Genre: Noir
Pages: 228 (paperback)/151 (E-Book)
Martial arts pioneer and early seventies Hollywood's resident badass Bruce Lee has a very simple philosophy about fighting: "Less is more". I found it to be the philosophy of true masters. Those who completely assimilated what they do, use less energy and get maximum results. Watch Georges St-Pierre break Josh Koscheck's face with his jab, while Koscheck tires himself with wild, looping punches and you'll understand what I mean. Anthony Neil Smith's The Drummer is the literary equivalent of short, clean hit to the face. It's a noir novel stripped of the flare that is commonly associated with the genre. There's almost no cops, no organized crime, no heist and no murderous intent whatsoever. All there is, is a bunch of show-business has beens with broken dreams and painful realities. And yet it's one of the darkest noir novels out there. Anthony Neil Smith understood the different in between a conventional crime novel and noir. Better yet, he mastered it.
So Merle Johnson's life used to be one comfortable lie. He holed himself up in New Orleans, living a quiet life of low-key hedonism. One night, a ghost from the past resurfaces. Todd, the singer of his old band Savage Night bumped into him, in the middle of an acid bluegrass concert. His intentions are unclear, but Merle is scared of one thing only. A reunion. When he decided to fake his own death and leave the past behind, Merle did it for what he believed to be the right reasons. He doesn't find the strength to get rid of Todd, so he accepts to meet him for breakfast the next day. Only one problem, Todd doesn't show up. Merle walks up to his hotel room to find him dead, with a suicide note that threatens to reveal his identity to the world. Adrenaline kicks in and a timer starts in Merle's mind. He has to find a way to Todd's car, where his laptop and the information about him lies. Only problem, the car has been stolen...
The characters of The Drummer are a memorable bunch of fuck-ups, who carry the story with great ease. Todd Delacroix, the singer of Savage Night is particularly well crafted. The novel is separated between present times and flashbacks of former glory and Todd shines in all his pompous glory. He wants to be a superstar, while his musicians are interested in...well, playing music and be the tightest band they could, because it's what brought them stardom in the first place. He exemplifies the most fascinating point of Smith's novel, the feeble nature of identity. Todd wants to be everyone that he's not and Doug, the bassman lives a lie to maintain the image of the band. As you keep reading, you find out that the new life Merle created for himself is full of surrogates of people he loved in his former existence. He is free from responsibilities, but not from the weight of his failures, which bring him back to the life he tried so hard to forget. The way Smith brings his story into Merle's memories is very slick. It starts with fun and benign nostalgia and falls quickly into the dark nature human ambition and show-business dreams.
The Drummer is a short, but original and focused noir novel. I guarantee you have never read anything like this before. I don't understand why it didn't give Anthony Neil Smith a better visibility in the crime writing community. It's a fun story, it has gripping suspense and it's conceptually loaded. It's the kind of novel that I could make students read in a literature class and they would love me for it. OK, it's not the most politically correct novel and it's not written in high-minded prose, but it's what make it so strong. Smith wrote a story in which the elements are so strong, that they stand out on their own. If you like crime novels, noir or just a strong , original read, it's a novel you should check out. Smith put it up for sales for 99 cents for Kindle, so if you own one of these things, you have no excuse not to read it. He's one of the most original and creative writers we have in crime fiction and he's worth your complete attention. Expect more of his novels to be reviewed here in the future.
