Man of the World

Semiretired hit man Danny Blake, the narrator of this occasionally diverting tale of murderous mayhem from Brazill (Last Year’s Man), admits to being a borderline sociopath: “During my forty-plus years on this planet I’d killed many men and even one woman. And for the most part, I’ve had no feeling for them either way.” From his home in Seatown, an English coastal hamlet, he starts on his violent comeback trail, careening from one murder to the next. A series of unfortunate events has him hightailing it for London, which used to be his base of operations, and he’s well connected to the cunning lowlife of the city. He was once part of a government organization “commonly known as The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” He thought it had long been disbanded, “but like Lazarus, Dracula and ELO, it looks like you can’t keep The Ministry down for long.” Frequent references to pop music of the 1970s and ’80s seem at odds in the world of Brexit and iPhones. This repetitious, episodic crime novel isn’t funny enough to succeed as black comedy. (Apr.)