Two-way Split

Congratulations Allan on your win of the Theakston prize. A well deserved accolade.

This book is addictive from start to finish. The aggressive pace of this novel demands that you pay attention to the wonderfully created characters while riding the roller coaster of despair that they inhabit.

This book perfectly captures the cold Edinburgh portrayed by such masters as Irvine Welsh and Ian Rankin and enhances it with ultra-violent crazed characters focused on self destruction. If you like dark criminal thrillers then try this book, you will discover a world which will constantly shock and disturb you...

I can understand why Allan Guthrie's novel Two Way Split (0/0 people found this helpful)

I can understand why Allan Guthrie's novel TWO WAY SPLIT was the winner of Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival of the Year at Harrogate.

From the first page the novel was full of action, the plot was quick which I feel is very important when reading a Crime Novel.

The character Robin Greaves was a hard man as was his associates in the book.

Allan is very good at describing things, again I think this is important and this book was definitely a page turner and the reader wonders what is going to happen.

I would like to see this book adapted for television as I think the viewers (particularly if they like Crime books that have been adapted for TV in the past), then I don't think they are going to be disappointed.

Congratulations Allan you are a worthy winner of this award and I hope you win more.

I am 'new' to Allan's books but I hope to read more of his work in the future, one thing is certain I won't be disappointed.

Seven quid you can't get back.... (6/7 people found this helpful)

This book won the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year, which explains my error in buying it. I thought it would provide top-class entertainment, whereas it actually falls short of mediocre.
Guthrie has all the ingredients of a good noir novel - all the characters are flawed and often prone to violence, and everyone is emeshed with everyone else through nefarious deeds. It ought to work. There is no reason why it shouldn't work, other than the failings of the author.
This book has no soul, and no heart. Do not mistake it for a clever novel that deliberately stays cold and heartless. That's the mistake Guthrie made. Authors like Hammett can do that properly. The characters here are all cardboard cut-outs - look behind them, and there is no third dimension. Who cares what happens to them, or how it turns out? Guthrie does not write well enough for us to be bothered.
When you dissect it, the plot is feeble, relying on ludicrous coincidences and that old standby, the killer who can't be bothered to kill someone just yet, thereby allowing a laughable escape.
The key character's "schizophrenia" is, as another reviewer pointed out, a lazy and poorly-researched split personality. Not only medically incorrect, it is an example of panic-induced artifice instead of creativity (it reads as if Guthrie couldn't work out another way of moving the plot along); it is the grown-up equivalent of "I woke up and it was all a dream".
All in all, I totally fail to see how this stood out for the Theakston's judges. I have read at least ten thrillers this year that better it by a country mile. As Guthrie was previously employed in the world of literature (as an agent) I presume they either owe him huge favours, or he got very lucky, or the judges are idiots. Whatever - their decision means mugs like me waste their hard-earned on a very average product.

disappointing (2/3 people found this helpful)

whilst this book is not particularly badly written I found the description of "madness," schizophrenia in particular to be childish and misinformed. If you are going to base a large part of your plot around something like mental illness surely you should have done some research. SCHIZOPHRENIA DOES NOT MEAN SPLIT PERSONALITY! I bought this book after looking at various blurbs and was particularly interested in reviews that compared it to White Jazz. there really is no comparison!

Very disappointing (5/10 people found this helpful)

I picked this up in my local Waterstones, thinking that it might be a bit like a Rebus novel, but perhaps a bit darker. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with this book. There are several scenes of viscerally unpleasant violence, the plot was quite hard to follow at points & ultimately didn't even seem to make much sense. Although it might well appeal to some readers, it's a long way from Rebus.

Allan Guthrie

Reader Reviews:

A gripping head butt of a novel... (0/0 people found this helpful)

I can understand why Allan Guthrie's novel Two Way Split (0/0 people found this helpful)

Seven quid you can't get back.... (6/7 people found this helpful)

disappointing (2/3 people found this helpful)

Very disappointing (5/10 people found this helpful)

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