The Long Firm is first and foremost a highly structured novel. With any novel based around structure, there is a danger of becoming "too clever" (see My Little Blue Dress for a case in point). The Long Firm narrowly avoids that trap but still doesn't quite work.

The book is set in and around Soho of the '60s and '70s and revolves around what is known as the "seedy side". That involves more and less organised crime, police corruption, dodgy clubs etc. This world is wonderfully brought to life, Arnott's writing is very evocative. Without resorting to pages of tedious descriptive prose he manages to conjure up London of the time. The background is blended in to the story with great skill.

I'm too young to know whether the world Arnott describes is authentic, however it's certainly believable. This is helped by references to real life people as background figures, most of whom are mentioned by name. For some reason the character who strongly resembles Kenneth Williams is named "Gerald Wilman".

The main character is Harry Starks, a medium-time gangster who is openly gay (unusual back then), suffers from periods of black depression and has delusions of respectability.

Although the story revolves around Starks we never really get inside his head. He is never the main viewpoint character. This is where the artificial structure comes in.

The Long Firm is written in five distinct chunks. Each is told in the first person by one of Starks' "associates". The only time we hear from Starks himself is in a letter to a newspaper where he is simply taking the piss.

The five viewpoint characters are a rent boy, a member of the House of Lords, a small time gangster, a failed actress and - as the novel moves to its end in the early seventies - a sociology lecturer.

The best of the five is the small time gangster, Jack the Hat. He is a "freelance", a dangerous position to be in. He is permanently bombed on one drug or another and careers through the underworld believing himself to be more important than he really is. Arnott captures the character perfectly, especially his voice. Jack's section is also written in the present tense, a difficult feat that Arnott manages to pull off.

The least successful character is Lenny the sociology lecturer. A degree of humour is present throughout the whole book, usually in knowing irony. With Lenny's section Arnott gives up on any subtlety and we get characters designed to produce belly laughs. Yes it's funny, but it's not consistent with the rest of the book. It would probably have been more effective as light relief in the middle rather than at the end.

Through these five we see Starks. Arnott certainly manages to give us a good second-hand picture of Starks. Unfortunately it always remains second-hand and oblique. None of the characters are emotionally involved with Starks to any great degree, none of them really care for him. This prevents us getting any true depth of understanding of the man - or really caring about him. Ultimately Jack the Hat is more memorable than Harry Starks.

The narrative is also not quite successful. There is a story running through the book, the different sections do relate to each other, however the story is a bit thin. The result is that what starts off as a thoroughly absorbing novel begins to drag about half way through. The drive just isn't there. Switching viewpoint character helps give impetus, but not enough.

Starks' story simply isn't interesting enough. What we are left with is a promising novel that doesn't quite work.

There's no "Rosebud" moment.