GREGORY GALLOWAY chats to Paul Burke about his new novel JUST THIEVES, identity, fatalism and existential questions in the noir novel, Chandler, Cain and Get Carter.

JUST THIEVES: Rick and Frank are recovering addicts and accomplished house thieves whose partnership extends beyond their professional lives. They do not steal randomly they steal according to order, hired by a mysterious handler. The jobs run routinely until they're tasked with taking a seemingly worthless trophy: an object that generates interest and obsession out of proportion to its apparent value. Just as the robbery is completed, the two are involved in a freak car accident that sets off a chain of events and Frank disappears with the trophy. As Rick tries to find Frank, he is forced to confront his past, upending both his livelihood and his sense of reality. The narrative builds steadily into a powerful and shocking climax. Revelling in its con-artistry and double-crosses, Just Thieves is a nail-biting, noir-ish exploration of the working lives of two unforgettable crooks and the hidden forces that rule and ruin their lives.

GREGORY GALLOWAY is the author of the novels The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand and the Alex Award-winning As Simple As Snow. His short stories have appeared in the Rush Hour and Taking Aim anthologies. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently resides in NW Connecticut.

Recommendations:
Raymond Chandler novels, letters and essays.
James M Cain The Postman Always Rings Twice
Dorothy B Hughes In a Lonely Place (film 1950 Nicholas Ray)
Jean-Patrick Manchette
The Big Combo d. Joseph Lewis 1955.
Jean Melville films
Ted Hughes GBH, Jack's Return Home (filmed as Get Carter d. Mike Hodges)
Diamonds Are Forever d. Guy Hamilton (1971)
Graham Greene Brighton Rock (films Boulting 1947, Joffé 2011)

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Music courtesy of Southgate & Leigh
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