Critical Mick

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Six Random Facts About Critical Mick

In March 2008, while visiting the picturesque town of Pickering in the north of England, Critical Mick sqeezed into the Multiple Scolrosis Chaity Shop to buy a baby blanket and root through the used book racks. There he spied a novel by an author he had never heard of, Douglas E. Winter, whose novel Run was praised by Elmore Leonard ("...The style is terrific...") and James Herbert ("The most stunning debut novel I've ever read..."). Mick bought Run for £120.00 even though Jenny Friel's book about the Rachel O'Reilly murder was in his bag.

If marooned on ye olde deserte islande, Mick would bring along a book heavy enough to smash open coconut shells. He does however keep dipping back in to re-read Run, to the annoyance of the other books waiting in his To Be Read stack. Run is just that damn good.

Critical Mick is not as tough as Burdon Lane, the hardboiled narrator of Run. Mick is big enough not to be bullied around by books on a tottering nightstand stack, but that's the extent of it. The one punch Mick received to the chest last Saturday was enough to put Mick in his place, and the guy doing the punching wasn't even a ninja. It was Tai Chi, that gentle meditative Chinese art that senior citizens practice in parks!

Winter, a seasoned lawyer, speaks authoritatively on the realities of gun lawns and illegal trafficking in America. He gets every detail right in the gun-porn that helps make Run so big-screen exciting. Winter is spot-on authentic right down to the affectionate nickname of the old Army-issue .45. Compare that to a crime noob like Mick! The last time Mick made a real handgun go BOOM was 1990. Oh! And he shot a rifle once in the basement, but we will never mention that traumatic day again.

Critical Mick is not an enforcer for a all-poweful arms dealer, nor a gangsta rap style street thug, not even a trusted confidant of a far-reaching government conspiracy, and definitely not an undercover law enforcement officer. Douglas E. Winter would find loudmouthed book fan Critical Mick absolutely insignificant, and rightly so. Stylists like Winter have fresh messages about the mindlessness of gun violence in America. They are not impressed by cheap gimmicks and lame jokes.

Unlike Mick, who can only think up dumb ideas about a boarding school for the kids of every fictional PI, Douglas E. Winter has crafted an absolute kicker of a plot that dares readers to hang on. Run loses a degree of its ferocious originality when conforming to the tenets laid down by mob stories that have been told before, but even the weakest sections (The rehashes of thug life in a black street gang) shame Mick's most popular review, The Death of an Irish Sinner. Mick has placed Run high on his list of Best Books Read in 2008. Mick is as mad about this 259-page novel as Declan Burke is about Quinn.

Bonus Fact

Critical Mick is lying about at least one of the above.