The Black Russian

a Jack Susko mystery

Lenny Bartulin

Shortlisted for the 2010 Ned Kelly Fiction Award

'Lenny Bartulin [is] Australia's uniquely ironic answer to Raymond Chandler and Ian Fleming.'

Jan Hallam (Courier Mail)

'A taut, Chandler-esque detective story, written with a deft comic touch.'

Cameron Woodhead (The Age)

'There's an admirable precision to the language. The dialogue is snappy and funny. His visual description is fresh and resonant … Those who like their crime fiction fast, funny and offbeat will be rewarded here and will wish Susko Books stays in business for several books more.'

Ed Wright (Weekend Australian)

After yet another slow week at the cash register, that fine purveyor of second-hand literature, Susko Books, is facing financial ruin. Jack Susko sets off to a gallery in Woollahra to scrape up some coin with the sale of an old art catalogue. With his usual panache and exquisite timing, he arrives just as De Groot Galleries is being done over by masked thieves. Along with a mysterious object from the safe, the robbers seize a valuable first edition from Jack’s bag, too.

When the owner of the gallery doesn’t want to call the cops, Jack is offered a sizeable sum to keep silent: but when de Groot arrives at the bookshop with his heavy to renege on the deal, all bets are off. With an ease that almost constitutes a gift, Jack Susko finds himself at the centre of a world full of duplicity, lies and art theft.

'Bartulin's disciplined prose flies along, dragging the reader through one twist after another, like a cartoon dog-walker clinging to a leash.'

(Daily Telegraph)

'The Black Russian is Bartulin’s second novel featuring second-hand bookseller-turned-detective Jack Susko, and like its 2008 predecessor A Deadly Business, it’s an entertaining, fast-paced crime thriller ... Bartulin clearly knows all the tricks of the hard-boiled trade, from the wisecracking amateur detective who’s always in over his head, to the plot twists and double-double crosses that keep you guessing right to the end. This is a fun read with lots of Sydney local colour and is highly recommended to all crime fans.' FOUR STARS

Tim Coronel (Bookseller & Publisher)

'Struggling bookshop owner Jack stumbles upon an art gallery theft and, along with a mysterious object nicked from the safe, the robbers grab a valuable first edition from Jack. As this unusual mystery unfolds, Jack enters a world of deceit, theft and intrigue, the result being a work of art in itself.'

(Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin)

'a winning way with words.'

(Adelaide Advertiser)

'The writing is polished, slick and full of wisecracks: the characters quirky, bordering on affectedly eccentric. There's more than an irreverent nod to Philip Marlowe in a fun and entertaining read.'

(The Dominion Post Weekend)

'Bartulin understands how to keep the reader turning pages. The chapters are short, crisp and involving and the characters fast-talking, with Jack able to wise-crack in the most dire circumstances.'

Nina Valentine (Ballarat Courier)

'Jack’s a welcome edition to the pantheon of crime fiction smart-arses and, with his small network of second hand book dealers and other assorted supporting characters, The Black Russian reads kind of like Hiaasen and Chandler jamming on an Aussie reboot of Black Books. It’s sharp, its characters brilliantly rendered (Viktor Kablunak, its philosophical, melancholy Russian crim being a highlight) and it is funny.'

Cameron Ashley (Crime Factory)

'Bartulin's Jack Susko is endearing, nostalgic and exciting in his parochialism — it feels uncommonly good to have Sydney come to life via the printed pages of a neo-noir novel without a hint of the cultural cringe that some domestic novels evoke.'

(Australian Penthouse)

'[The characters are] cleverly drawn as to fully engage the reader. Who wouldn't like a villain who can create a life philosophy out of James Bond? A bevy of treacherous (but beautiful) women and a cadre of would-be actors moonlighting in the criminal underworld rounds out the cast nicely and the action plays out against a sweltering Sydney summer that I could almost smell and taste due to the skill of Bartulin's writing.'

(Fair Dinkum Crime)