New Irish crime thriller redresses the balance through an “Even Flow”

Irish journalist and author Darragh McManus mixes influences as diverse as Don De Lillo, Clockwork Orange, The Smiths and Pearl Jam into a cinematic stew

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The front cover for new Irish thriller "Even Flow"

Photo by Darragh McManus

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Steve Ainsworth and Clifford Hudson hang upside-down outside a 32nd storey apartment in New York’s chic Tribeca district. Stripped to their boxer shorts, they are tied at the neck and wrists by frilly women’s underwear.

It’s the night of Steve’s bachelor party. As Clifford, his best man and fellow futures trader, was about to humiliate two call girls into performing a derogatory sexual act to the sound of wild cheering from the frenzied guests, armed vigilantes – the 3W Gang – burst into the apartment. But these are no ordinary criminals: they came to punish Steve and Clifford for their degrading attitude to women.

The dramatic opening scene of Even Flow sets the tone for a provocative new crime thriller by Irish journalist and author, Darragh McManus. Mixing influences as diverse as Don De Lillo and a Clockwork Orange with The Smiths and Pearl Jam into a cinematic stew, Even Flow centers on the 3W Gang’s unconventional tactics to promote their vision of a tolerant society.

“They’re the ‘new man’ in excelsis,” McManus explains. “They’re very feminist, pro-gay rights and very anti-machismo, homophobia and misogyny. They’re the children of movements since the ’60s, like feminism, gay rights, irony and post-modernism. They’re like Germaine Greer crossed with Dirty Harry crossed with Kurt Cobain.”

The members of the 3W Gang take their names from three gay icons – playwright Oscar Wilde, poet Walt Whitman and film director John Waters – and view their bold stunts as responses to society’s ills. They record their crimes in a spoof show they call ‘Karma TV’ and send the tapes to the Network 4 channel for broadcast.

During a tense live transmission with arrogant news anchor Jonathon Bailey, Wilde, the 3W Gang’s spokesman, outlines their philosophy: “It’s science. You know the physics theory: for every action, there must a reaction. Well, we didn’t start this; we’re just reacting. Redressing the balance.”
 
The breathless plot entangles Danny Everard, a gay detective in the middle of a personal crisis who empathises with the 3W Gang’s motives but is equally determined to uphold the law, and Cathy Morrissey, a pragmatic Irish-American, who works as a production manager on Network 4’s news programs and socialises in Doyle’s Pub in the Bronx.

Fittingly, for a novel that evokes the clipped style of Elmore Leonard, Even Flow is marked by its filmic descriptions. In a chapter that explores the media’s lurid approach to news reporting, for example, each scene is introduced with the words “Cut to…”. These aspects of the book partly reflect its genesis.
“I wrote a very rough draft about 10 years,” McManus says. “The idea was burning in my head. Then I reworked it for a script for a competition that was organized by the Academy [of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]. It did really well. A few studios in LA got onto me, but nothing ever came of it.”

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