6 reviews for The Calling- A John Luther Novel
You must be logged in to post a review.
The Calling- A John Luther Novel
by Neil Cross
Description:
Meet DCI John Luther in the prequel to the BBC’s epic series LUTHER, starring Golden Globe winner Idris Elba. He’s a murder detective. A near-genius. He’s brilliant; he’s intense; he’s instinctive. He’s obsessional. He’s dangerous. DCI John Luther has an extraordinary clearance rate. He commands outstanding loyalty from friends and colleagues. Nobody who ever stood at his side has a bad word to say about him. And yet there are rumours that DCI Luther is bad – not corrupt, not on the take, but tormented. Luther seethes with a hidden fury that at times he can barely control. Sometimes it sends him to the brink of madness, making him do things he shouldn’t; things way beyond the limits of the law. Luther: The Calling, the first in a new series of novels featuring DCI John Luther, takes us into Luther’s past and into his mind. It is the story of the case that tore his personal and professional relationships apart and propelled him over the precipice. Beyond fury, beyond vengeance. All the way to murder
About The Author
Cross was born in Bristol on 2 September 1969. His initial career was solely as a novelist, beginning with Mr In-Between, which was published in 1998 (and adapted into a film in 2001).
He later diversified into television, writing an episode of the BBC spy drama Spooks in 2006 before becoming lead writer on the sixth and seventh series of the show. He has also written for The Fixer and Doctor Who (“The Rings of Akhaten” and “Hide”). In 2010 he wrote a new adaptation of Whistle and I’ll Come to You, from the story by M. R. James.
He has created two television series: BBC crime thriller Luther (for which he wrote all the episodes); and Crossbones, an action adventure pirate series for NBC (co-created with James V. Hart and Amanda Welles). Cross also co-wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film Mama.
He has continued to write novels, including Always the Sun, which was long-listed for the Booker Prize, Burial and Captured; and has written a memoir Heartland, which was short-listed for the PEN/Ackerley Prize for literary autobiography of excellence. His most recent novel, Luther: The Calling, was published in 2011.
In 2011, Cross was included in Variety magazine’s list of 10 Screenwriters to Watch. Whilst working for companies in the UK and the US, he lives in Wellington, New Zealand, with his wife and two sons.
Skryf Review
“Good Reading”
Abbas
Neil Cross has now joined the very small list of Detective/Crime fiction gods (as chosen by yours truly) that prior to reading this book was Walter Mosley and Joe R. Lansdale. Now they are a Trinity, dark and grand in their savage beauty. So ends my fanboy gushing, now on to more serious review.Now let me say a little bit about subject and tone. This book is not for the faint of heart. I’ve read some emotionally draining things in my day, and this book is up there. We are dealing with brutal murder, kidnapping, abuse (both of people and animals), and in a few cases Luther is forced to converse with pedophiles. The contents of this book are amazing but dark things. So be forewarned.So that’s about it. I thought this book was amazing. Great and intense pacing, detailed and real characters, in a setting that will haunt you (I know its haunted me a bit) for a while after you read it. Sounds like a good book to me, so go read it.
Hiten
Neil Cross, sole writer of the BBC TV series, Luther, wrote this psychological crime drama prequel, subsequent to writing the TV show. I have never read a book based on a screenplay that was any good, until now. Not just good, but unputdownable. Was it as riveting as the series? Absolutely. I wasn’t distracted by segueing from film to print, or going back in time, or the sizzling reminders of Idris Elba, who consummately personifies DCI John Luther.Graphic violence is central to the plot, so beware the beast. However, it is not gratuitous. Cross is brilliant at combining Tarantino and Rumi. Luther is the thinking man’s combatant, a scholar/warrior, a David Bowie enthusiast and moral strategist, with a hint of the mystical. Instead of a patched-elbow tweedy elite, which he could have been, he is fighting crime. Luther is a conundrum. On the one hand, he is deeply virtuous and applies his principles or morality to outwitting the criminal. On the other hand, his tempestuous means to an end approach often violates departmental ethics, creating considerable problems for himself, his colleagues, and his superiors.With a poetic economy of words, Cross keeps a sublime vise grip on the reader. Oh, those pages will fly and burn your fingers in the process. The pace is crucial to the mood and plot, and Cross maintains a fierce but restrained tempo, as incomparable as the series. You will be installed in the story by the first page; it is so exquisitely brazen, you will screech and howl before it is over. The next book in the series can’t come soon enough!
Kalgi
I’m a bit behind the times watching the TV series ‘Luther’ as only watched it in the last couple of weeks…and I bloody loved it. We binge-watched the majority over a weekend and it blew me away. Idris Elba…superb. Hard-hitting, gritty and set in London – right up my street.My favourite thing about this book is that it skews the lines between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ showing evil at it’s worst and then somewhere in between where you have to decide how far your own moral compass will go.If Henry is pure evil then where does Vasile Savil or Patrick come on the scale?…and what about Luther himself??This is my absolute favourite read this year – it has everything that I love in a book executed perfectly (to my taste).I’ve read some great books lately but it’s been a while since my head was submerged in an actual book for two days straight
Shrawan
I found Bill Turner, an 85 year old character especially likeable, honorable and adaptable. Just because things were a certain way when he was young doesn’t mean that it was right. Here’s the passage that I found the goodness of man in:Bill bets a few quid, watches a few races, doesn’t make a penny but enjoys himself anyway.Then he goes out. Poor little Paddy’s tied to a lamp post. His
little legs are shaking with cold and the terror of abandonment
and he’s looking up at Bill with a kind of pleading relief. Bill feels
a bit guilty. He says, ‘Sorry there, boy. Was I gone a long time?
Was I?’He doesn’t care who’s listening. He’s an old bloke with an old
dog, fuck them all.It takes him a long time, but he stoops and lets the dog jump
into his arms. Little Paddy cringes into his barrel chest, like he’s trying to push inside Bill.A Sikh kid, the first softness of dark beard round his chops, eases up to him. ‘You all right, mate?’When Bill was this kid’s age, he’d never in a million years, a hundred million years, have considered calling an elder ‘mate’.He’d have been clipped round the ear. But the kid doesn’t meanany disrespect, in fact he means the opposite of it. Bill respondsby saying,’Yes, I’m fine thank you, mate.’A twelve-year-old and an eighty-five-year-old calling each othermate. There’s got to be some good in that, hasn’t there?
Jasmine
Fantastic book! The story moves along quickly and I did not want to stop reading it. I have not seen the series, Luther, but that did not seem to matter in reading this book. Easy to learn and follow the characters. A gripping story right up to the end. Highly recommend but not for the squeamish.