Does everyone have a price?
That’s the question facing Peyton Collard, the anti-hero of Deadbeat, the taut thriller from bestselling author Adam Hamdy.
Peyton Collard was a good man once but his life changed after a horrific car accident. Divorced, drunk, and severely damaged, Peyton is offered a life-changing sum of money to kill an evil man. But as he goes on a vigilante journey, he begins to question the identity of his anonymous patron and the bodies he leaves behind.
Unsure who to trust, with the police on his case, Peyton embarks on a tense and potentially deadly investigation to discover the truth about the murders he's committed – and forces the reader to ask some difficult questions about their own moral compass. If you were desperate enough, could you kill a stranger for money?
I am delighted to be hosting the blog tour for Deadbeat today, although mortified I am so late in the day posting; I wrote the date down for next Thursday by mistake and only realised late this evening. My thanks and apologies to Adam Hamdy and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and for sending me a copy of the novel.
Peyton Collard is a killer; he tells us this himself in the first line of Deadbeat. He also admits to killing numerous people over a period of time, as well as ruining the lives of many more. He is about as far from a hero as you can imagine and he is the epitome of a flawed, possibly unreliable narrator. However, as he recounts the events surrounding his murderous spree, it's impossible not to want to learn more about this complicated man and to discover whether he is as irrevocably damaged as he appears.
Peyton describes himself as a deadbeat and it's difficult to disagree. He seems to have reached rock-bottom after serving a prison sentence which resulted in his divorce and a spiralling addiction to alcohol. His drinking lands him in trouble with the law again at the start of Deadbeat but a mysterious benefactor secures his release on bail and he is then offered a life-changing one hundred thousand dollars to murder a man. His instructions are that Walter Glaze is to die by two shots to the head, after which he will receive the money promised to him.
Having lost almost everything, Collard is a desperate man but although he is obviously motivated by his love for his daughter, Skye, it's also clear that he is bitter about the hand he has been dealt in life and envious of those he describes as leading the privileged lives depicted on billboards. Adam Hamdy cleverly induces readers to both sympathise and be repulsed by Peyton Collard; the choices he makes are frequently reckless or reprehensible but even at his worst, he is a fascinating character. It is undoubtedly a gamble to have the main character in a thriller be such a broken antihero but he is also a sort of everyman who once lived a simple life with his wife and daughter, until a terrible, indefensible tragedy eventually brought him to this point.
At first he dares to hope he may finally be able to rebuild his life and his relationship with Skye but this dark, gritty tale finds him dangerously out of his depth. His unseen patron continues to tempt him with more money if he assassinates their named targets but vigilantism proves to be a brutally risky business. He endures several beatings during the course of the book, some of which are so inevitable, it's perhaps not unfair to consider whether he deserves at least some of the punishments meted out to him. However, if that is our response then what does that make us? Deadbeat isn't just a gripping thriller; it is also a provocative exploration of human behaviour which compels readers to consider what our own conscience tells us about Peyton's choices and how we might act in similar circumstances.
While Peyton Collard dominates all that takes place here, the secondary characters are vividly drawn and although some invite our sympathies, others are truly detestable. Meanwhile, the sense of place is superb and Adam Hamdy makes the most of the vast chasm between the conspicuously affluent and wretchedly poor lifestyles in California to really drive home his message that despondency, envy, greed and hope can be powerful catalysts. The breathtaking denouement is electrifyingly tense but also surprisingly moving; in spite of the mistakes Peyton has made, Adam Hamdy ensures we care about the outcome of the apparently impossible situation he is in. Towards the end, there is a sobering reminder of our collective guilt regarding the suffering of others – Deadbeat is a hugely entertaining read but it is also an unsettling examination of modern life and as such this exceptional thriller will linger long in my mind. I highly recommend it.
Deadbeat is published in the UK by Pendulum Books. It can be purchased here.
Follow the blog tour, details are below.
About the Author
He's currently adapting his novel Black 13 for Ringside Studios, and is developing his original screenplay, The Fear in Their Eyes with December Films.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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