Stephen Leather - The Basement (2010)
Novella – read on the Kindle during September 2011
- 2 nods out of 5 -
Stephen Leather is one smart cookie. That might not be the technical term, but that statement is a good assessment of his business know-how. His publishers refused to print a few shorter novels that didn’t fit in with his own back catalogue, so rather than hide the manuscripts away in a drawer to gather dust they found a home electronically. Released on the Kindle they sold like a hot cakes; and, it would seem, Mr Leather has been laughing himself silly ever since.
The Worm stumbled across Leather’s success story in a writing magazine feature, and feeling ready to purchase a few texts to christen a new Kindle, The Basement was bought for the small sum of less than one pound.
So, we know the price; we know the back story: but what about the book, the Worm hears you asking! The Basement is a short novel comprised of two concurrent running stories. The first follows a wannabe screenwriter who is targeted as a murder suspect by two police officers; while the second – and more sinister of the two – follows the perspective of an unnamed person who has a woman tied up in the titular basement, used as a sex slave during the novella.
Of course, the suspense – of which Leather excels – leads us, the reader, to believe the two story lines are entwined. And indeed, they are; but with the suspected storyline twist not failing to serve its purpose and stun. The central (first) narrator is genuinely interesting: never bothered by the police officers knocking at his door, his energy is spent on dreaming up new movie ideas, with each of them equally as uninspiring as the last. His life perspective is egotistically centred, as shown nowhere more clearly than in the ransacking of his opponent’s apartment:
‘...in big capital letters I write ‘HOW DO YOU LIKE IT, NIGGER?’ across the mirrored closet. It’s a nice touch, the Nigger bit. Just in case he thinks it might be a couple of homeboys out to feed their habit. That and the fact that nothing as been stolen should point in my direction. I mean, he is a detective and all. I actually feel guilty as I stand and look at the word nigger written in red. It’s not that I’m a racist, I pretty much treat everyone as inferior, but I’ll make Turner mad. Real mad, which is the way I want him.’
However, the limited space of this novella means the plot descends into a simple routine, switching from the action in the basement to that of the screenwriter, from screenwriter back to the basement, and well, you get the drift. A tad monotonous, to say the least. And while Leather may keep the kettle pot of suspense boiling to the brim (along with truly sinister descriptions from the basement), the dialogue is close to shambolic. With such things considered, The Basement never threatens to leave the realms of ‘Quick Read’ to become a ‘Recommend to a Friend’.
Read more about the author here:
http://stephenleather.blogspot.com/2010/10/basement-on-kindle.html
