Short post on Crime Always Pays by Declan Burke

Short review because I'm thumb typing on the same iPod touch on which I read Declan Burke's kindle-only novel, via new kindle for iPhone app. Crime Always Pays is part road movie and part farce, reminding me sometimes of Elmore Leonard, sometimes of Allan Guthrie (particularly Savage Night), sometimes of Donald Westlake (particularly the Dortmunder books), and sometimes of the Coen brothers (particularly Blood Simple)--sometimes all at once. There are a lot of characters, in three (maybe more) groups pursuing one another across Europe from Ireland to the Greek islands, and the novel is mostly conversation among them, in short overlapping chapters. It's a sequel to Burke's The Big O, and it starts immediately after the events of that book--a reader not familiar with the prequel may feel a bit lost at first, but never fear, the author recaps who's who and what's been going on often enough to let everyone keep pace. And a furious pace it is, continuing right on through the last word (and beyond). Highly recommended for the kindle-enabled, on one platform or another. A side note--I found the kindle-for-iphone app comfortable, and clear (with an adjustable font, bright screen, etc., on my ipod) but a little frustrating--no page numbers so it's difficult to tell where you are, and it's clumsy to flip back a few pages to refresh your memory in a complicated plot. But satisfactory, if not perfect--I'm holding out on buying an e-reader per se until the post-ipad shakeout occurs. Anybody else reading kindle on iphone, ipod?