Armadillo - (Vintage International) by William Boyd (Paperback)

About the Book

Insurance adjuster Lorimer Black, a.k.a. Milomre Blocj--a descendant of Gypsies and an insomniac eager for sleep and security--finds his life spiraling out of control after he discovers a client hanging from a water pipe, and his car is torched while he is investigating a hotel fire.

Book Synopsis

From the award-winning author of A Good Man Africa and An Ice-Cream War comes Armadillo, a brilliant satirical noir set in contemporary London.

To his colleagues, Lorimer Black, the handsome, mild-mannered insurance adjuster rising through the ranks of his London firm, is known as the guy who has it all: the sleek suits, the enviable status. But when Lorimer arrives at a routine business appointment and finds his client hanging from a water pipe, his life spirals out of control. His company car is blowtorched after he investigates a fire at a luxury hotel. He becomes the fall guy of a new colleague who puts the company in the red and the victim of a vicious attack by the possessive husband of a mysterious actress.
As Lorimer becomes increasingly entangled in an apparent conspiracy that involves everyone he knows, his own past comes to light. A brilliant satirical noir, Armadillo confirms Boyd's place as England's most versatile, sublime novelist.

Review Quotes

"[T]his novel is everything good fiction should be." --The Washington Post Book World

"Combines a touch of Dickensian realistic comedy with a Kafkaesque sense of modern urban terror. . . . [William Boyd] has a rare talent." --The Baltimore Sun

"Boyd has a frisky style . . . that will keep you chortling . . . all the way to the end." --The Los Angeles Times Book Review

"The storytelling talents that marked Mr. Boyd's earlier books are fully in evidence in this entertaining novel." --The New York Times

About the Author

William Boyd's first novel, A Good Man in Africa, won a Whitbread Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award; his second, An Ice-Cream War, was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Brazzaville Beach won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; and The Blue Afternoon won the Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction. Boyd lives in London.