MARRY, BANG, KILL
Winner, 2019 Relit Award (Novel Category)
For a guy who mugs people for their laptops, Tommy Marlo isn’t such a bad guy. He can’t help trying to make the people he meets — even those he mugs — feel better about their situation. Unfortunately for Tommy, he rips off the daughter of a psychotic, high-ranking member of a notorious motorcycle gang. Even worse, the laptop that he pilfered contains proof of a few gruesome murders and the location of a huge stash of money. Flat broke and marked for death, his only shot at surviving is to rob the motorcycle gang, use the cash to get out of town, and hide out on the small island where his mother now lives.
What follows is a revisionist crime thriller, a page-turning hybrid of literary and genre fiction for fans of Elmore Leonard or Patrick deWitt. But Battershill writes with a voice all his own. Deftly combining crackling dialogue with biting wit, MARRY, BANG, KILL hums with the thrill of chaos as Tommy runs to a quiet island to escape a swelling cast of characters who are trying to arrest, rob, kill, or save him. The island won’t be quiet for long.
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"A surprisingly heartfelt story tucked inside a superbly oddball crime thriller." — Publishers Weekly
"A sprawling, gonzo hide-and-seek narrative that will appeal to fans of Breaking Bad." — Quill & Quire
"Great dialogue, a good story and some memorable individuals all contribute to making MARRY, BANG, KILL a winner in my book." — Miramichi Reader
"A rogues' gallery of small-time crooks that would make Elmore Leonard and the Coen Brothers proud. Battershill mixes sardonic wit and kinetic action with a razor-sharp eye for the details of west coast life. Stylish and smart." — Sam Wiebe
"A comic noir with a particular west coast Canuck vibe: loose, absurd, sweet. There's abundant skill here, and plenty of laughs, but also the pleasure of reading a writer finding a space of his very own." — Andrew Pyper
"MARRY, BANG, KILL is the super fun, expertly crafted, west coast genre-bending crime thriller I didn't even know I needed, and now can't stop talking about." — Amy Jones
"Combine the plot from a Richard Stark 'Parker' novel with the humour of early Charles Portis and you'll come close to the shenanigans in MARRY, BANG, KILL. My advice? Just shut up and read this book." — Michael Winter
Andrew Battershill's first novel, Pillow, was longlisted for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2016 Sunburst Award and shortlisted for the 2016 Kobo Emerging Writer Award. Pillow was also selected by the Walrus as one of the Best Books of 2016 and by CBC Books as one of the Best Debuts of the year. Battershill is the co-founder and former fiction editor of Dragnet magazine. He is now the fiction editor of This Magazine. He lives in Vancouver and Quadra Island.
Winner: Relit Award (Novel Category)
