Low Life

Low Life, by Ryan David Jahn, Macmillan RRP£12.99, 304 pages

After Jahn’s clever New York-set Acts of Violence, he now shifts focus to the grim low life of Los Angeles.

Simon Johnson is a loner with a dead-end job, a ratty apartment and a clapped-out Volvo. Attacked by a stranger, he fights back and kills his assailant but chooses not to call the police. Instead, after dumping the corpse in an ice-filled bath, he sets out to discover why his attacker was impersonating him, and plans a new life as his own double.

Low Life is modern noir of the darkest hue and the title also refers to Johnson’s term for the internal life he leads. It’s a state he’ll increasingly question as he adapts to his new identity, which involves fooling his would-be murderer’s wife and chasing phantoms through the night.

Armed with a seat-of-the-pants plot that takes some audacious risks and prose that proves gritty and gruelling, Jahn has produced a thriller with a steely death-grip. I walked into a tree reading it; no greater recommendation needed.