London Fields by Martin Amis

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Written by John McKnight

Amis reaches the pinnacle of his career with this tale of murder that takes the reader from teh upper class of Guy Clinch to the seedy pub life of Keith Talent. Talent, a low level thug struggles to rise above his station through his talent with darts. A small time hero to the patrons at his local pub he takes Guy nder his wing, drawing him into his seedy world, hoping to make a score with the help of the seductive Nicola Six, who we learn will be murdered. The entire novel revolves around her knowledge that she will be killed. The inevitable conclusion hangs over the characters and their roles are set out in the first three chapters.
pen, seems right. Everything ends as it should and the world moves on.
Nicola is the only one who knows of her inevitable demise and she plays the men off each other, including the narrator who is visiting from an America under threat of a veiled crisis. Amis strings the characters together so masterfully that you find yourself expecting rooting for the despicable villain as he stumbles along, unaware that he is being played, finding himself in the same role of the patsy as Guy.

At the times the characters border on the absurd but Amis brings them back from the edge before they topple into the dangerous realm of cliche. Guy's monstrous baby and equally monstrous wife, Keith Talent's thuggish rogue, Nicola the sexpot, and even the struggling writer. Each of them is deeply flawed, never stepping over the line into the realm of the absurd.

The inevitable conclusion, although it has been mapped out throughout the novel, is still statisfying and left me with a sense of relief, knowing that it was finally over. The murder, when it does hap

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