The bard gives us advance notice of his upcoming medieval K-pop releases
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Crime fiction with Mat Coward: April 1, 2025
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall
GORDON PARSONS steps warily through the pessimistic world view of an influential US conservative
HENRY BELL takes issue with the assertion that basic income is a remedy for poverty when it doesn’t address the inbuilt inequality of capitalism
RON JACOBS welcomes an investigation of the murders of US leftist activists that tells the story of a solidarity movement in Chile
RITA DI SANTO surveys the smorgasbord of films on offer at this year’s festival
Reviews of A New Kind Of Wilderness, The Marching Band, Good One and Magic Farm by MARIA DUARTE, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA
SCOTT ALSWORTH foresees the coming of the smaller, leaner, and class conscious indie studio, with art as its guiding star
NOT recommended for the squeamish, the easily shocked or the easily offended, if you think you’ve got the stomach for it Christa Faust’s The Get Off (Hard Case, £9.99) is top-quality modern pulp fiction.
The protagonist, former porn star Angel Dare, has appeared in two previous novels, knowledge of which is not necessary to enjoy this one. In her third and final outing, Angel’s on the run from the law, and from a social media posse, following a revenge killing that went as wrong as it possibly could.
She gets entangled with cattle barons and rodeo stars as she makes her way across the USA towards sanctuary in the wildlands near the Canadian border. And although she doesn't mean to do it, everywhere she goes she leaves dead bodies behind her. The advanced pregnancy doesn't exactly help, either. Can someone like Angel really choose to “get off,” and start a new life?
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Edinburgh can take great pride in an episode of its history where a murderous captain of the city guard was brought to justice by a righteous crowd — and nobody snitched to Westminster in the aftermath, writes MAT COWARD
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