MARRY, BANG, KILL
Winner of the 2019 ReLit Award in the Novel Category
Globe and Mail top 100 Books of 2018
For a guy who mugs people for their laptops, Tommy Marlo isn’t such a bad guy. He can’t help trying to make the people he meets — even those he mugs — feel better about their situation. Unfortunately for Tommy, he rips off the daughter of a psychotic, high-ranking member of a notorious motorcycle gang. Even worse, the laptop that he pilfered contains proof of a few gruesome murders and the location of a huge stash of money. Flat broke and marked for death, his only shot at surviving is to rob the motorcycle gang, use the cash to get out of town, and hide out on the small island where his mother now lives.
What follows is a revisionist crime thriller, a page-turning hybrid of literary and genre fiction for fans of Elmore Leonard or Patrick deWitt. But Battershill writes with a voice all his own. Deftly combining crackling dialogue with biting wit, MARRY, BANG, KILL hums with the thrill of chaos as Tommy runs to a quiet island to escape a swelling cast of characters who are trying to arrest, rob, kill, or save him. The island won’t be quiet for long.
reviews
“Andrew Battershill is a genius with small moments and glib lines that make you laugh out loud…
I was expecting a light summer mystery but what I got was a novel where nothing good happens and no one is likeable, but which somehow remains hopeful and fun. Marry Bang Kill is a strange and beautiful read with some of the most vibrant writing about drug use and murders that I have read. You should read it too.”
"Battershill’s excellent second novel (after Pillow) … a surprisingly heartfelt story tucked inside a superbly oddball crime thriller."
“Full of characters who aren’t easily forgotten, thanks to Battershill’s gift for fast-paced and darkly funny dialogue… Odd and endearing, Marry, Bang, Kill will delight readers who relish a unique crime thriller that is far from formulaic.”