Review ~ Black Teeth by Zane Lovitt

Text Publishing
2017

Blurb

Jason Ginaff doesn’t get out much. Partly because of the anxiety, mainly because he works at home. Researching people on the internet. Job candidates doing bucket bongs on Instagram accounts they thought they’d deleted; the prospective new head of sales stripping for a hens’ night…

He’s been searching for something on his own time, too.

Now he’s found it: the phone number of the man he believes to be his father.

Which is how he gets mixed up with Rudy Alamein. They’ve been looking for the same man.

Difference being, Rudy wants to kill him.

Black Teeth is a witty, dynamic contemporary thriller by an emerging master of the form. Beautifully written and darkly funny, it’s both a literary triumph and an irresistible read.

My Thoughts

I have to admit that this book is probably a little out of my comfort zone and as such it took me a while to settle into this rather bleak Australian noir tale of two disparate loners who are brought together in the most unlikely of circumstances.

The story reads well in places but there are times when it feels a little bit lost and there were times when I felt lost along with it. The contemporary thriller at the heart of the novel works in places but sort of loses its momentum towards the end which I felt was something of a disappointment.

The book's cast of characters play their role within the story with a strange fascination and I think this where the strength of the writing lies, in the way that the author shapes and molds them, so even though they are largely unlikable, you can't help but be curious about them and wonder how the story will eventually play out in the wider scope of the mystery.

Although the story didn't really work for me, I can't fault its originality and the author's commitment to writing something a little bit different.

 About the Author

Zane Lovitt was a documentary filmmaker before turning his hand to crime fiction. His debut novel, The Midnight Promise, won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, was long listed for the Commonwealth Book Prize for Best First Book, and led to Zane being named one of the Best Young Novelists of 2013 by the Sydney Morning Herald. Zane Lovitt lives in Melbourne. Black Teeth is his second book.

My thanks to Phoebe and the team at FMcM Associates for my review copy of Black Teeth

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