โ Scribed by William Boyd; William Boyd
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Armadillo is the classic comic bestseller by William Boyd, author of Any Human Heart
'A young man not much over thirty, tall with ink-dark hair and a serious-looking, fine-featured but pallid face, went to keep a business appointment and discovered a hanged man'
Lorimer Black - young, good-looking, but with a somewhat troubled expression - does not understand why his world is being torn apart, though he does know that for the most part it is made up of bluster and hypocrisy. His business, trying to keep insurance companies from paying out the money they've promised, is a con game run with the protection of the law. One winter's morning, Lorimer goes to keep a perfectly routine business appointment and finds a hanged man. A bad start to the day, by any standards, and an ominous portent of things to come.
Armadillo is a must-read for fans of William Boydand will also be loved byreaders of Sebastian Faulks, Nick Hornby and Hilary Mantel.
'Marvellously paced and ingeniously plotted. A real page-turner' Andrew Motion, Observer
William Boyd was born in Ghana, where his father was a doctor, and was educated there and in Scotland. His first novel A Good Man in Africa won both the Whitbread First Novel and Somerset Maugham Prizes, and his subsequent novels have gone onto win many awards. His books include: On the Yankee Station and Other Stories, An Ice-Cream War, Stars and Bars, School Ties, The New Confessions, Brazzaville Beach, The Blue Afternoon, The Destiny of Natalie 'X' and Other Stories, Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960, Any Human Heart, Restless, The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth, Ordinary Thunderstorms, Fascination, Bamboo and Waiting for Sunrise. He divides his time between London and south-west France.
Lorimer Black may suffer from a serious sleep disorder and an obsession with the labyrinths of the British class system, but Armadillo's peculiar protagonist is the star insurance adjuster of London's Fortress Sure PLC, unaffectionately known as "the Fort". At the very start of William Boyd's noirish 7th novel, however, things take a decided swerve for the worse. On a bleak January morning one of his cases has apparently chosen to kill himself rather than talk: "Mr. Dupree was simultaneously the first dead person he had encountered in his life, his first suicide and his first hanged man and Lorimer found this congruence of firsts deceptively troubling."
Soon our hero, who himself has a lot to hide, finds himself threatened by a dodgy type whose loss he has adjusted way down and embroiled with the beautiful married actress Flavia Malinverno. "People who've lost something, they call on you to adjust it, make the loss less hard to bear? As if their lives are broken in some way and they call on you to fix it," Flavia dippily wonders. Lorimer also has his car torched and instantly goes from an object of affection to one of deep suspicion at the Fort. Then there is another case, the small matter of the rock star who may or may not be faking the Devil he says is sitting on his left shoulder.
Needless to say, Lorimer is "becoming fed up with this role of fall guy for other people's woes." Boyd adds a deep layer of psychological heft and a lighter level of humour to this thinking-person's thriller by exploring Lorimer's manifold personal and social fears. This is a man who desperately collects ancient helmets even though he knows they offer only "the illusion of protection." Another of Armadillo's many pleasures: its dose of delicious argot. Should Lorimer "oil" the apparent perpetrator of the Fedora Palace arson before he's oiled himself? Or perhaps he just needs to "put the frighteners" on him. Boyd definitely puts the frighteners on his readers more than once in this cinematically seedy and dazzling literary display. --Kerry Fried, Amazon.com
'As entertaining and as thought-provoking as anything Boyd has ever written' Daily Telegraph 'Marvellously paced and ingeniously plotted. A real page-turner' - Andrew Motion, Observer 'Armadillo doesn't miss a trick. It has depth and resonance which will make you want to read it again... zinging readability' - Philip Hensher, Mail on Sunday 'A joy to read: east to get into, addictively plotted and beautifully written' - James Delingpole, Daily Mail 'As entertaining as anything he has written... brisk farce and dialogue that can be finger-licking good' - David Profumo, Spectator
Library : General
Formats : EPUB
ISBN : 9780141044187
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
### Amazon.com Review Lorimer Black may suffer from a serious sleep disorder and an obsession with the labyrinths of the British class system, but *Armadillo*'s peculiar protagonist *is* the star insurance adjuster of London's Fortress Sure PLC, unaffectionately known as the Fort. At the very start
### Amazon.com Review Lorimer Black may suffer from a serious sleep disorder and an obsession with the labyrinths of the British class system, but _Armadillo_ 's peculiar protagonist _is_ the star insurance adjuster of London's Fortress Sure PLC, unaffectionately known as the Fort. At the very star
### Amazon.com Review Lorimer Black may suffer from a serious sleep disorder and an obsession with the labyrinths of the British class system, but *Armadillo*'s peculiar protagonist *is* the star insurance adjuster of London's Fortress Sure PLC, unaffectionately known as the Fort. At the very start
### Amazon.com Review Lorimer Black may suffer from a serious sleep disorder and an obsession with the labyrinths of the British class system, but _Armadillo_ 's peculiar protagonist _is_ the star insurance adjuster of London's Fortress Sure PLC, unaffectionately known as the Fort. At the very star