The Hard Goodbye By Chris Miller – A Book Review

Blurb:

As the old axiom goes, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. John Savage realized that too late.Following the biggest job of their lives, John and his small crew think they’ve got it made. But a lawyer, a junkie, a crooked cop, Savage and his girlfriend have unknowingly opened Pandora’s Box. And they won’t know it until it’s too late. As the brutally tortured bodies of their partners come to light, tensions rise all the way to the screaming, chaotic conclusion of this bloody crime thriller. High risk brings high reward, but the safe bet is usually the smartest. Stick to the plan, or get ready for the hard goodbye.

Author: Chris Miller
Publisher: Death’s Head Press
Pages: 144
Release Date: 30/01/2019
My Chosen Format: Paperback
My Rating of ‘The Hard Goodbye’: 5 out of 5
Purchase: Amazon UK, Amazon US

Review:

Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve read something truly dark, but The Hard Goodbye just takes the concept of dark fiction and turns the lights off completely. This, by far, is the darkest, most torturous book I’ve read in God knows how long.

And I loved it!

When I say torturous, I mean it. There’s literally graphic torture on the opening page. Really sets the tone of utter grimness.

The Hard Goodbye is not populated with likeable characters. Every one of them is a criminal and none of them are what you’d class as loveable. Unfortunately for them, their most recent act of thievery is from the kind of guy you don’t want to cross. The kind of guy that gets turned on when he hammers railroad spikes through your feet.

The novel/novella is a short 144 page romp of vengeance and the desperation to survive. As I said the characters are all bad people and, for the most part I didn’t really care what happened to them. But, as the story progresses I found myself caring for some of them more and more.

Chris Miller does an excellent job of making you like the kinds of people you shouldn’t. He particularly does a good job of cramming so much back story into so few pages. Each character also gets their time in the spotlight and each of their stories feels as important as any other.

If you like your crime fiction dark, bloody, fast-paced and brutal, you need to buy this book. At the time of purchase it was only a couple of pounds. I got the hard copy as it was only a little more expensive than the kindle. Something about the monkey on the cover just made me need to own the book.

I look forward to seeing what happens in the sequel.