Even though they age, certain kinds of story never really get old, and noir thrillers are one of those things. The down-at-heel, lone-wolf character whether detective or, as in this case, hired gun, may have a cynical outlook and a bad attitude but they are nevertheless appealing. They have a moral ‘code’, however twisted, and it centres them, gives us all something to believe in, even if the code is “I kill men. I kill women because I don't discriminate. I don't kill children because that's a different kind of psycho.”
Shovel Ready is set in a near-future New York decimated by a dirty bomb in Times Square and a series of car bombs and smaller explosions around Manhattan. The sensible and well-off moved away to new lives, the poor moved in wherever they could - an empty brownstone or a camp in Central Park - and the uber-rich sealed themselves into their lofts and apartments and plugged into the limnosphere, a virtual reality more real than real where it’s business as usual for the merchants and money-movers, and happy playtime for everyone else - at a price.
Living through this small-scale dystopia is our Jersey-boy garbageman-turned-hitman, who goes by the moniker of Spademan, who does his dirty work up close and personal with a box-cutter (that’s a Stanley knife to you and me) and a stoic detachment. The fun starts when he’s hired to kill the daughter of a prominent and politically connected televangelist. He finds her, that’s his job, checks she’s over 18, he has a code, but when it turns out she’s pregnant that throws things into a spin and he ends up taking her in, which might be the end of it except that now he’s being hunted along with her.
What Sternbergh has done is mashed together a bunch of recognisable sci-fi tropes and view them through the eyes of a very memorable main character. Spademan is an unrepentent killer-for-hire. He doesn’t want to know why, he doesn’t even want to know you, he just wants your money. He even keeps a souvenir of one victim. Despite this, or maybe even because of it, he’s easy to like and as his backstory unfolds and we gain some insight into how he came to his current occupation, he doesn’t seem like such a bad guy. The same can’t be said for the rest of the cast who, with the notable exception of priest and friend Mark Ray, are cardboard cutouts at best and horribly clichéd at worst - the runaway girl, the spaced-out hacker friend, the conflicted priest, the violent henchman, the depraved preacher and his conniving personal assistant - even though they’re nicely drawn it’s all a bit old hat, frankly.
Likewise the science fictional elements are nothing new. It’s not that they’re bad per se, there’s nothing terribly wrong with most of it, but the VR stuff inside the limnosphere is a kind of Matrix-lite crossed with Star Trek’s holodeck and his vision of the post-bomb New York lacks any real imagination - a bit plain vanilla when what you want to see is bit more tutti-frutti - and given that Sternbergh is New York Times Magazine, Culture Editor I expected a bit more depth in his exploration of the outcomes of such a colossal event.
That said Shovel Ready is still a good book. The plot whips along at pace, throws you the odd curve ball to keep you interested and the typical noir, staccato dialogue has wit and charm. As you might expect given the story/cast it’s riddled with religious imagery throughout but my favourite of these conceits is a rival hitman called Pilot, partly because he wears a pair of aviators, and partly because he washes his hands after every kill. Nice!
Ultimately the beauty of ‘noir’ is that it can live safely alongside other genres, and it lends itself particularly well to science fiction. Shovel Ready is a nicely-woven story and a well constructed mashup of those two genres. It's an easy, quick, read and one that will keep you very entertained for a good couple of hours while you whip through it. Don’t be put off by the old sci-fi tropes, embrace them and you will be rewarded with some solid entertainment. Oh, and by all accounts a sequel is already on the way and a movie adaptation is on the cards so Adam Sterbergh has definitely done something very right.
Shovel Ready is published by Headline and is available with free delivery from The Book Depository or on the high street from Blackwell and all good book stores.