He Died with His Eyes Open

Rating:
Summary: Groundbreaking?
Review: Credited with being one of the earliest and most influential examples of noir going British, this first of the "Factory Series" didn't work for me. The nameless policeman who works in the unlikely "Department of Unexplained Deaths" is a loner who lives for his work in the classic sense of the fictional detective. His investigation into the brutal murder of a apparently poor man is given depth and resonance when he finds the dead man's rambling audio journals. The audio tapes slowly reveal a series of clues and serve to help the detective identify and come to feel for the man. It's not particularly convincing, nor is his method of getting close to the murder, and the ending is totally weird and over-the-top. This did not encourage me to sample further books in the series.

Rating:
Summary: A Ho-Hum Groundbreaker
Review: Credited with being one of the earliest and most influential examples of noir gone British, this first of the "Factory Series" didn't work for me. The nameless policeman who works in the "Department of Unexplained Deaths" is a loner who lives for his work in the classic sense of the fictional detective. His investigation into the brutal murder of a apparently poor man is given depth and resonance when he finds the dead man's rambling audio journals. The tapes slowly reveal a series of clues and serve to help the detective identify with and empathize with the victim. It's not particularly convincing, nor is his method of getting close to the murderer, and the ending is totally weird and over-the-top. This did not encourage me to sample further books in the series.

Rating:
Summary: A Ho-Hum Groundbreaker
Review: Credited with being one of the earliest and most influential examples of noir gone British, this first of the "Factory Series" didn't work for me. The nameless policeman who works in the "Department of Unexplained Deaths" is a loner who lives for his work in the classic sense of the fictional detective. His investigation into the brutal murder of a apparently poor man is given depth and resonance when he finds the dead man's rambling audio journals. The tapes slowly reveal a series of clues and serve to help the detective identify with and empathize with the victim. It's not particularly convincing, nor is his method of getting close to the murderer, and the ending is totally weird and over-the-top. This did not encourage me to sample further books in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Profoundly unappreciated classic
Review: If you enjoy the stylings of James Ellroy, Iain Banks, or even Raymond Chandler, anything by Derek Raymond is a sure bet. "He Died With His Eyes Open" is a stunning read. It follows the narrator, a nameless English detective, during his pursuit/descent while trying to find those guilty of a violent murder. Through writings and tape-recorded thoughts recovered from the victim, the detective becomes increasingly attached to the persona of the deceased. The prose is stark, elegant, incredibly philsophical, and yields a wealth of great quotes.

Another reviewer on Amazon mentioned that the methods of detection were not convincing, and the ending was "over-the-top".
Well...it's certainly not in the vein of an Agatha Christie mystery; It is a rare, brilliant look at the primal underpinnings of "civilized" society. It is classic noir, in the sense that it is a stylistic meditation on the nature of man/good vs. evil, as seen through the eyes of someone who makes a life out of being on the front lines of misery.

"He Died With His Eyes Open" compares more than favorably to Ellroy's "The Black Dahlia", with proper British style.

Rating:
Summary: Bleak, but Beautiful
Review: This is one classic slice of British noir. One reviewer compared the writing to Ellroy and I would agree. If the writing is like Ellroy, I would would compare Raymond's nameless Factory detective to Danny Upshaw, the sheriff's deputy from The Big Nowhere -- doggedly chasing down a case that no one seems to care about too much. There's also some Philip Marlowe in the empathy that the detective has and the way he finds something worthwhile about what was apparently a very sad and lonely man whose murder he's investigating.

If the ending seems over-the-top to you, then you haven't read many of the best crime novels! High drama and the dueling sides of everyone's personality are what makes much of the best noir tick. Check this one out for some honest appraisal of the darker side of life and how you can always glean some beauty out of the ugliness if you dig deep enough.

Rating:
Summary: Bleak, but Beautiful
Review: This is one classic slice of British noir. One reviewer compared the writing to Ellroy and I would agree. If the writing is like Ellroy, I would would compare Raymond's nameless Factory detective to Danny Upshaw, the sheriff's deputy from The Big Nowhere -- doggedly chasing down a case that no one seems to care about too much. There's also some Philip Marlowe in the empathy that the detective has and the way he finds something worthwhile about what was apparently a very sad and lonely man whose murder he's investigating.

If the ending seems over-the-top to you, then you haven't read many of the best crime novels! High drama and the dueling sides of everyone's personality are what makes much of the best noir tick. Check this one out for some honest appraisal of the darker side of life and how you can always glean some beauty out of the ugliness if you dig deep enough.