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| Plot Summary of Complicity |
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"Iain Banks' masterpiece is a complex murder mystery with a sharp real-world feel that sets it apart from genre crime fiction. His use of the present tense sucks the reader in as Cameron Colley, hack journalist, tries to unravel a series of bizarre murders, then, with a jolt, the novel changes to second person ('you') to show the murders in great detail. This is Banks' masterstroke as in doing this he both hides the identity of the murderer & makes us feel complicit in the dreadful acts. It is truly a stunning work of fiction and confirms Iain Banks as without parallel when it comes to contemporary fiction with a deeply black edge."
Claire Baldwin, Resident Scholar
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"Cameron Colley is a writer for an Edinburgh newspaper. He smokes and drinks and takes illegal substances. He is also engrossed in a computer game called Despot. He starts to get tip offs about a serious of murders from several years ago with military connections and thinks he may be onto a scoop. At the same time someone is going around murdering or torturing businessmen with dubious ethical records, a judge and a snuff movie watcher. The police link Cameron to the present day murders and the informant has been framing Cameron. Cameron must think hard about who the murderer could be to get himself out of the predicament."
John Marcel, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Complicity |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 50%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%
Tone of story
- Dry-cynical
How difficult to spot villain?
- Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story:
- 1980's-1999
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 70%
- 80%
Murder of certain profession?
- businessmen
Misc. Murder Plotlets
- character killed during/after sexing
- Proving innocence of very obvious suspect
Kind of investigator
- amateur citizen investigator
- british mystery (I say!)
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- feelings towards lover
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- journalist
Age:
- 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use?
- none
Ethnicity/Race
- British
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
- druggie/wino disease
Main Adversary
Identity:
- none
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- wealthy
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- an average amount
Motive of antagonist
- revenge
The antagonists are:
- big business leader(s)
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
- rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture
How many deaths?
- 3-4
- 5-7
Sex
Yes
What kind of sex:
- descript of kissing
- touching of anatomy
- use of artificial tools
- actual description of sex
- descript. of breasts
- descript. of other female areas
- descript. of male nudity
- homosexuals doing their thing
- rape (yeech!)
Unusual forms of death
- asphyxiation
- diced
- flamed
- biohazard/virus
- impaled
- blunt clubbing (like seals)
- exploded into bits
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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