VIVA LA MADNESS by J.J. Connolly

Finished Su 4/5/2020

This is a hardback that I got on Amazon and received on Mo 4/22/19 and I bought it because this author wrote 'LAYER CAKE'. I loved that book and it was made into a dynamite movie starring Daniel Craig. Connolly also wrote the screenplay.

I loved the book and wish Connolly wrote more books. I don't even know if he is still writing. He might have given it all up... maybe for the movie industry?

Apparently these are the only two novels that he wrote and 'VIVA LA MADNESS' might be a movie. Hope it is, but the book is ten years old.

Crazy wild story line with one ripoff and plot twist after another. The strength of the novel is the crazy characters.

Unnamed Lead Character- He is a holdover from the first novel. In this book he is living in Jamaica trying to leave the drug game. He was a drug importer centered in London. This novel is about how he is lured back into 'the game'. But, the rip-offs are dizzying.

Mr. Mortimer (Morty)- A large black man. He's a boss and an enforcer.

Sonny King- A roided-out crazy man. Violent psychopath with no boundaries. He kills and changes points of view randomly. A very dangerous man.

Roy Burns- Another boss, but certifiably crazy. Twitches when nervous and he's always nervous. Good with listening devices and surveillance equipment. Very violent man.

Ted Granger- A bigger boss in the English drug culture. He fakes his own death.

Bridget Granger- She's Ted's brother and also a boss. She's the brains of the outfit, yet Ted takes the credit. Also very violent and good with weapons.

Set in Jamaica, Barbadoes, and England.

 From the book's page at Amazon:

"Now Connolly is back with a sequel that sees him on the same stunning form, with his trademark razor-sharp dialogue and quick-fire violence, but also finding dark humor and pathos in the lives of violent men. From the London underworld, Viva la Madness moves to international crime with trans-Atlantic drug deals, money laundering, and high-tech electronic fraud, portrayed with the same uncanny believability. The anonymous hero of Layer Cake is pulled back into the drug game before he can escape to a sunny retirement. In a dazzling combination of London low-life, Caribbean high-life, and Venezuelan drug cartels toting machine-guns in Mayfair, our hero's voice and mission are authentic, thrilling, and whiplash-inducing in equal shares."