The Fall Guy
Published on 29. March 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-78470-398-1 (ISBN)
Description
Charlie, a wealthy banker with an uneasy conscience, invites his troubled cousin Matthew to visit him and his wife in their idyllic mountain-top house over the summer. As the days grow hotter, the friendship between the three begins to reveal its fault lines.
When a fourth person arrives, the household finds itself suddenly in the grip of uncontrollable passions. Who is the real victim? Who is the perpetrator? And who, ultimately, is the fall guy?
When a fourth person arrives, the household finds itself suddenly in the grip of uncontrollable passions. Who is the real victim? Who is the perpetrator? And who, ultimately, is the fall guy?
Reviews / Votes
Engaging, effortlessly readable... Lasdun's writing style is clean and straightforward. All the complexity resides in character and detail. This is masterfully controlled 2am noir. -- Lionel Shriver * Financial Times * What a sinister and searching novel this is - and what a delight. James Lasdun is one of our great writers. -- Joseph O'Neill Exceptionally entertaining...The Fall Guy reads like early Ian McEwan or late Patricia Highsmith... Lasdun is masterly in his story's construction... This is exactly what a literary thriller should be: intelligent, careful, swift, unsettling. -- Charles Finch * New York Times Book Review * Nothing is straightforward in this slick, Highsmithian thriller, and while the damaged Matthew's capacity for self-deception is flagged early, Lasdun's skill lies not least in letting us think that we might therefore have his number. Wrong - and yet the novel's denouement feels fated even as it smoothly steals the breath. -- Stephanie Cross * Observer * Impossible to put down. * Daily Mail * A deftly constructed narratives of guilt and buried resentment -- M. Harrison * Guardian * Already drawing comparisons to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train - but more aptly described as the literary descendant of Dostoyevsky and Patricia Highsmith in an alluring contemporary setting - The Fall Guy is a twisty, chilly, exquisitely written, and tautly suspenseful exploration of big ideas in the guise of a psychological thriller. * Boston Globe *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
191 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78470-398-1 (9781784703981)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
James Lasdun's books include The Fall Guy and Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked. He teaches creative writing at Columbia University and reviews regularly for the Guardian. His work has been filmed by Bernardo Bertolucci (Besieged) and he co-wrote the films Sunday, which won Best Feature and Best Screenplay awards at Sundance, and Signs and Wonders, starring Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgard.