Name: The Gun Seller
ISBN: 9780671020828

Hugh Laurie

A spoof of the spy genre set in Britain features a drifter who orchestrates a magnificent caper involving the CIA, international terrorists, arms dealers, a high-speed chase on skis, and buxom, blonde beauties.

The Gun Seller

Gavin

Urgh. Douglas Adams crossed with Ian Fleming, with the latter’s clumsiness and Adams’ loud prose. Addresses grave military-industrial politics via flashy froth. I suppose his unmacho, anti-sex secret agent is an ok idea, but the gauche chapter epigrams and joke prose were distressing.

Kirsten Simkiss

I enjoyed this book for about the first hundred or so pages. After that, it just dragged on until I simply had no interest in reading more of it. To be clear, the book is not all bad. I felt as though the wit and the social commentary were quite funny in a dry, witty sort of way, but the characters weren’t ones I found I could care for and I found the plot to be too drawn out. I also felt like this was very much a book geared specifically toward men because a great deal of time was spent describing weapons and women, usually in about the same tone of writing.

Mr. Laurie, sir, I love your acting but I feel like this book could use some editing.

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I have to admit that initially, it was difficult for me to get into this book. In fact I almost put it down shortly after I began reading it. I suppose the writing style took a little getting used to..felt like the author was trying too hard to be funny at the expense of clarity and plot. However, I had heard good things about the book and have to admit that I love Hugh Lorie on House, so I pressed on.

I'm glad I finished the book as it turned out to be a very entertaining read. There were a few points when I laughed out loud and many where I chuckled quietly to myself. I liked the sarcastic nature of the main character.

I almost gave it a 4 but ended up with a 3. Some of the plot felt a little contrived, some was inplausible (which I mostly overlooked as this was not, I think, meant to be a "serious" spy novel) and some of the characters were not well-developed. I felt that it was wrapped up a little too abruptly in the end and a few things were not all that well explained.

Irina Nicula

George Penston

Channing Williford

Cat Josephson

Hugh Laurie tells the tale of a former Scots Guard-turned-hired gun, a freelance soldier of fortune, who also happens to be one hell of a nice guy.