Guy Adams’ book Deadbeat: Makes You Stronger is remarkable. It is full of surprises and twists. This review, in the interest of avoiding spoilers, has to avoid those plot developments. Sure, it would be easy to hint at a few and tease just how smart Deadbeat can be but I don’t want to risk taking the shine off any off the reveals.
The plot follows two friends; Max Jackson and Tom Harris. They’re both actors of a sort, ex-actors really, who hang around Tom’s jazz bar – Deadbeat. It’s the Deadbeat that acts as the centre of the universe for a wider cast, people like Douggie the bouncer and Len the manager.
It’s after a typically thespian drinking session that the drunk Max and Tom happen across an interesting scene. Some rather uncaring undertakers are removing a coffin from the church, when they drop it and the corpse rolls out.
That’s pretty bad. It is worse when they pile the corpse back into their van and drive off. That’s not the end of it either; Max and Tom are pretty sure that the body which fell from the coffin wasn’t really a proper corpse either, in fact they’re pretty sure the woman was still alive.
Guy Adams takes this novel worthy incident and builds a complex adventure worthy of your full attention. In fact, Deadbeat: Makes You Stronger demands your full attention.
Our unlikely heroes set about trying to solve the mystery of the women in the coffin. They begin to investigate the undertakers, insurance companies and priests. The investigation, wrapped up in Adams’ clever humour and engaging characters, that starts to churn up ever more complications for the pair to deal with.
That’s just half the story, though, Tom and Max are interesting characters in themselves and Adams reveals these surprises in flashbacks, dialogues and narration as the novel progresses. It’s a ride.
It’s easy to recommend Deadbeat. It’s perhaps not one for lovers of explosions and giant robots, there’s a certain pace and intellect that Deadbeat possess that may through some readers out but I’d still want to recommend the book to them with an encouraging “give it a go”.
My copy provided for review. Deadbeat: Makes You Stronger by Guy Adams, £7.99, Titan Books.
