Duffy, the first novel in a British PI series from author Dan Kavanagh caught my attention mainly because Kavanagh is the pen name for none other than Julian Barnes, and when you consider how serious his recent novel is, you realise that an author’s writing life consists of very specific phases. I’ve been a fan of Barnes for many years–loved Flaubert’s Parrot and Staring at the Sun, so Julian Barnes writing a crime series?… I’m in. The series was published back in the 80s, and that probably explains why the tone reminded me so much of Before She Met Me, a Barnes novel published back in 1982. Duffy begins very strongly with a bizarre home invasion. Mrs McKechnie, a middle-class woman who would seem to have no enemies whatsoever is tied up and cut by two men. It’s a very professional job (except for what happens to the cat), and the incident seems to be a message for Brian McKechnie, a London businessman who sells party items at his drab little London office. Under the threat of additional violence, McKechnie is then systematically squeezed for cash; it seems to be a case of blackmail as the perps know that McKechnie’s “mistress [who] doubled as his secretary,” but if it’s simple blackmail then why the home invasion and the violence towards McKechnie’s innocent–albeit dull–wife? The local Guildford police are mystified by the case and consider the incident the “work of a maniac, pair of maniacs,” while the London police obviously don’t give a toss. Enter PI Duffy, a bisexual ex-copper set up on vice charges and drummed out of the force in disgrace.Life for Duffy has been going downhill since he left the force. He’s hobbled together a PI firm that mostly dabbles in petty jobs, and while he manages to pay the rent, his relationship with his girlfriend, Carol, never recovered. When he’s contacted by McKechnie to investigate the identity of the man behind the pressure, Duffy steps back to Soho on to his old turf– hookers, peep shows, porno films, and porn mag shops, and once Duffy starts digging he realizes that his unresolved past is connected to the McKechnie case.In spite of its subject matter, Duffy has a light, ironic and amusing tone. This is partly Kavanagh’s style but it’s also the colorful characters who step across Duffy’s path. Everyone in the sex biz is a professional here, and that includes an aging workhorse hooker, and a motley bunch of peep show girls, and there’s even a gang boss whose taste for decorating could be amusing if he weren’t so vicious. Duffy once worked vice, but now he’s just another customer cruising through the tacky sex shops of Soho where sex isn’t glamorous or even exciting–it’s just damn hard work. If you’re the type who’s offended by the Blue World, then this is not a book for you–if however, you have no problem with Duffy attending, and sharing details of peep shows and moronic porn films, then you may enjoy this off-beat PI tale.At one point, Duffy sits in on a porn film, and his description of the thin, ridiculous plot is really very funny, but best of all, for this reader is Duffy’s explanations for just how a copper becomes corrupt:Still, every year around the Golden Mile brought different temptations. He knew how it happened: you didn’t take the free booze even if everyone else did; you didn’t take the first girl you got offered; you turned down the smokes and the snort; and then something quite trivial happened, like you asked for a couple of days to pay at the bookie’s. Quite suddenly, the place had got you. It wasn’t necessarily that there was a particular gang always on the look-out to bend coppers (though sometimes there was); it was somehow the place that got you. It was one square mile of pressure, and everyone had a weak point.Duffy, a man with a fetish for neatness, makes an interesting series character. He knows how to BS the punters who want all the bells and whistles of PI work, but nevertheless he takes his job very seriously. The novel argues that working vice, stepping in a world in which every imaginable desire is for sale, is a corrupting environment which will stain any copper who lingers there long enough.
This was a good story and my first by this author, but it wasn't the kind of intriguing hard-to-solve mystery that I normally like.Everyone in the story was kind of seedy to a greater or lesser degree and not in a lovable rogue kind of way either. None of the characters were particularly appealing - no heroes here, just a group of shady cops and shady criminals trying to outwit each other and yet working alongside each other. This book was written in 1980 and so it is unsurprising that it has a Sweeny feel to it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swe...It is British (yay) and manages to capture the kind of bad image that British policing had in the UK in the eighties especially in the cities.Duffy is an ex-cop. He was pushed out of his job for crossing the line. Not the ethical lines the police should have but the unethical lines of loyalty and not making waves for his superiors. Four years later finds him running his own security company and allowing things to tick on. His life is flat. He has no expectations or hope, he does what ever comes along to do, his relationship (if you can call it that) with Carol is at an impasse. And then he gets a client who is being pressured by some shady character and the client (who is by no means an upright person) wants the pressure to stop. Having gone to the police and not getting much help the client turns to Duffy and employs him to find out who is behind the threats.And Duffy does find out in a rather low key 'I'd rather be elsewhere' kind of way. But Duffy also discovers other things some of which show him who was behind the stitch up that cost him his career in the police.It was an excellent narration with all the menace of dirty policing and the seedier side of London coming to life. It also evoked the early eighties especially when Duffy agree to work for twenty pounds a day. Back then that must have been a good wage. Today you would get a latte, lunch and two trips on the tube for that.All in all it was a good story but I felt it was too easily solved and I wanted more of a mystery with much more convoluted twists and turns. Still a good read though or good listen as the the case may be.
Do You like book Duffy (2014)?
My primary reason for reading this is that it was written by Julian Barnes under a pseudonym. I admire his writing, and was curious to see what this was like. It's an offbeat, noir-ish mystery set mostly in a lower-class, industrial English city. The eponymous detective is bisexual and promiscuous, with a really sweet, frustrating relationship with the policewoman he clearly loves, and an inability to say 'yes' to anything. It tries to be pulp, but Barnes' erudition and sheer talent keep breaking through - in that sense, it's less than perfect pulp, but a better than average book, while being both entertaining and ultimately satisfying.
—Grady McCallie
I enjoyed this book, was hovering between three and four stars.It's not really a mystery, more of a detective story. There's no revelations, just events and it ends abruptly.On the positive side this is I believe the first book I have read with a bisexual narrator. Bisexuals seem a bit like unicorns in that they supposedly exist but no one knows one, so I was glad to read this and the book has merit for that alone.The other thing I liked was the location and time period. The book is set in very late 1970's London and specifically in the sex trade. Duffy includes visits to blue movie clubs, massage parlours, and booths where you stick a coin in and get to see a naked lady for a few moments. I would imagine much of this has been upgraded or lost and the book is a great time period of the illicit side of London life.Not rushing to read the next in the series but probably will.
—Adam Dunn
I don't know if it's simply because Martin Amis was quoted on the cover liking the book or if it actually reminded me of Amis Jr.'s work, but it seemed similar writing. This was a great book to bust out the Pere Ubu and Wire and Waitresses and listen to some great music while reading a book noir. Pere Ubu always fits a good dark/strange read. This was more dark than strange and not very strange really at all. The ending was kind of cheap, which is why I gave this four stars instead of five. It probably would get three if I didn't find everything I touch so damned amiable. Duffy's a cool character and there are a lot of funny parts. Sensationalism peaks pretty high at points, and I like that though it's a bit morbid. I liked this, though I don't really recommend it for anyone not fully into the crime genre or looking to write a crime novel (as I am). This sets me up for a good Queneau. I think that's what I'll read next. Raymond Queneau's The Bark Tree. Maybe after I actually finish the Big Money.
—William
