies, the murder trail isn’t as
intriguing as you might think and the
action sequences long and tedious.
Grant
seems to have opted for a structure
similar to that of some James Herbert
novels (particularly The Rats Trilogy and
The Fog) in that many chapters read like
individual short stories that could
easily be lifted from the book and the
plot would still remain more than
fathomable. These are what make the book
entertaining as its characters are its
core. I wont go into too much detail here
as it could spoil things and these are
very funny indeed, especially Mamma and
her dead husband and the man in prison
simply for being there who can only be
released by committing a crime.
If your
looking for this to be a murder novel as
some blurbs suggest you may be
disappointed but its doubtful you will
be. If your reading this you no doubt
know what to expect with Grant (forget
Dark Ages forget Dark Ages) and know
whether or not you find his humour
agreeable. I for one do and can certainly
recognise the half of a brilliant writing
partnership that has been absent for some
time.
by
Curtis Threadgold
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