The Long Firm is a crime novel like no other. Taking us back to London in the sizzling 60's and set in the criminal world of the West End, we meet Harry Starks. You'll love him and you'll hate him, but you'll only ever see him through the eyes of five people he does business with...
In the opening paragraphs, the narrator is tied to a chair, about to be burned with a white-hot poker, while his tormentor recalls lyrics from an Ethel Merman song. And this is how the reader first meets Harry Starks. Starks is a complex and compelling character to say the least!
Harry's story is told by a diverse group of associates: The first narrator is Terry, a rootless boy-toy who earns Harry's favors, until his unwitting participation in a scam gone wrong brings Terry face to face with The White-Hot Poker. Subsequent tales are told by Lord Teddy Thursby, a profligate MP Harry almost casually pockets; freelance drug peddler Jack the Hat, an unfortunate crony in Harry's scheme to corner the pop music and pornography markets; Ruby Ryder, a tarty actress with a shady past, who's moving right on up the ladder - until she takes Harry's new boyfriend to bed; and ingenuous hippie Lenny, the Open University tutor who bonds with Harry during the latter's imprisonment, and is drawn inexorably into his crafty pupil's violent orbit, just as the story veers toward its bitterly ironic end. Each of these characters is used by Harry, and each of them is drawn to him out of need but also out of fascination.
And each of these five people will learn to fear him.
The reader learns, through the stories told by the others, that Harry is a romantic who loves show business and its people almost as much as he loves beautiful young men.
The Long Firm takes the ordinary "crime novel" and turns it into a crime character study of ambitious proportions. The well-drawn characters are certainly memorable, as is the terrific dialogue (sometimes quite humorous) and the perfectly realised London circa 1960.
It is hard to believe this is Arnott's first novel. But if he continues to write like this, he'll be a household name before long. Read it.
