Dead Air by Iain Banks

It must be a real relief to finally shed those godawful monochrome covers. Not that I think this cover is too stunning - it seems to be just another couple of merged shots from Photonica's library but I guess the idea is that it couples the September 11th theme from the blurb on the back cover with the image of two 'towers' and a plane... pretty dumb way to market the book though because as you'll soon discover this story has almost nothing to do with 9-11. The attacks on New York do offer an interesting opening to the book and help explain some of the paranoia in other parts but overall its just a neat little selling point for TimeWarner/LittleBrown/Iain Banks.

I read The Wasp Factory when I was a teenager and it blew me away - I've read pretty much everything else by Banks since (with or without his extra initial) and not a lot of his output has thrilled me in the same way - I always preferred him when he was being Absurd but his last novel, The Business, was just rank. Attempting to write from a woman's perspective was a really bad idea and made the novel practically unreadable. I'm glad to say though that Dead Air is a much better proposition.

Banks still hasn't got a clue about women but as he's writing this time from the point of view of a guy who also doesn't have a clue about women it works. It revolves around the antics of a shock-jock radio personality - a cross between Chris Evans, Chris Moiles and Noam Chomsky. He makes a name for himself railing against such institutions as The Mail and is outspoken against neo-nazis, America, Israel... you get the idea - pretty much a left wing idealist but one who makes his money working for a dreadful commercial London radio station. He has a small group of close friends and an eye for the ladies. Its his interest in the opposite sex that acts as his Achilles heel - we soon learn that not only has he already shagged his best mate's wife he's also got an unhealthy interest in said mate's daughter. He cheats on his regular girlfriend whenever he gets the chance but of course is more than annoyed when she does the same thing. And then wouldn't you know it - he falls head over heels in lust with the one woman he shouldn't - the wife of a London gangster.

What unfolds is a very funny story of illicit meetings, radio ranting and paranoia as our hero tries to juggle his personal life along with death threats, kidnapping attempts and an odd new feeling that may even be love.