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  • How a Gunman Says Goodbye

  • By: Malcolm Mackay
  • Narrated by: Angus King
  • Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (84 ratings)
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How a Gunman Says Goodbye

By: Malcolm Mackay
Narrated by: Angus King
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Summary

The stunning new novel from the author of The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter

How does a gunman retire? Frank MacLeod was the best at what he does. Thoughtful. Efficient. Ruthless. But is he still the best?A new job. A target. But something is about to go horribly wrong. Someone is going to end up dead. Most gunmen say goodbye to the world with a bang. Frank’s still here. He’s lasted longer than he should have...

The breathtaking, devastating sequel to lauded debut The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter, How a Gunman Says Goodbye will plunge the reader back into the Glasgow underworld, where criminal organisations war for prominence and those caught up in events are tested at every turn.

The final book in the Glasgow Trilogy The Sudden Arrival of Violence will follow soon...

©2013 Malcolm Mackay (P)2013 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Critic reviews

"How a Gunman Says Goodbye is even better than its remarkable predecessor…The author is already being hailed as a new star of tartan noir and if the third book in this trilogy can maintain the impetus of the first two the existing clan of Scottish writers may have to look to their laurels" (Daily Express)

"Malcolm Mackay is such a good writer. He is laconic, pared down and instinctively aware of the reader’s sensibilities" (West Highland Free Press)

What listeners say about How a Gunman Says Goodbye

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Lewis Winter didn't die in vain !!

What was one of the most memorable moments of How a Gunman Says Goodbye?

This book is better than the first as the characters become more alive.
The scene at 1am where they start the chain of phone calls is so well described and quite thrilling. Really really enjoyed this book. I'd recommend reading the first book beforehand.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant and very grim. Tartan Noir rocks!

I have just read Malcolm Mackay's Glasgow trilogy and loved it. "A wholly believable and unnerving portrait of organised crime" according to the guardian, and I cannot disagree.

Brilliantly written in language that's as hardboiled and taciturn as the protagonists, this is Tartan Noir at its best.

If you like Chandler, Ellroy, the Sopranos and Breaking Bad, I think you'll like this.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

A bore-fest!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

When the opening paragraph introduced a long list of characters, I knew it was going to be an effort to remain engaged. The narrative was attempting to endear the reader to the personae with an introduction but only succeeded in making the author sound amateur or naive.

What could Malcolm Mackay have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I don't know what the author could have done to make the read more enjoyable because my brain disengaged after the first 20 minutes and I fell asleep inside of an hour. For context, this is unusual. I have been known to enjoy audiobook marathons that consign a decent nights sleep to a fortnightly luxury. I even soldiered through the epic boredom of "A Canticle for Leibowitz" so lets not put this failure down to a lack of stamina.

Would you be willing to try another one of Angus King’s performances?

Probably not unless he gets a rave review by someone I trust.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Yes, it did manage to put an insomniac into a rare and prolonged state of REM sleep. Perhaps, the later chapters provided more entertainment, but I'll never find out.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Gave up

The first 10 mins of this is spent with a character introduction which might be useful in a physical book where you can flick back and forth and remind yourself of who everyone is but it's useless in an audio book.
I'm Glaswegian, which is part of what attracted me to purchase this but so tired of stories about 'hard' men.
I wish I'd read it earlier so that I could have got my money back. Oh well.

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