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    Noose
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    Noose
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    Noose
    Ebook244 pages3 hours

    Noose

    By Bill James

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The past is an inescapable noose around a young man’s neck, in this blackly comic, satirical novel from renowned crime writer Bill James

    Britain, 1956. A young actress seemingly tries to commit suicide over a tangled love affair, but is taken to hospital and her life saved. The story is just the sort of thing that journalist Ian Charteris likes to cover: a poignant mix of near tragedy, possible thwarted romance, and glamour, needing sensitive but – of course – dramatic treatment. It should be a routine assignment, a welcome assignment. It would be, if it wasn’t for the identity of the young woman. She may – just may – be Ian’s sister.

    The unwelcome reminder of the past drags Ian back into memories of places and events he’d rather forget. As far as Ian is concerned, the past is a foreign country. And not just foreign. Fundamentally and cantankerously hostile. Vengeful, war-torn, dangerous.

    It is impossible to escape the past; the noose is already around Ian’s neck, and every step he takes it tightens . . . And this is not the only noose.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSevern House Publishers
    Release dateDec 1, 2013
    ISBN9781780104591
    Unavailable
    Noose
    Author

    Bill James

    Bill James made his mark in the 1970s and 1980s with his Baseball Abstracts. He has been tearing down preconceived notions about America’s national pastime ever since. He is currently the Senior Advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox, as well as the author of The Man from the Train. James lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with his wife, Susan McCarthy, and three children.

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    Reviews for Noose

    3.5/5

    5 ratings3 reviews

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    • 3/5
      By page 11, I still had not decided whether Ian Charteris deserved my attention for 185 pages. I usually love, like, detest, fear, loath or have some other strong emotion toward the main character long before I'd spent 11 pages with she/him. Nothing, except he seemed a little? what? don't know. When Mr. James--a very good user of words, by the way--decided to spend two pages telling the reader--me in this case--repeatedly--how the journalist "coded" their writing to convey a particular impression in the story without skirting the throes of liability and slander, I decided I was through with "NOOSE" for now. Why? my mood? an annoying repeat of the same idea in different alterations on the same page? character that didn't give me enough reason to actually care--for ill or good--what happened to them and it was about time--even this early, especially since the book is only 185 pages long? Whatever the reason, I've put Bill James on my "to read" list and I'll read him again, and may even try this particular novel at that time. So, back to the Library for now. And, don't you just love Libraries! What a wonderful way to meet hundreds, if not thousands of writers and the people they talk about without spending a dime--unless it is in support of a library of course! I have a good sized personal Library but not every mystery/thriller writer makes the cut, but those that do are enjoyed over and over. Their are some that I've read everything they have written 4-5 times over the years and not a one has lost it's attraction, charm, and pleasure. Well, one, but that's another story.
    • 3/5
      By page 11, I still had not decided whether Ian Charteris deserved my attention for 185 pages. I usually love, like, detest, fear, loath or have some other strong emotion toward the main character long before I'd spent 11 pages with she/him. Nothing, except he seemed a little? what? don't know. When Mr. James--a very good user of words, by the way--decided to spend two pages telling the reader--me in this case--repeatedly--how the journalist "coded" their writing to convey a particular impression in the story without skirting the throes of liability and slander, I decided I was through with "NOOSE" for now. Why? my mood? an annoying repeat of the same idea in different alterations on the same page? character that didn't give me enough reason to actually care--for ill or good--what happened to them and it was about time--even this early, especially since the book is only 185 pages long? Whatever the reason, I've put Bill James on my "to read" list and I'll read him again, and may even try this particular novel at that time. So, back to the Library for now. And, don't you just love Libraries! What a wonderful way to meet hundreds, if not thousands of writers and the people they talk about without spending a dime--unless it is in support of a library of course! I have a good sized personal Library but not every mystery/thriller writer makes the cut, but those that do are enjoyed over and over. Their are some that I've read everything they have written 4-5 times over the years and not a one has lost it's attraction, charm, and pleasure. Well, one, but that's another story.
    • 4/5
      Synopsis/blurb.............Britain, 1956. A young actress seemingly tries to commit suicide over a tangled love affair, but is taken to hospital and her life saved. The story is just the sort of thing that journalist Ian Charteris likes to cover: a poignant mix of near tragedy, possible thwarted romance, and glamour, needing sensitive but - of course - dramatic treatment. It should be a routine assignment, a welcome assignment. It would be, if it wasn't for the identity of the young woman. She may - just may - be Ian's sister. The unwelcome reminder of the past drags Ian back into memories of places and events he'd rather forget. As far as Ian is concerned, the past is a foreign country. And not just foreign. Fundamentally and cantankerously hostile. Vengeful, war-torn, dangerous. It is impossible to escape the past; the noose is already around Ian's neck, and every step he takes it tightens...And this is not the only noose.Bill James is an author I have read previously. He has a 30 book long police series with detectives Harpur and Iles of which I have read the first couple (I think it was 2!), albeit some years ago. As well as his long-running series he is the author of many standalone novels, with quite a few published under the pseudonym of David Craig. It’s quite remarkable that with over 50 titles to his name, I very rarely encounter his stuff in bookshops, but tend to find him with his own substantial shelf in my local library. (This is something he seems to have in common with Nick Oldham, another British crime fiction author with 20 plus books to his name, all of which seem to be scarcer than rocking-horse pooh, apart from the library. Can anyone explain this phenomenon?)Noose is his latest stand-alone offering and very enjoyable it was too. Only 170 pages long, which is my kind of book, but packed with enough disparate threads of story and detail as many books twice its length. Ian Charteris is our main character in the book, but for a large sections plays second-fiddle to his father and his maritime exploits, including a well-publicised and oft-remembered rescue of a young woman - Emily when serving as a crew mate on a passenger boat. An unsympathetic, self-centred character is Charteris senior, a fact which Ian guiltily recognises the more he comes to understand him. Ian comes into his own when witnessing an incident during a bombing raid in the Blitz. An incident which allows his father’s resentment to surface and which at its conclusion reopens old wounds causing his mother pain, a fact Ian comes to understand some years later. We fast forward to Ian’s National Service and his training in Lincolnshire in readiness for service in Korea. Ian crosses paths with the much-older Emily, now a civil servant of some description and the spouse of the head of the training base. The settling of imagined debts from the past, conspire to keep Ian at home and safe, with severe consequences for his rival and friend, Ray Bain.Having decided against re-enlisting when his service obligations expire, Ian refusing the overtures of recruiting agents for British intelligence pursues a career in journalism. Bain and Emily working together bring him back into the unwitting service of his country, before we finish back in the present (1956) and a journalistic story concerning his troubled and heart-broken half-sister. Entertained? Yes Satisfied? YesVery enjoyable? Yes Want to read more from him? Yes, it might be time to dig out more of the Harpur and Iles books.4 from 5I obtained access to this through the Net Galley website.