Where other writers thrive on subtlety and nuance, British author Guy N. Smith, famous for his classic “Crabs” series, and for books with titles like The Sucking Pit, instead thrives on shock and awe. Although he was speaking about James Herbert, Stephen King, writing in Danse Macabre, says it best:
“[He] comes at us with both hands, not willing to simply engage our attention: he seizes us by the lapels and begins to scream in our faces. It is not a tremendously artistic method of attack, and no one is ever going to compare him to Doris Lessing or V. S. Naipaul…but it works.”
Smith indeed comes at readers with both hands in Deadbeat, a short novel about the devil, rock and roll, and apocalypse, both global and personal; inside you can find sex, violence, gangs, riots, satanic rituals, the Antichrist, and even a woman being devoured by pigs. It tells the story of sixteen year old Eddie Bannon, and the strange odyssey the troubled youth embarks on after listening to an album called Deadbeat, from a group called The Necromancers, for the first time. There’s something compelling about the music, something that literally gets inside his head and tells him to lash out at everything he holds dear. Unfortunately, it has that effect on almost everyone under thirty who listens to it, inciting incredible violence and disrupting everyday life across the globe. The music, it seems, was composed by the Dark One himself, designed to bring about Armageddon.
As mentioned above, subtlety is not Smith’s strong suit. The book has a manic energy, however, which keeps your attention, as you can’t wait to see what the author throws at you next. It’s not "literary," and it’s not George R. R. Martin’s The Armageddon Rag, by any means, but it is readable, perfect for a plane trip or a lazy day at the beach. In other words, “It works.”
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