Review: GLASS BARBIE

GLASS BARBIE by Michael Botur (Lasavia Publishing, 2024)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

'Cockroach' Karl Copley, a crackhead crim with a small brain and a big mouth, convinces his former best friend Richie McMullan - now a squeaky-clean senior cop - he can help rescue Barbara 'Barbie' Konstantinou, a high school crush apparently held for ransom by bikers in New Zealand's sunny north.

Problems pile up quickly, though, when Barbie doesn't want to go back to her effed-up family and it emerges there's much more at stake than a simple kidnapping.

Over two wild weeks of love/hate hangouts and rescue attempts, from Whāngarei to Kaitaia to the Bay of Islands, we find out if Crooked Karl has what it takes to solve the mystery and bring back Barbie.

If you're looking for something that's wild, ranty, full to brim with nobody (including the good, bad, and slightly deluded) winning at anything, then GLASS BARBIE could be just the ticket.

It's a roller coaster ride alongside wild man, crackhead, Karl Copley. He of the big mouth and small brain, who somehow convinces an old mate, now a senior cop, Richie McMullan that the two of them can rescue Copley's high school sweetheart Barbara Konstantinou (the Barbie from the title), who is being held for ransom by bikies. I mean why wouldn't a senior cop buy into a plan which doesn't bother to take into account a hefty bit of reluctance on the part of the victim, and a few more complications than just kidnapping? Basically it's a couple of weeks in their madness whilst the reader hangs onto the edge of the page, wondering what the... why the... when the... oh, they won't, will they? 

Of course they will. It's almost a guarantee that any book from this author will involve a hefty dose of what do you mean this is all madness, of COURSE it's all madness, where did you think that blurb was hinting this was all going to go?

Of course it will lack quite a bit of nuance, the point here is madness, violence, no brains, and men being utter dickheads, and it's delivering that. In spades ... chucked at heads mostly. 

Of course it will come with a hefty dose of ranty humour, and violence, and pace, and crazy. The whole thing is crazy really, and if you're here for crazy, dark, bitter twisted funny, and don't mind a heap of violence, lots of sweary language, and a scenario that's as daft as a bucketload of brushes, then go for it. This is your moment.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction.