Simon Spurrier is probably best known for his comics work on 2000ad, Gutsville and recently on Silver Surfer: In Thy Name. Contract is Spurrier’s first “proper” novel (he has popped out a few work-for-hire Warhammer 40,000k books) and it’s a blast. Essentially a hitman novel, this is really quite unlike any novel I’ve read in terms of language and, to a certain point, plot. Michael is our protagonist and most of the novel is told from his point of view, living in London and shooting people for money, but things take a turn for the unusual when his latest contract gets up after the hit.< .p>

What follows is a series of events that make Michael wonder if he being used by something that is more than human, or simply going completely bonkers. I don’t need to divulge much more than that in terms of the story - that is best enjoyed by reading the novel. What really makes the book interesting on (top of the recently plugged rising from the dead and trying to strangle their assassinator) is the way Spurrier has his protagonist talk to us. Written in the first person, Michael talks and thinks like a real person - well, one that routinely kills people for money – and he has a wonderful way with words.

Whole chapters are taken up with Michael using metaphors for places or people, diving and intersecting throughout events that are happening around him, but always relevant, always adding to the story. Spurrier uses Michael in a Warren Ellis-bastard-style, but adds so much more into his characterisation by having him understand his failings and strengths and most importantly his routines or quirks. Set in and around London, Michael has a very important rule – don’t shit on your own doorstep. He hates London and its inhabitants, but he knows not to kill there. Kills are followed by a strict pattern of unwinding, meeting old school friend for coffee, then onto nightclub to pick up girls for casual sex. But once things start getting strange, Michael struggles to keep his very organised life together particulary as he has to question just whose side he might be on if what is happening is real.

Amusingly, whilst Michael bombards us with facts about the best way to kill people (heroin-loaded bullets, silencers go ffft-ffft, not spwk-spwk as Hollywood would have you believe), he always relates that these facts are easily available to you on the internet. Tactics like this keep the reader involved at a basic connective level, nothing seems too implausible, even the possibly supernatural dead-walking becomes questionable as Michael begins to think he might be losing his mind. Throw in a clever framing device, and interludes from another character that raise the stakes even higher and you have one the most fascinating books I’ve read in a long while. Contract is a expertly written, clever, exciting read that is the bastard off-spring of Leon and Hellblazer. Highly recommended.

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