12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A great comic read. Stay with it during first chapter!, August 28, 2011
By
Mary Eagleton (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition)
This book is about as black as black comedy can get. It's an amazing mix of outrageous dialogue and mind-bending scenes, some of which had even me cringing with horror. It starts a bit slowly as the author paints the scenery carefully for us - collapsing mansion, mad poverty-stricken owners, criminal friends - then it takes off and weird events follow one another at breakneck speed. I loved the characters, all over the top but still as if drawn from life, and the setting. All in all a great, exciting, really funny holiday read.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Really funny black humor from Brit aristo crime gang, August 28, 2011
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James Murchison (Idaho) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition)
I loved this. Brilliantly written and full of wacky scenes. I don't usually go for this sort of clever Brit humor but I got straight into it and it just took off like a rocket. I wonder how many of the English aristocracy are really as disreputable as this?
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars This doesn't aim to be great literature but it's damn entertaining, September 1, 2011
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Annie Lambert (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition)
I have to confess to being an Englishwoman living in California but my partner, who's a "real" American, kept trying to this book away before I'd finished! If you're looking for something discreet to read on the plane or train, forget it. People will turn round to see what you are cackling at! Also it's fast paced, and the dialogue really fizzes. But when you sit back at the end and think about it, you realise it's making some really serious points about what's happening in the world today, that is the growing number of people over 60 who are healthy and just want to have a good time, including lashings of sex! Characters I liked: of course Bill Staggs, the gangster stud, and of course Margaret with her "razor sharp pelvis", John the would-be doctor (and medical experimenter), and the boy Iain, who is a devilish creation."His was the kind of dedicated curiosity that leads people to pick up discarded cash register slips in supermarket car-parks, to see what complete strangers have been spending..."
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A bit near the bone sometimes but really amusing dialogue and characters, August 30, 2011
By
Henry Ireson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition)
Totally enjoyed this unusual book although agree with the other reviews that the first chapter is just setting up this incredible yet believable situation and you have to stay with it before the real action starts. After that you get into the writer's nightmare world and it all seems quite normal! It really carried me along and the dialogue and extreme characters are really funny. I warn some readers that some of the sex scenes between the residents are just a bit too near the bone! There's a lady called Margaret Levitt who is something else - totally obsessed. And there's loads of bad language, although all the "cockney" speech is very convincing... Some readers have complained that the book is racist - that's totally wrong. Some characters are - but it's credible and is part of the story...
the truth is some some characters are racist, homophobic, ageist (as in, they are against young people!) - but funny.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars not sure I agree it is as black or dark as all that, September 23, 2011
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Tommy T Johnson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition)
Obviously the "criminals" being a bit older than is usual is a bit of a change but it also makes for high comedy. OK there is some sex between the old folk, but it's not done in a lascivious way, it's part of the action and it's all part of the general fun. Personally I found it all very acceptable and entertaining. Don't expect hours of existential navelwatching as in so many modern novels. However people who don't like the odd-swearword should keep away! The landscape and characters are great.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars interesting to read, sophisticated and fun, September 26, 2011
By
Janie Webb - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition)
It seems the writer is trying to do several things at once: a "darkish" comedy, a sort of thriller, a satire and social comment on the way our demography is going, and a "hommage" to gothic romance, as other reviewers have said - anyway the combination works very well. I "lent" it to my 80-year old mother and my 19-year old son, who is studying Enhglish at University, and they both really enjoyed it too.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars more than a nod and a wink towards the gothic novel, September 25, 2011
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Deborah Wilks - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition)
If you could say that the setting of the Gothic (or Gothick) Novel is a character in itself then this book certainly draws on and refers to the genre. The plot of such works is usually set in a castle, an abbey, a monastery, or some other, usually religious edifice, and the scenery around tends to be desolate and wild. The author has certainly achieved this and even deliberately signals it by naming rooms in the mansion after famous gothick novels (Otranto, Udolpho, Melmoth etc). Also the wild antics, secret passages and so on are all I think a reference/pastiche. A real success, but very entertaining as well.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed this and shall keep it on my kindle to read again soon, September 29, 2011
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MarkMyWords - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition)
excellent characters, setting, funny too. I liked the main character and his wife, and of course Bill. Even the awful boy was OK in the end it seems. I'm busy telling my friends about it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Top characters and description of place., September 17, 2011
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Tony|Tone - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition)
The main character, Freddie, is actually quite sympathetic, despite his dodgy activities. You feel he's sort of put-upon by the other characters. I guess the plot itself is more there to show off both characters and location to best advantage - although it still romps along. I enjoyed the gang's adventures and it certainly draws you in. Also cameos like the terrible greedy Pecry family and John the extremely eccentric overenthusiastic male nurse are great. A very good entertainment.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars I was expecting to laugh and I wasn't disappointed, September 12, 2011
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Jessie B. Nolan - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition)
I was expecting a comedy and it is very funny but the book is also really interesting as an evocation of a part of the UK (I presume the Essex or Suffolk marshes) I used to know well, so I enjoyed that. Even though the story is over the top sometimes I guess that's not really the point, it's all part of the fun, you get drawn into the crazy off-beat way he sees things. However I definitely have the impression that it was based on real people at least in part.
The writer also has a great turn of phrase, some of my favourites - there are many:

"His joints cracked out a funeral volley as he straightened up, his skin wet with stress under his layers of clothing."
"Years of squinting along the sights of a variety of firearms had given her face a lop-sided look, and wherever she was, the larger of her fine, grey eyes drifted upwards - as if scanning the skies for incoming geese."
"His shirt-sleeves were so tightly rolled up that they acted almost as tourniquet on his arms, forcing the veins to stand out and leading the eye down to a profusion of tattoos"
"An otter dived nearby. A cautious gull peered down to see if Lady Anne had a firearm in her hand before avoiding her eyes and flying inland as high as it could."
"Bill, freshly shaven and smelling of John's cleaning alcohol, closed the back doors and slid in behind the wheel, automatically touching the cosh under the dashboard as he did so, as if it were a rhinoceros horn talisman. "Heigh-ho and away we go!" he cried, as he started the engine. "

Also you can tell it is set in the eighties or around that time - took me a while before I realised there were no cell-phones! I'm really looking forward to the sequel, now he apparently has got back to writing again...