Nobody Moves is reminiscent of the 90s - early 2000s Tarantino movies, so if you liked those, this should be right up your alley. There's twisted, crazy action tempered with dramatic conversations, and the settings are wonderfully drawn. There is a lot going on, and it's a lot to keep up with. It made me think of a game of chess as the characters make their moves toward and away from each other. Then we have the relationships between the characters, some known and some not, and how they come together in some unlikely circumstances. This one doesn't give us many truly good guys, most of the players in this twisted game are varying degrees of bad, depending on what they'll do and how far they're willing to go. I realize I'm being incredibly vague, but it's near to impossible to give details about this first Angel City book without giving anything away, and this is one that needs be read spoiler-free. Suffice it say that Nobody Moves is full of murder and mayhem, and it moves at break-neck speed from start to finish.

A rollicking rampage of wise guys, sassy strippers, hard-boiled detectives and cold-blooded killers, Nobody Move easily adds up to near-perfect pulp fiction. A simple shakedown turns into homicide then escalates as an angry mob boss despatches a contract killer, with Eddie the hapless protagonist eventually being coerced into a multi-million dollar bank heist while trying to save the girl (whose best friend he murdered back at the beginning. Oops). What could possibly go wrong?

Eddie’s story is a freight-train of good intentions which get shunted onto the fast track to hell. He’s not an altogether bad bloke (for a mob enforcer who collects debts with menaces and spends all his spare time in strip joints), but his lazy complicity has led him a long way into iniquity. You don’t end up murdering a couple of swells entirely by accident.

In fact, few of the characters display much in the way of redeeming features. Eddie’s chaotic bank-robbing colleagues – who require a heavy metal soundtrack to make a successful getaway – are disloyal liars. Sadistic crime boss Saul is brutally bad to the bone. Diego the hitman comes with zero conscience, serious firepower and no compunction about killing absolutely, positively every sucker in the room.

Only Dakota – a young woman seeking the truth about her missing friend – and LAPD detective Alison Lockley are unambiguously on the side of the angels. And both of these women aren’t above bending the rules to suit their righteous purposes.

In some ways, the purest character in this entertaining ensemble piece is Rufus, the almost unstoppable former assassin who returns from retirement to avenge his dead brother. Think No Country For Old Men, but minus the nihilistic bitterness – there’s a solid streak of glee running straight through this melange of mischief.

Author Philip Elliott throws absolutely everything into the mix and saturates his snappy dialogue in so many musical and cinematic references that the pages almost shake from the soundtrack pounding. At times Nobody Move reads just like a screenplay and there’s no escaping the comparisons to Tarantino or the Coen brothers.

Mind you, I could’ve done without the long lecture on the plight of Native American young women or the strident outbursts about calculated chauvinism. There’s definitely a place in crime fiction for discussing serious social issues, but these long-winded detours sat uncomfortably alongside the pell-mell pace of the galloping narrative. Combining heartfelt moral commentary with black humour, a rising body count and frantic action is a tricky balancing act: let’s hope Elliott has plenty of opportunity in future to perfect that skill.

A flickering neon nugget of first class neo-noir.

9/10

This is a crime novel with so much crime that it's pulp. It's so close to ridiculous that it's actually amusing, and at the same time it points at some serious issues.

The cover of the road, a classic old neon sign, and a couple big palm trees, snagged me immediately. I knew I wanted to read this book just by that tease..
So it seems that Eddie Vegas has screwed up big time. Now it's time to pay the piper. A botched debt collection went so badly that there is now a double murder.Eddie splits town to try and evade his boss and the boss's henchmen as well as the police.
He meets a smart, sleek, sexy Dakota, a hotty from LA, who is also a member of a Native American tribe. Dakota is here looking for a long lost friend of hers; and as luck would have it - Eddie just might know something about it. Meanwhile, back in Texas, a former assassin named Rufus, is looking to exact a severe dose of vengeance for his murdered brother. Rufus packs up his weapon of choice: daggers, for one final time. Rufus then gets on the long road to L.A. When the bodies begin to stack up,
Detective Alison Lockley’s time on the hunt for the killers becomes a pressure cooker. Suffice it to say, varied paths cross, confusion ensues, and no one’s entirely sure who’s after who. But one thing is understood crystal clear: They’re likely not all going to get out of this escapade alive.
Philip has a style slightly reminiscent of Elmore Leonard. A nice entertaining summer read that moved at a relaxed pace.

Follow these crime capers in the first of a series set in L.A. There’s murders-a-plenty, crime, car chases and everything else in between as Elliott certainly creates a novel reminiscent of a Tarantino film. True, there are some references to this famed director, but I could easily see for myself the traits that Elliott has written within this plot.

Personally, I wasn’t too blown away by the plot and feel that the type of crime being described wasn’t too engaging. There’s a lot of underhand actions and the key characters of Eddie, Floyd and Sawyer felt like cliches of so many caricatures that have already been described in popular culture. Along the same lines, the revengeful nature of the plot was quite predictable yet, the fast pace of the narrative meant there was little time to feel bored.

The bodies naturally stack up on this novel and I enjoyed how several parties eventually converged into one meeting place. The finale “shoot out” was the most enjoyable part of the story to me and I could really picture it happening in my head. Like many of the scenes, it felt like I was reading something that could easily appear on the big screen. This reflects the quality of Elliott’s writing and how effortless it was to follow the story.

There is nothing too offensive in this story and, whilst there was a lot of murder, it wasn’t too gruesome. I found Eddie’s sense of his mortality quite an interesting character trait, although for the rest of the time I felt he was quite weak and predictable. He is easily swayed by the more dominant characters around him, thereby landing him in hot water all of the time. His relationship with Dakota is obvious and soppy; I could not fathom how the writer would create a future from it and believe that the ending was totally justified.

In conclusion, this was an average read for me: I enjoyed some elements of the plot but the outrageous, overblown, revengeful nature of the story were a bit far-fetched. Reading like something from a film, the characters were “safe”, with nothing too different to offer to the story. If you like Tarantino films then definitely don’t miss this one. Otherwise, for those of you seeking a fast-paced crime book and something a little different, then this may appeal.

With thanks to Into the Void magazine and Philip Elliott for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A bit like William Hoffman meets Carl Hiassen . It moved along pretty well and in the end everyone got their due. Shows promise for a first attempt and would definitely check out the author's next book. ( I would rate it 3.75 if I could...)

Eddie Vegas has erred, seriously so. A seemingly straight forward debt collection visit for gangster Saul Benedict has gone bad and there are now bodies on the floor. Vegas has been working for Saul for a while now but it’s not clear if he can survive this mistake. He decides to lay low and see how the land lies but it soon becomes clear that one way or another his actions have made him a marked man. Along the way, Vegas meets up with a stunning Native American woman named Dakota, who is looking for her estranged sister. But as the net closes in on Vegas it looks like a horrible coincidence has further complicated his already perilous position.

The action is full on and the plot is as twisty a Slinky. I liked bad boy Vegas, despite his proclivity for for doing bad things, and I wanted him to survive despite the odds being stacked against him. I cheered him on. The whole thing plays out like a Tarantino movie, it’s hugely enjoyable. I loved it!

From the very first page, the dialogue pulled me right into the story and I could picture the scene as being something out of a 90s thriller movie. It's fun, it's fast-moving, and I loved it. Elliott does a fantastic job of making you want to turn the pages even though the characters are not the nicest of people. The book opens with Eddie and Floyd trying to recoup money for their boss to dire consequences, a murder, and Eddie on the run.

This book is ideal for those who love a mystery, nasty killers, and fast-paced action. There is some language that some readers may not like in particular the "N" word. It is a gangster style story and the first in the Angel City series.

The story itself is dialogue-heavy, but it's done really well and I love dialogue so it worked for me.

All the characters are great and they're all involved in some way or another. The characters are well written and you get a good sense of each and every one of them. There are plenty of twists and turns too. As I said, if you're a fan of crime particular crime like those of Tarantino's movies, then this is a must-read.

I've read Elliott's writing before so I wasn't surprised by how flawless it is.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and I'd be curious to see what happens in the next books in the series.

If you like... (takes deep breath) Heat, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, The Godfather, Baby Driver, No Country for Old Men, Get Shorty, Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2, The Getaway, Silence of the Lambs, Out of Sight and Point Break, then this may just be the book for you.

Nobody Move by Toronto-based debutant Philip Elliott is a love letter to the crime thriller movies of the 90s and is packed with enough sleazy motels, 80s punk rock and characters making questionable life choices to make you want to ask, "Whose chopper iz dis?'


Philip Elliott, debutant author of crime thriller, Nobody Move, out in September 2019
Clearly, the man knows his Tarantino, his Elmore Leonard and his Jim Thomson.

However, although this may sound like pastiche, it is so cleverly done, the novel ripping along in 315 pages, and Elliott managing to make you enjoy spending time with these monstrous characters, that you don't feel oppressed by the references. The fact that the characters are self referentially referring to them acting like they're in a movie, only adds to the fun.

Nobody Move opens with the character of Eddie, a small time hoodlum beginning to tire of the life, making a catastrophic mistake which only escalates as variously his pretentious, restaurant owning mobster boss, Saul Benedict, and his men (and Eddie’s ex-partners), Floyd and Sawyer, all enter the fray hunting the want-away Eddie. Fate twists further as the beautiful Dakota, a Native American woman fresh in the City of Angels searching for her missing friend and psychotic, Texan assassin Rufus, seeking vengeance for his murdered brother, takes up his beloved daggers one final time and begins the long drive to L.A. Meanwhile, put-upon vegetarian LAPD detective Alison Lockley’s hunts for the killers becomes increasingly urgent as the bodies pile up. 

The novel, published by small press Into the Void, has rather too many uses of "the N word" for my liking and appears to have an unfortunate relationship to violence against women - but persevere for all is not what it seems. 

This is to be the first of a series of novels, known as the Angel City series. I'm looking forward to reading the next instalment.

Nobody Move (Angel City #1) is out from Into the Void press on September 10th.

ISBN: 978-1-7753813-5-8

If you like detective novels, a decent mystery, lots of nasty crooks and killers, this book is for you! Just about everybody gets shot or stabbed or killed in this fast-paced novel (Just kidding - a few characters are left to reveal the twist!) A decent, well-written read. (I had to skim over a few sections, being squeamish in my old age, but lovers of this genre will have plenty of action-packed and gory scenes to revel in!)

This book wasn't exactly my cup of tea mostly because I wasn't really expecting gangster type characters. Other than that the book is pretty fast paced and at times I actually had a hard time putting the book down!

It's an enjoyable dialogue heavy read, but one that is uneven both in its plotting and character development arcs – I have to admit to occasionally finding characters blurring. Also, I didn’t really buy the Alison character. The book does a good job of touching on issues of race and identity more broadly with homosexuality, transgenderism, feminism, and the genocide of Native Americans, although I could have done without the Tarantino like love of certain words. Overall cartoonish, but enjoyable enough for a holiday read.

Very early on we meet Eddie and Floyd. They have been sent on a job to ‘scare’ one of Saul’s (the big boss man) clients into getting the money he owes him as he is a few days late. But, Eddie, who’s been feeling out of sorts all day thinks that something doesn’t feel quite right and isn’t particularly looking forward to this job, and he was right not to.

Eddie Vegas messed up BIG time, now he’s on the run.

After the accident, Eddie, Floyd and we meet Sawyer, the driver, decide to bury the evidence far out of the way, the problem is they are spotted and the very next day their secret is let out of the bag…

All Eddies problems just keep getting bigger.

Not only does Saul want to ‘speak ‘ to Eddie, but the brother of the man he’s killed starts to come after him, along with a woman who he falls in love with seemingly uninvolved in all of this, is looking for her younger sister, and won’t leave until she is found, and everything just starts to spiral out of control…

A fast-paced story with characters left right, and center all involved in some capacity or another.

From the first chapter you are thrown into the world of L.A, the seediness, glamour, the black and white, behind the scenes, a movie like presence, there is all sorts going down. Each character that has been created gives you an impression of who they are and what path they led or going down. To which there is no end to the type of characters there are; lost, gay, loved, tortured, plain, trans, eccentric, cowboy, brutish, slimy...it just goes on…the best part, it works!

I don’t think I have come across a novel with so many twists and turns and omg moments. Elliott has written a fast-paced, action packed crime thriller, it’s a clean well written novel, it was an awesome read and it just kept surprising me at each turn, Philip Elliott is a magnificent writer.

This is a thrilling, highly-propulsive, frenzied crime thriller in the neo-noir tradition. There is much murder and mayhem with some darkly humours events and dialogue, reminiscent of the best Quentin Tarantino movies.

The story is set in contemporary Los Angeles and begins with a flawed debt collection for a brutal gangster by several of his thugs. Things begin to go seriously wrong for Eddie on this botched mission. He finds himself on the run from law officers, hitmen, members of his own gang, and a deadly Bible quoting Texan with vengeance in mind. He falls for a beautiful Indigenous woman, Dakota, who has come to LA looking for her missing sister. This prolongs Eddie’s stay in the city, as he has fallen for her and vows to help her find her sister. Eddie has a dreadful secret he is keeping from her because if she finds out it will destroy their budding romance.

Dakota has been taken hostage, and Eddie is forced to rejoin his past partners in crime for his first bank robbery. He is in danger not only from his gang members but from outside forces bent on revenge. He is hoping that his participation in the bank robbery will set Dakota free. Bullets fly, there are bloody knife battles, frightening car chases and bodies pile up. It is no surprise that the bank robbery doesn’t go as planned, resulting in more injuries and deaths. There is no trust between the partners in the bank robbery who now have bags of stolen money. The police are hot in pursuit.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this frantic book of non-stop action in the criminal world of LA in return for my honest review. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

The comparisons of this book to Quentin Tarantino's movies aren't far off. There's certainly a cinematic quality to it. It was fast-paced and it just took me a few hours to get through it. Another thing that I enjoyed that it feels like it's set in the era of Pulp Fiction - if it wasn't for a few modern references, I could see it happening right around the same time. It even has a Bible-quoting assassin, although I'm pretty sure Samuel L. Jackson's Jules would have hated him. The action is almost on par with Tarantino's levels and the characters certainly get into a lot of crazy situations.

It also captures the essence of Los Angeles well and it was interesting to read about what the criminal underbelly of the city is up to and how they're sometimes more incompetent than malevolent and sometimes they're just downright evil.

In the end, Nobody Move was a great read. It even ties up all the plotlines neatly in the end. I'm curious how this will continue if this is going to be a series.

This is a quick, fun read. It's L.A. Noir a la Quentin Tarrentino (from whom the author freely admits he steals). The writing is good. The bad guys have some depth (the main ones, anyway), and although it follows a formula of sorts, it's still manages to surprise. There are a few stumbles, and some instances of the author's voice intruding on the story with some political commentary that feels out of place here. Partly because it took me out of the story for a moment, and partly because the story itself is sort of timeless, and the commentary pops it into the immediate, very specific present, which just feels unnecessary. But that said, if you like this genre, definitely give this one a shot!

Philip Elliott’s Nobody Move Is pulp fiction at its best…..

It starts with Eddie and Floyd’s visit to Bill….a Texan who owes the Boss 50Gs…..but it ends with a double murder and so the mayhem begins….with some great, laugh out loud moments and genius one-liners….

A hugely entertaining, crime and violence filled car crash of a novel….brilliant.

Thanks to Alexandra Scott, NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of the ebook in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.