Curtain Call
Written by Anthony Quinn
Narrated by Lucy Paterson
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn (b. 1971) is an Irish author and journalist. Born in Northern Ireland’s County Tyrone, Quinn majored in English at Queen’s University, Belfast. After college, he worked a number of odd jobs—social worker, organic gardener, yoga teacher—before finding work as a journalist. He has written short stories for years, winning critical acclaim and, twice, a place on the short list for the Hennessy Literary Awards for New Irish Writing. His book Disappeared was nominated for the Strand Critics Award for Best Debut Novel, and Kirkus Reviews named it to their list of 2012’s Top 10 Best Crime Novels. Quinn also placed as runner-up in a Sunday Timesfood writing competition. Border Angels is his second novel, the sequel to Disappeared, which also features Inspector Celcius Daly. Quinn continues his work as a journalist, reporting on his home county for the Tyrone Times.
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Reviews for Curtain Call
37 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This begins as if it's going to be a murder mystery/crime thriller but, as the story continues, the tiepin murderer fades into the background only reappearing at the end for a very underwhelming climax. However, the more enjoyable parts of this novel are the 1930s setting (Mosleys' blackshirts on the march, the impending abdication) and the louche theatrical and artistic background. Most of the characters verge on the stereotypical but are portrayed in enough detail to remain interesting and mostly engaging. The risky, then illegal, world of the homosexual is another strong element in the novel.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A light crime romp with some nice historical detail thrown in. But it stretched credibility too far - there seem to only be about 6 people living in 1930s London. Overall the author uses too many coincidences to move the plot forward, making it a less satisfying read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This came tantalisingly close to being a splendid novel. The characters were very well developed, the historical context finely drawn and the plot was engaging and convincing . .. until the final denouement.The story is set in London in the 1930s, against the backdrop of constitutional uncertainty as the King's relationship with Mrs Wallis Simpson became more widely known. When not stirring public outrage about the King's dalliance, the tabloid papers are full of prurient coverage of a series of murders perpetrated by a villain dubbed 'The Tiepin Killer'. Stephen Wyley is a successful painter who has been establishing himself as a society portrait artist. He is having a secret affair with up and coming stage actress Nina Land who is currently starring in 'The Second Arrangement' at the Strand Theatre. While leaving after having enjoyed an illicit liaison in a hotel in Russell Square, Nina hears screams coming from a room on the lower floor. Her knock on the door seems to interrupt a vicious attack, and a woman manages to escape from the room and run away. Nina realises that she may have disturbed the Tiepin Killer.Meanwhile ageing theatre critic Jimmy Erskine is living beyond his means, caught up in a cycle of decadence reminiscent of his great hero, Oscar Wilde. The vignettes of his grotesque entertainments are hilarious, though they also leave Erskine exposed to danger as he darts between the higher echelons of society down to the darkest back alleys. His secretary and majordomo is Tom Tunner, a shy epileptic who has been trying for years to disentangle himself from Erskine, though somehow he never quite manages to escape. As the story develops Tom meets and falls in love with Madeleine Farewell, who turns out to be the victim saved by Nina Land's fortuitous intervention. Madeleine is a woman with a secret.The plot moves forward very deftly, and the story is strewn with vignettes of historical people such Oswald Mosley and William Joyce (who later became infamous as Lord HawHaw). I was captivated until the last thirty or forty pages, at which point I felt that it descended into a facile simulacrum of a mystery novel. I found the conclusion very disappointing, and wondered whether it was hurled together at a great rate in order to meet a publisher's fast-looming deadline.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Curtain Call – A Stylish Crime Romp.Anthony Quinn’s Curtain Call is a stylish crime romp set in the decadent but politically intriguing year of 1936. This is one of the most delightful crime reads in a long time even though set in the 1930s it is not a pastiche of that era’s crime stories. There is a fantastic eye for the details that others forget in historical facts, laws and language all of which is rich makes for a carefully crafted suspense which places Curtain Call in a class of its own. Quinn has written a compelling story with a cast of characters whose separate stories are eventually linked together. It is very clear that at some point or points throughout the story we will meet the Tie –Pin Killer but not actually know he is until the reveal.The actress Nina Land is having an assignation with her friend society portrait artist and married man Stephen Wyley at the Imperial Hotel when she interrupts an attempted murder in one of the rooms and the girl runs away. Soon Nina released that she had interrupted the Tie-Pin Killer and that she would need to go to the police with a description to stop him killing more women. She gets Wyley to sketch the Jimmy Erskine is an experienced theatre critic of many years standing writing for The Chronicle, who consistently puts his livelihood by taking risks meeting young men in dangerous places in the darker areas of London nightlife. Erskine’s life is managed and edited by Tom his secretary whose accidental meeting with Madeleine Farewell is who ties the storyline together. Madeleine also happens to be the woman who was being attacked at The Imperial Hotel, when Nina Land interrupted the Tie-Pin Killer.The way in which Quinn writes draws the reader in to the story and in turn makes us care for the characters and what eventually happens to them. The story and characters set firmly in the tumultuous world of Soho and theatre land when London was at its hedonistic nadir, when being gay meant happy and being queer meant arrest. Home grown fascism was at its rampant best and again examples are in the story reflecting the terror they had brought to the streets of London. Also the big event of the year the eventual abdication of King Edward for the love of a woman, the book ends on a positive with the Coronation of King George VI.Curtain Call is stylish well written even when reverting to the language of 1930s English the prose is crystal clear the storylines are neat and the characters are well developed. As you read through you will appreciate the incisive wit, the attention to the language of the period and more importantly the aesthetics of the period. This book is nothing but a pleasure to read that I cannot recommend highly enough.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The King died at the beginning of 1936 and so this crime thriller is set firmly against that year: not only is there the scandal of the king-to-be's affair with the American Woman, and lurking in the background a gruesome murderer who has already claimed three victims; but Hitler and Mussolini both menace on the European horizon. The popularity of Moseley and Fascism are growing apace throughout the country, anti-Semitic sentiment grows in London society, while other institutions cling to the old ways, homosexuality is condemned and punishable by gaol sentence when detected, and the Crystal Palace burns down.The plot has at least three bases that feel their way towards each other. The historical background is wonderfully well done, without losing sight of the characters whose lives play out in the foreground.An excellent read.