Sweet Jimmy by Bryan Brown

Publisher's Synopsis

Phil and Sweet Jimmy are cousins. Phil grows orchids . . . spider orchids . . . learnt about them in the nick. Jimmy likes orchids, too, but there are other things he likes even more . . .

Trish Bennett didn't like her life. Hadn't liked it for a long time. Been on the streets. Bit of this for a bit of that. The 'that' wasn't always nice. Then Ahmed found her.

Sam is a tea-leaf, a thief. Likes nickin. . . anything . . . always has . . . until the day he knocked off more than the Volvo.

Fell for the sexy and beautiful Sue May from Hong Kong, Frank Testy did. Silly old prick. What price for ego? A huge bloody price it turns out.

Taut and crackling with character, these gritty, raw and sometimes very funny stories from Australian great Bryan Brown are Aussie Noir at its best. Crime doesn't discriminate . . . it can happen to anyone . . . it could happen to you . . . in any ordinary suburb . . . at any time.

Review: Sweet Jimmy by Bryan Brown 

Bryan Brown has been on our screens, either big or small, for decades in major motion pictures and mini-series. So the guy knows all about story-telling. We know he can act out a part. And now, with the release of Sweet Jimmy, we also know he can write a darn good crime story or, should I say, a bunch of them.

The book consists of seven short stories, each with an underlying theme of revenge. The first and last of the stories feature brothers Johnny and Jimmy, a couple of thieves who also work day jobs as a plumber and an electrician. In between are a diverse collection of stinging stories.

Brown’s style is clipped and succinct creating a taut narrative that snaps out with a rapidfire delivery. It is immediately engaging and is completely appropriate for the tough and intense nature of the stories.

The seven short stories cover the gamut of the crime world from burglars, drug runners, serial killers, bashings, betrayal and various other lowlife activities. We also meet a diverse range of lowlifes, some of whom get what they deserve. They are all told from an unusually insightful perspective and manage to spring the unexpected on an unwary reader.

The short stories plus a brief summary of each are as follows:

Boys Will Be Killers - the story introduces us to Phil and his cousins Johnny and Jimmy. Phil is a thief and ends up doing time in gaol so sends a warning to his cousins not to follow in his footsteps. It’s a warning they choose to ignore.

The Tealeaf - Sam can’t help himself, he loves “nickin’ things”. So when a guy jumps out of a car and heads inside a house, leaving the car running, Sam nicks it only to find he has brought a whole world of problems down on himself.

A Time To Do - Frank was set up as an unknowing drug mule and ended up serving prison time for it. Now he wants to know who set him up so he can get his own justice.

Nightmare - this is a story about an ill-fated trip to the US by an Australian couple. They get themselves into money troubles and meet up with a man who turns out to be part of a criminal organisation that turns their life into a…well, a nightmare.

Be Not Afraid - a father attempts to understand the reason for his daughter’s death, apparently by suicide. His personal investigation takes him on a harrowing ride into Hannah’s life leading up to her death before he takes matters into his own hands.

Vigilante - Ahmed and Joe were once undercover cops, but sometimes living the undercover life can drag you down into that world. Ahmed ended up doing time in prison and came out a changed man.

Sweet Jimmy - we return to the brothers from the first story, Johnny and Jimmy. Snippets of facts from the earlier ‘Boys Will Be Killers’ come back to be an extremely important factor to how this one plays out. A fitting end to a fine collection.

But, as mentioned at the top, the stories are heavy on the vengeance theme, either as motivation to commit a crime or in retaliation for one.

As a reader who enjoys the classic hardboiled crime novels of Jim Thompson and the like, Sweet Jimmy really resonates. The dialogue is tough and coarsely punctuated with foul language as would be reasonably expected of the characters involved.

In short, Bryan Brown has hit the nail directly on the head and demonstrated a further impressive string to his bow.

The book has been short-listed for the 2022 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel.