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Kill Your Friends

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Kill Your Friends

By: John Niven
Narrated by: Tom Riley
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About this listen

Meet Steven Stelfox.

London, 1997: New Labour is sweeping into power, and Britpop is at its zenith. A&R man Stelfox is slashing and burning his way through the music industry, fuelled by greed and inhuman quantities of cocaine, searching for the next hit record amid a relentless orgy of self-gratification.

But as the hits dry up and the industry begins to change, Stelfox must take the notion of cutthroat business practices to murderous new levels in a desperate attempt to salvage his career.

©2015 John Niven (P)2015 Random House AudioBooks Crime Thrillers Dark Humour Literature & Fiction Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime Funny Witty Scary

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All stars
Most relevant
I've worked in music for 12 years.
This is ALL TRUE. And highly entertaining.
Most of the characters are real and still work in music.

Film bad. Book good.

It's all TRUE

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Not for the faint hearted, crude, rude and insanely funny, far fetched story but kept me listening from start to finish. My first time listening to Tom Riley narrating, absolutely 5 star, he brought the whole thing to life.

Crude, rude & insanely funny

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This is a great listen - chugs along at a good pace which never slackens. Not for the faint hearted, the violence is toe curling at times. Reminded me a lot of American Psycho somehow, the narrator is relentlessly consistent and irredeemable, but somehow by the end I'm not rooting for his downfall, some achievement by the author, because the character is one of the most deeply repugnant I've ever come across. Good stuff.

Wholly satisfactory ranting gore fest

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About 40 odd years ago, Robert Calvert (of Hawkwind fame) wrote a book called Hype, about the lengths a record company will go to break an artist and get a hit. Niven's book is much the same, only funnier and far darker. It probably is a false title as Stelfox has no friends, and is as obnoxious as those that surround him, but he proves that you can murder, lie and blackmail your way to the top. It is also a cautionary tale about the excesses of the music business - a full on assault and thoroughly enjoyable

Over The Top? I Think Not

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I very much enjoyed this book. It's dark and nasty, and references many musical acts that I'm familiar with.

It does, however, leave you feeling dirty. The 'hero' of the tale is a vile human being, and it's certainly not a tale for young ears.

Excellent, but grimy

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