Sam Millar

Sam Millar has led a very harsh and colourful life "On The Brinks" is essentially his biography,from the battle ridden streets of Belfast to the sidewalks of New York in the mid 80's/90's. Millar was an integral part of the aptly named "blanket" protest in the infamous H-blocks of Long Kesh prison Northern Ireland during the mid 70's. The first part of the book deals with his imprisonment and the picture painted is of a brutal and harsh regime where prisoners lived in virtual isolation with show more no possessions save for a "comfort" blanket and were subjected to systematic torture on a weekly basis. Millar tells his story in a direct and honest way sprinkled with a dry northern irish humour and the reader is left in no doubt as to his bleak situation during his period of incarceration. In total contrast the second part of the book deals with Millar's time in America and the doomed planning and robbery of the Brinks depot in Rochester New York. I love his direct style of writing, his great storytelling ability,and his unflappable humour in the face of such adversity. This is a terrific book of the highest order and available now for the first time on the kindle at the giveaway price of 0.86p! I heartily recommend and implore you to purchase, read and enjoy an author at the peak of his writing ability. show less

Black’s Creek – Dark and Brilliant

Black’s Creek by Sam Millar is a wonderfully dark crime thriller with a wonderful twist this is the noir genre at its best. This story is dark and haunting and thing of every parent’s nightmares when a predatory paedophile is living on the outskirts of the town. He is like the scary pied piper but worse and this is the story of his haunting the town like the worst of all evil characters.

Tom is a successful author living in New York having his show more breakfast with his wife as usual until he reads the New York Times’ headline telling of a crime that happened years ago in Black’s Creek was being reopened due to new DNA evidence. News that would make anyone jump for joy at the murderer finally being court. This is the story of three school friends, three children’s deaths and the investigation and murder of a paedophile.

Tom takes us back to when he was a teen with his school friends in Black’s Creek and how they spent one summer leading in to the following winter. While Tom was out skinny dipping with his friends Joey Maxwell commits suicide not able to cope with being a victim of Norman Armstrong, a paedophile whom the police cannot get enough evidence to take to trial.

Tom and his friends make a plan to kill Armstrong but fail to deliver on their plan through fear and being idealistic kids. They try not to talk about their failure and fall out. Tom falls in love with Devlin and they have a summer of love and she paints him naked. When Devlin is murdered Tom’s world falls to pieces and he wants to gain revenge on Armstrong who he blames. Somehow he gets acquitted when he eventually goes to trial and Tom’s world falls apart at the seams.

Tom and his father take the acquittal personally as he is the local sheriff and the town is pointing fingers at him. When a body is discovered in the local lake which the sheriff had searched a few days earlier a dead girl’s body is pulled out of the frozen lake, the sheriff is now a laughing stock.

Tom silently plans to kill Armstrong it becomes his raison d’être he feels that it is something that he needs to do. It is Tom who explains throughout the book what is happening and you can feel the darkness in his soul at this point in his life. It is also an example of you never forget your first love especially when Tommy looks at the picture Devlin painted of him so long ago.

This is a wonderful book a crime thriller noir at its best that is thrilling and seeing it through Tommy’s eyes as innocence is broken. There are some great twists in the book which deals evenly with the subject. Armstrong’s spectre looms large over the thriller as does the light of goodness from Tommy’s father. This is the classic page turning thriller which really is a must read from Sam Millar which proves he is Ireland’s master of the noir genre. show less

Sam Millar Black’s Creek

This was a gripping tale that bounced along on a wave of adolescence angst and violence. Atmospheric, full of suspense and revenge. It reminded me of other books I’d read. Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones particularly the mother figure. I half expected Tommy to have to dig a hole in the garden when his mother’s wrath was working itself into a crescendo of suitable punishment. Lorenzo Carcaterra’s Sleepers, The Lovely Bones, or maybe it follows the fashion of show more having adolescent boys as narrators, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Looking for Alaska. I felt, as they were characters I already knew but had become enmeshed in a new plot.
I am not a fan of violence. There are times when it is fundamental to the plot or the point the writer is trying to make. I did feel here that it was often gratuitous. And as such it was a joyless book in many respects.
However it was well constructed and well written, no real surprises in terms of the plot and the outcome. It is not an uncommon device to steer the reader into believing that one person is responsible for an action that was in fact perpetrated by someone else.
But it is how you arrive there that separates a good writer from a bad. And this is the work of a good writer. show less

If you like noir, you’ll love this book.

Karl Kane, P.I. in the mold of Sam Spade, wakes up one morning only to discover a hand (minus a finger that a local cat was making off with.) He calls the police and figures that’s the end of it until his secretary and bedmate, the gorgeous (of course) Naomi mentions there’s a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer. Apparently there had been another hand found belonging to someone else. An abattoir plays a prominent show more role in the story.

Soon Kane is up to his eyeballs in a complex tale of vengeance and police corruption that had begun during the Troubles with the arson killing of three children. It’s set in Belfast just after the peace accords when many grudges have yet to be settled.

Solid story. Not sure what happened to the $20,000 though. show less