After my grandfather passed away, I sorely missed the raw visceral sensations and immense pleasures his books brought me. In high school, I scoured the newsstands looking for what had become my favorite authors, especially writers like Willeford, Karp, Jim Thompson, and Scott Stone, but soon their titles vanished from store shelves and racks. The time soon came when I thought no writer any longer had the ability to invoke the literary gut reactions I so relished.

But now I’m pleased write that I was wrong in my assumption. A few weeks ago a fellow I’d never heard of from Edinburgh, Scotland changed everything. His name is Allan Guthrie and his book is called ‘Two-Way Split.’

Guthrie’s book, set on the dark side of Edinburgh in the dead of winter, drew me in like a whirling jet engine and held my attention like an angry schoolmaster with a three-foot ruler. I was up half the night savoring its pages, and only put in down once because I didn’t want it to end. As I read, I initially thought Elmore Leonard meets Jason Starr in the fast lane, then Kent Harrington joins Jim Thompson at the slaughterhouse, but about half-way through I realized Guthrie’s was a original new voice with a break-neck cadence and atmospheric style all his own.

’Two-Way Split’s’ main character is Robin Greaves, a former pianist become armed robber. Robin is none too pleased when he finds out that his wife, Carol, has become the lover of Eddie, a former cop who now belongs to Robin’s gang. In the books opening pages, mildly reminiscent of the first minutes of the classic film Chinatown, Robin is handed incriminating photos of his cheating wife. He hesitates before looking.

“Don’t look. Don’t do it. Don’t. Oh, shit, you’ve done it now.”

Like many a man, Robin is none too pleased by what he sees, and he wants the ultimate revenge. But revenge, as Sir Francis Bacon said, is “a kind of wild justice.” The police are hot on Robin’s trail, and making matters even more complicated is a stone-cold killer very handy with a knife.

“Kill him, don’t kill him. Don couldn’t make up his mind…Don had never killed a policeman and the prospect wasn’t altogether unattractive.”

Like the best noir writers now gone, Allan Guthrie is a master at giving readers heroes who are anti-heroes, people who they can easily identify with and care about. In Guthrie’s world, unconventional becomes conventional, sanity is found in madness, love springs from the dark. Critics are fond of calling books like Guthrie’s neon noir or hard-boiled fiction. Call it anything you want, but read ‘Two-Way Split.’ It is damn good fiction.

H.P. Albarelli Jr. is a Florida-based writer and journalist. His book ‘The Heap’ was just published by Peredur Publishing, Ltd.

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.