A review by suncoyote
Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman

3.0

The premise of this book was better than the execution. You read the back and think, "What! How crazy and interesting!" But, unfortunately the key emotional entanglement between Philip and Sinner is framed around this rather paltry "murder mystery" that Fishy has to investigate; it was probably added to provide a character that we could consider likeable, which is ridiculous since we see so little of Fishy that we can't really care about him and the two character we do see a lot about are rather despicable. Philip's homosexual repression is so intense it turns to Nazism, so you know, he's balanced and healthy. Then, Sinner is basically a psychopath, so you know he brings a touch of tenderness to the tale. Without Beauman feeling any tenderness towards his characters he doesn't write them very sympathetically; we don't get enough backstory to understand their pathologies, so all we can do is fault them for them.

I'm gave the story three stars in part because I feel comfortable saying this was a rather original plot. The idea is downright engaging. I'm going to keep my eye on Beauman if he keeps up with the good ideas perhaps his characters will align better with his storytelling in a future story.