Shock-jock coke-head

The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Iain Banks wrote Dead Air in just six weeks. You are impressed before you read it. You are amazed afterwards - that long?

It's the story of Edinburgh-born Ken Nott: shock-jock, coke-head and ladykiller. We first meet him on 11 September, 2001, guzzling champagne and chucking fruit from an East End penthouse.

A pretty crazy kinda guy, then. Or at least Banks seems to think so, for he treats us to 300 pages of Ken's ranting and raving before any sort of plot turns up.

When it does, it's a great little chapter in which Ken has to burgle a house while people are still in it. But it is a brief respite from the general tedium, and its success has nothing to do with the rest of the book, or its hero. Stick anyone inside a cupboard with a gangster on the other side and your pulse will probably quicken.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in