Killing Richard Dawson
Robin Baker
"The phone rings. It’s Jesus. I listen to him speak and then hang up..."
In this darkly comic, slow-burn thriller, reality is blurred… nothing can be taken for granted.
A gripping and poignant black comedy about love, friendship, booze, morality, death… and a generation’s casual dissatisfaction with modern life. Sometimes, redemption lies in the darkest of places.
“You don’t need to die to destroy yourself.”
Killing Richard Dawson is a brilliant fast-paced story with a shocking twist. The reader is sucked into the uni student narrator's worlds as he navigates his way, with wit & humour, through the minefields of loss, friendship & unrequited love. Death is the only constant in his life, yet Robin Baker deals with it with an irreverence echoing Evelyn Waugh’s classic satire.
Nick Earls, award-winning author
‘…somehow doesn’t miss a beat, all the way to an ending that’ll knock you sideways.’
Booktopia Buzz
'A startling, original voice on the crime scene... TO DIE FOR... a new crime writer you simply have to read.'
Bookseller + Publisher magazine
‘...takes the reader on an unsettling journey… A truly gripping read.’
Reader’s comment
‘Catcher in the Rye meets Dexter…a coming-of-age tale injected with black humour.’
The West Australian
‘...a dark, simmering tale told through the eyes of a 19-year-old sociopath... As he guides readers through his booze-fuelled journey of lonely self-destruction, [his] tale is told with black humour, moments of wit and horror simultaneously thrown into the mix’ (Sam Whitely)
Australian Literary Review
‘Robin Baker’s narrator is so unpretentiously sincere about his desperation to avoid pain that I was grinning from the first lines... The pleasure of the novel is its darkly hilarious knack for capturing the lethargic insights of Gen Y, in a voice that Baker claims was an antidote to the teen television series Dawson’s Creek. Baker’s biggest fans will probably belong to the same generation, but anyone who enjoys the deadpan honesty of a smart teenager would be won over.’ (Tim Kennedy Hanna)
Fancy Goods
‘...such an intriguing book I couldn't put it down... this book is excellent. 5 out of 5 stars.’ (Andrew Wrathall)
The Courier Mail
‘...simmering, mysterious thriller... Baker's strangely compelling voice reels you in... surprising twists and hairpin bends... a compulsive read.’ (Gillian Bramley-Moore)
The Sydney Morning Herald
‘... a darkly comic story... Generation Y is often thought of as a generation with nothing to believe in. It's a Nietzschean approach to life with more sex, interesting pants and even fewer ideals. In this novel, one member of the generation is given something to believe in: killing Richard Dawson... The humour in Killing Richard Dawson is sporadic. The darkness is not.’ (Emma Young)
The Weekend Australian, Review
‘Killing Richard Dawson stitches the murderous sensibilities of television's anti-hero Dexter to Andrew McGahan's nihilistic slacker Gordon Buchanan, and plays its story out in a completely believable 21st-century suburban milieu. There may be a little too much Quentin Tarantino-like graphic violence thrown into the mix, but this is a surprisingly skilful first novel, promising a rosier future for [Robin] Baker than what is delivered to his unhappy protagonist.’ (Venero Armanno)
The Sun-Herald
‘...a succession of soulless social engagements and increasingly unhinged behaviour... There are shades of American Psycho but with a distinctly Australian air of suburban ennui...an ambitious novel, full of ambiguity...’ (Greg Hassall)
Carpe Librum
"Killing Richard Dawson is the exploration of a young man with a sympathetic and difficult past trying to find his place in the world, depressed, confused and falling in love. It's dark, it's surprising and it's strangely comic." (Tracey Allen)
Chasing the Sun
A twisted tale about Feng Shui, vampires, drinking, pet psychiatry, genocide, belief and mortality...
Read a free extract from the book
Buy the book - available from your favourite bookstore
Buy the eBook