In Review

08 January 2009 12:18 BST

Chopper 9 by Mark Brandon Read

Published by John Blake, hardback, out now, 265pp, £17.99.

In a nutshell...

Who said crime doesn't pay...

What's it all about?

Chopper 9 is the latest in a long line of tales that have become literary staples in Australia and the rest of the world for lovers of crime fiction. While his first book, Chopper, shot Read to fame with its candid details of his own shady history as a hitman and convict, this new instalment sees the infamous Aussie take a backseat, offering the reader instead a portrait of the altogether fictional Joey Gravano. Born in Australia and bred as a son of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Joey is as tough as bricks, as mean as a fiddler and fond of playing it dumber than he is. Not a world away from Chopper then.

Who's it by?

Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read, a self professed criminal, ex-con and hitman who claims to have killed 19 people during his earlier years, although famously, he has never been convicted for murder. However, he has done time for many other elicit behaviour, including armed robberies, shootings, assault and kidnapping a judge. Outside of the Melbourne underworld, Read rocketed to the attention of the globe with the release of the 2000 film Chopper, which was directed by Andrew Dominik and starred Eric Bana as the eponymous antihero. After hanging up his bolt cutters - he is known to have a penchant for using them to take his victims' toes off - Read moved to Tasmania, where he lives a quieter life with his wife Margaret, spending his time spinning crime fiction novels.

As an example...

"As the old man approached the main door, he suddenly looked down at his stomach - not so much in pain as in disbelief. He put his hand up t his stomach as another small hole appeared in his shirt. Then blood appeared, and another puncture hole appeared in his his white shirt. For a moment people close to him thought the cancer in him had burst his stomach. Then two more small holes appeared in his shirt, making five

"... No one saw Marven standing by the hire-car counter with the cute little pistol in his left hand under his flowing shirt."

What the others say

"I always knew fiction was his go... I've read his police statements." - Inspector Rod Porter

"Mark Brandon Read has done for literature what Hannibal Lecter did for vegetarianism." - Detective sergeant Rod Wilson

Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster

Not this time. Removing himself from this book and focusing on entirely fictional scenarios - at times wildly fictional scenarios - does not serve Chopper's chances of seeing big screen success well. While his trademark wit is still present, the same wit that was so exceptionally captured by Eric Bana in the film, there is not enough of his personality evident to make this book a big draw at the box office. While Read probably knows more than most about the subject, his stardom cannot mask the fact that this is ultimately medium-rate crime fiction.

So is it any good?

Although it is hardly surprising that Read has run out of steam detailing his own shady past, turning instead to fictional characters stretches his yarn-spinning abilities to their limits. Aussie Joe, no matter how similar to his creator, lacks the idiosyncratic weight necessary to lift this book out of the bloated and corpulent genre of crime fiction. While it is sometimes funny, it does not hold a light to the sordid wit contained within the film and the book which spawned it. While he churns this story out competently, stepping in to offer his quips and aphorisms on the state of play in the criminal underworld, the tame and wandering plot and the repetitive sex scenes soon make for lamentable reading. While Australia is probably a better place since Chopper downed his weapons and picked up a pen, the world would not suffer too greatly should he give up his new job as well.

5/10

Mark Burton