Frank Limosin could scarcely afford to change the flat on Suki Flood’s fire red Trans Am. But Frank Limosin took great delight in instructing this 18-year-old "unreal Pepsi girl" in the art of automobile maintenance.

The self-same Frank Limosin who, having thieved a truck-load of high-quality industrial bearings, planned on laying low in the shadow of the De Baca mountains with a pile of Stephen Kings and $77,000.

But Suki’s limited skill behind a wheel forces the two together again, and it’s no help that those pursuing her across the New Mexico desert are far more zealous in their work than the police. The illiterate Suki Flood has tattooed her brilliant con-man paramour Mink with the word ‘CROK’ and stolen more money than Frank can shake an industrial bearing at. And Mink, a boy far too close to his mother for it to be healthy, has decreed she should die -- and die as painfully slowly as only a human being can.

As a career ambition Robert Leininger wants to be Dutch Leonard. With this, his debut novel, he proves that laudable motive does not a master make. This is a thriller, a chase, flawed heroes (the author gives both Frank and Suki reason enough to justify a criminal past) hunted down with sadistic amusement by the vengeful Mink. It has its fair share of endearing heavies - the Laurel and Hardy double-act of Mote and Jersey -- and a sizeable quota of gleeful violence (not least Mink’s winceable variation on Chinese water torture).

Problem is that having established a tone, Leininger plays it for all he’s worth. The result leaves his reader constantly expecting contrast, some diversion from this pursuit that never comes. Moreover, pushed to 300 pages plus, one-note wears on the attention, the final (and inevitable) show-down between chaser and chased a long time coming. Frank’s troubles (admittedly small fry in comparison) are all but forgotten in the scramble.

This first British publication (from the enormously useful No Exit) carries a legend comparing Killing Suki Flood to a powerful blend of not just Uncle Elmore, but Silence of the Lambs and Thelma and Louise. If anyone from the publishers could explain it might justify an analogy that does their author no favours.

Comparing other young Turks like Laurence Shames or Doug J. Swanson or Michael Corvino, shows Leininger still has a lot to learn. The problem, fortunately, is pacing rather than his snappy characters and that well-turned rap, enough perhaps to suggest he’s in this for the long haul. He will do much better than this.