He Died with His Eyes Open - Factory 1 (Paperback, Main)

A noir-drenched British import about a nameless cop chasing the killer of an unmourned victim.With a flat wallet and shabby clothes, it's clear that the corpse is a throwaway. Nobody cares except for a nameless detective sergeant in the London Metropolitan Police's Department of Unexplained Deaths, a place where lost souls sometimes get justice. The victim has two posthumous pieces of luck: The nameless cop is unusually smart, and he's famously obsessed. When the brutalized corpse is found half-buried in the shrubbery fronting the Word of God House, with all signs marking him as a derelict, Homicide wastes no time before delegating the case. In his patented, inexorable fashion, the sergeant goes to work, and four days later, the derelict has been unveiled as Charles Staniland, a writer who left behind a bonanza of pages and tapes, furnishing insights into a life that was often tortured and ultimately wasted. But Charlie's words and thoughts resonate with the man investigating his murder. He listens, reads, empathizes and finally acts in a way that has practically nothing to do with law enforcement and everything to do with retribution.Originally published in 1984 as the first of a series of six quintessentially bleak novels that faithfully evoke a world many sensitive souls will be pleased to avoid. (Kirkus Reviews)

When a middle-aged alcoholic is found brutally battered to death on a roadside in West London, the case is assigned to a nameless detective sergeant, a tough-talking cynic and fearless loner from the Department of Unexplained Deaths at the Factory police station. Working from cassette tapes left behind in the dead man's property, our narrator must piece together the history of his blighted existence and discover the agents of its cruel end. What he doesn't expect is that digging for the truth will demand plenty of lying, and that the most terrible of villains will also prove to be the most attractive. In the first of six police procedurals that comprise the Factory series, Derek Raymond spins a riveting, and vividly human crime drama. Relentlessly pursuing justice for the dispossessed, his detective narrator treads where few others dare: in the darkest corners of London, a city of sin plagued by unemployment, racism and vice, and peopled by a cast of low-lifes, all utterly convincing and brought to life by Raymond's pitch-perfect dialogue.

General

Imprint:	Serpent's Tail
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	September 2006
First published:	November 2006
Authors:	Derek Raymond
Introduction by:	James Sallis
Dimensions:	200 x 130 x 13mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	224
Edition:	Main
ISBN-13:	978-1-85242-796-2
Categories:	Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Crime & mystery > General
LSN:	1-85242-796-5
Barcode:	9781852427962

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