The Gun Seller, a review

Joe March

Lang. Thomas Lang. He's the titular hero of Hugh Laurie's latest manifestation of inspired lunacy, The Gun Seller. Except, he's not suave like Bond; in fact, he's rather shaken, not stirred by the gargantuan tasks that lay before him. He is, after all, not some world-class spy but onlymerelyjust an ex-army officer from the Scots Guards. How can a lonely, luckless-in-love drifter like him be expected to infiltrate a terrorist group, foil the CIA's plans to neutralize said terrorists live on CNN, bring to halt an unsavoury arms dealer supplying those helicopters to the CIA, and still maybe get the girl? Well, by wielding a most potent weapon: himself, as it turns out. But before he's able to take things into his own hands, he's unable to veer very clear of his own expiration date. And along the way on his globetrotting exploits, he falls in love (natch). Never before have guns and guffaws come together and gone down as smoothly as they do here. A tonic of a page turner thagallops along at a clip guaranteed to keep even the "no attention span" set rivetted. A thoroughly researched and compelling thriller plausible enough to momentarily suspend the chuckles it so unflaggingly induces, The Gun Seller is a high-octane blend of smirks and chills that's sure to please those who love a laugh, intrigue-a-holics and contemporary media watchers alike... well, that pretty much covers everybody. The Gun Seller is an assuredly engaging and assiduously funny debut novel in the tradition of... well, in the tradition of the singular Hugh Laurie. A uniquely smashing entertainment. Hugh Laurie, the shorter one of the BBC's comic duo Fry & Laurie, is clearly aiming here, with his inaugural solo flight as a novelist, to knock former friend Stephen Fry off his pedestal/throne-high horse as the funniest best-selling English author alive. Having appeared in altogether too many ways together (A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Blackadder, Jeeves and Wooster, Peter's Friends) and too many forms (television, books, film), and Laurie's brain being of a most curious shape to begin with, he's decided to wing it alone with this novel-writing gig, making damn sure all the while that he remains just as sharp and outrageous and hilarious as he was in tandem with that other guy. He most recently appeared in human guise in "Sense and Sensibility" and is now appearing with a bunch of dogs in "101Dalmatians".

View Hugh

Our regular feature on where to catch Hugh... 101 Dalmatians: Hugh is currently featured in Disney's live-action remake of this classic. Our next issue will feature a review of Hugh's turn as an evil henchman! Tracey Takes On: Hugh co-starred in this 1996 Home Box Office series
with Tracey Ullman in a segment of Royalty episode. Murder Most Horrid: Hugh plays husband to Dawn French in "The Body Politic" as a politician who's turned to a life of
crime.

Hugh Contest: The Finale!

As you recall, TICLE sponsored a trivia contest in which you, as a member, could win your very own slobber-free copy of Hugh's first novel, The Gun Seller. Well, after all this time, we do indeed have not one, but two winners! They are: * Julie D'Angelo of Santa Clara, CA, USA. * Kim Bjarkman, of Lafayette, IN, USA. Congratulations to the both of you and your books are winding their way thru the Canadian postal system as we speak! For those of you who would like to receive a copy of the contest and or answers just for the sheer thrill of it all, just e-mail one of us above and we'll get them your way. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. We hope to do it again really soon. A special thanks goes out to Joe March at McClelland and Stewart Publishing for their generous donation to our contest.

In the next Laurieate... While we here at TICLE love nothing more than to write endless tomes to the glory of Hugh, we are eager to here from you, the members. If you've got
something you'd like to say about Hugh, his work, his loveliness, please feel free to send your submission to any of us. If there are any questions about Hugh you'd like answered, please send them, again, to any of us and we'll get on the case for you asap! At any rate, in our
next edition, look for a review of 101 Dalmatians and some juicy insider information on Mr. Laurie that you'll only read about in The Laurieate!