One Man's Opinion: CUTTHROAT by PAUL HEATLEY

John lives in a small house that has nothing in it, bar the absolute essentials and his boss's wife, Mary. She likes to get under the covers with her lover, a Geordie who has appeared on the scene from nowhere like some mythical beast, whenever she can. He's big and hard and scared of nobody.

There’s a job on soon and the tensions are mounting. Mary’s husband gathers his crew and warns them to keep a low profile. John isn’t one who finds that easy to do. He goes out with his mate and ends up in a bar brawl that gets terribly out of hand (no pun intended). A quick visit to the local underworld doctor and things are back to normal. Well, almost normal. The driver for the heist is now incapacitated and Jock is brought into the team by Mary’s father who oversees everything.  Jock and John are cut from the same kilt and their testosterone and pride ensure that there’s an edge between them that could only be settled in a fight to work out who is the top dog.

The ripples caused by the tensions within the group soon turn into waves when not everyone is happy with the outcome of the job. To complicate things further, we soon realise that the main motivation for the whole thing has been something else entirely. Revenge becomes the new thrust of the story and we know that there’s going to be nowhere to hide. For some of those involved, the world is about to come crashing down with fists of thunder and not all of them are going to be able to survive the pounding.

I really enjoyed this read. The prose is stripped bare just like John’s flat. The characters feel very genuine and their motivations are rooted in their histories as much as in their circumstances. There’s an edge of menace throughout and when action is called for, it’s as strong and powerful as those involved. The Newcastle setting really works and there’s a terrific seventies feel which is all the more authentic because the detail is kept to a minimum. I also liked the way the dialect comes through in the conversation – it might take a while for some to get used to, but the meaning is always clear.

My only reservation comes in relation to the structure. We begin in 1978, shift back to a couple of years earlier and then back to 1978 to where the opening left off. The first difficulty I had with this is one relating to my memory (mine isn’t great) and I found myself rushing back to the start to remind myself when it was set (sure, it was clear, but I don’t think I registered it at the time and just placed it in the seventies). The second is that it was so well put together that a lot of the middle section adds a layer of back-story that I don’t feel was entirely necessary. I’d like to read it again and simply go with the opening and final parts to see if that would work alone – I reckon it would stand up nicely and.

The ending here is as satisfying as it was unexpected. Its a perfect fit and somewhere lurking amidst the surprise and the elements of disappointment was a pleasing burst of triumph.

Cutthroat(US)is top quality noir fiction of the Brit Grit variety. Sparse, dark, tense and action-packed, there are no heroes, no frills and no dull moments. Another belter from All Due Respect - put it to the top of your list.

One Man's Opinion: The EMPTY HOURS by ED McBAIN

The Empty Hours consists of three stories featuring the usual cast from the 87th Precinct. As the development of plot and character are important within the series, a part of me was concerned that the shorter works might not grab me in the usual way. I can say with total conviction that I needn't have worried. Each morsel is more a substantial meal than a snack. In many ways this is because the characters are so well-formed from their other outings that they don't need to be expanded, so the cases become more central to the enjoyment. Having said that, if this was your first encounter with either Carella or Myer or Hawes, I think you'd still feel totally satisfied by this collection. 

The Empty Hours tells of a wealthy loner who turns up dead in her apartment. The case leads the detectives to a boating accident and a safe-deposit box and there's plenty of gratification to be found if you like to work things out just before the detectives because of  McBain's excellent navigation. 

J involves the murder of a Rabbi spattered in paint and left to die below the graffiti of the letter in the title. It takes the detectives into the word of anti-Semites and racist thugs and has Meyer thinking about his own Jewishness.

Storm sees our loveable giant, Cotton Hawes, the man who had a Mallen streak long before Catherine Cookson got there taking a beautiful dancer up the mountains for the weekend and winding up becoming involved in a murder when a young instructor is stabbed with a ski pole. This one's a particularly atmospheric piece and the conflict between the big city detective and the local sheriff is a treat. 

I loved each of these. They're long enough to give a lot of satisfaction and short enough to get through them at a pace. Having finished them, I'm hoping that I'll come across more of a similar length in due course. The first story is strong, the second better still and the best is saved till last.

Terrific stuff and a great reminder that small really can be very beautiful indeed.   

More information and fun can be found at the excellent Hark podcast here. 

One Man's Opinion: LADY, LADY, I DID IT by ED McBAIN

This one opens with some horseplay at the station. The detectives are pulling Kling’s leg about receiving a call at the station from his fiancée. Though it’s no crime to be in love, they make him feel as though it might be. Regardless, he manages to arrange their date for later on and he’s particularly excited because of the revelation about her new bra, teasingly named Abundance.

‘Abundance’ is the final word he hears her say, for the next time he gets to see Claire, she’ll be the victim of a shooting in a local bookstore. Steve Carella and Kling take the call. There are three dead and two wounded. Kling walks into the back of the shop to see a lady sprawled before him. It slowly dawns on him that she’s the lady he was having a conversation with in the squad room, the lady who just happened to be the love of his life.

It’s a hugely charged and emotional moment for the reader. There’s been an uneasy sense that something is about to go wrong from the off. For those of us who’ve been reading in order, there’s the double whammy of a shared history. When we met Kling, we also met Claire. It wasn’t an easy start for them as a couple, but I was willing them along back then. As Kling falls apart, he takes us back to those early days and reminds us of their beginnings. The lump in my throat was big as an ostrich egg.

To balance the sadness, there’s the beauty of the 87^th. The whole squad come together. The file in the office is labelled the Kling case. Patrolmen and detectives alike rally round, keeping ears open and focussing on the bookshop murders while everything else takes a back seat. It’s moving to observe and, because these are old friends rather than just fictional characters, it’s wonderful to behold.

Carella and Meyer lead this one, but Kling insists on doing the work. He pulled the call, after all, and has every right to do so. Problem is, the way the investigation is carried out there’s an assumption that the killer was after one of the victims. In order to pursue the case, each of them needs to be investigated in turn and it might be that any guilty secrets in Claire's life will be exposed in the process. 

The layers are peeled away with great craft. Each becomes a story in its own right, though not all of them add anything to the investigation.  

I loved it for many different reasons. It felt personal. The cops deserve a break. Whatever Claire has been hiding, we know she did it for the best of reasons. Each set piece is a treat (take Claire's father's reaction as a prime example). By the time we come to the end of the story, the killer has almost been forgotten, but when the threads are taken up for one last push, the knots re tied perfectly.

A top-notch crime story that I reckon will have any fan of fiction hooked.

 This one was published in 1961. Some of the language and terminology reflects that and I find it easy to get along with it because of the sentiments at its core. I was struck in this one by a passage about Detective Brown.  Remember that it was almost sixty years ago and then consider what’s changed.

“He turned on the radio very softly and listened to the news broadcast as he shaved. Race riots in the Congo. Sit-in demonstrations in the South. Apartheid in South Africa.

He wondered why he was black.

He often wondered this. He wondered it idly, and with no real conviction that he was black. That was the strange part of it. When Arthur Brown looked in the mirror, he saw only himself. Now he knew he was a Negro, yes. But he was also a Democrat, and a detective, and a husband, and a father and he read The New York Times – he was a lot of things, and so he wondered why he was black. He wondered why, being this variety of things besides being black, people would look at him and see Arthur Brown, Negro – and not Arthur Brown, detective, or Arthur Brown, husband, or any of the other Arthur Browns who had nothing to do with the fact that he was black. This was not a simple concept, and Brown did not equate it in simple Shakespearean-Shylock terms, which the world had long outgrown.

When Brown looked into the mirror, he saw a person.

It was the world who had decided that this man was a black man. 

Being this person was an extremely difficult thing, because it meant living a life the world had decided upon, and not the life he – Arthur Brown – would particularly have chosen. He, Arthur Brown, did not see a black man or a white man or a yellow man or a chartreuse man when he looked into the mirror.

He saw Arthur Brown.

He saw himself.

But superimposed upon this image of himself was the external concept of black man-white man, a concept which existed and which Brown was forced to accept. He became a person playing a complicated role. He looked at himself and saw Arthur Brown, Man. That’s all he wanted to be. He had no desire to be white. In fact, he rather liked the warm, burnished colour of his own skin. He had no desire to go to bed with a creamy-skinned blonde. He had heard coloured friends of his state that white men had bigger sex organs than Negroes, but he didn’t believe it, and he felt no envy. He had encountered prejudice in a hundred and one subtle and unsubtle ways from the moment he was old enough to understand what was being said and done around him, but the intolerance never left him feeling angry, it only confused him.

You see, he thought, I am me, Arthur Brown. Now what is all this white man-black man crap? I don’t understand what you want me to be. You are saying I’m a Negro, you are telling me this is so, but I don’t know what Negro means. I don’t know that this whole discussion is all about. What do you want from me exactly? If I say, why yes, that’s right, I’m a Negro, well then what? What the hell is it you want? That’s what I’d like to know. Arthur Brown finished shaving, rinsed his face, and looked into the mirror.

As usual, he saw himself.”

Sixty years ago. My word.

Lady, Lady, I Did It.

Mr McBain, you certainly did.  

And if you need another opinion, why not check out Hark the 87th Precinct Podcast here? 

One Man's Opinion: SEVERANCE PACKAGE by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI

Severance Package (US) is bonkers. Seriously. I can’t recall
reading anything that’s taken its premise to such extremes.

So bonkers is good, right?

Absolutely. Somehow, by the skin of his teeth, Duane Swierczynski
pulls this one off to leave an exciting read that entertains and satisfies.

How to describe it? Imagine a Formula One driver who only
needs one more victory to snatch the title from an old rival. There’s one more bend to get round and the driver’s lagging in second. All they can do is floor it, take the curve, hope nature is on their side and pray. The force is immense, the driver nearly flies off the track, but manages with a final turn of the wheel to keep control and take the chequered flag to become the new champion of the world.

Told you it was bonkers.

I could put it another way.

Molly Lewis is called in to work for a meeting on a Saturday
morning. She gets up and dressed, then kills her husband with a bowl of potato salad.

The meeting, called by boss David, is on the thirty-sixth
floor of a Philadelphia office block.

When everyone who’s going to make it is in the room, David
explains that everyone is going to die. It’s in the national interest and is just one of those things that happens when you’re working for the secret service. The best way to do it is to take the easy way out- mix a glass of Champagne and orange juice, each containing a poison that would work in combination to offer a pain-free death.

For those not willing to choose their options, there’s no
way of escape. All doors have been booby-trapped with Sarin and there are explosive devices everywhere.

The six employees all react to the situation in different
ways. They’re all highly-skilled operatives in one form or another and giving in isn’t an option. If they could work as a team, things might be easy, only one of them is not who they seem and the personalities clash like titans.

Basically, this if office politics at its highest pitch.

While the employees battle it out for survival, two agents
watch from afar. An American and a Scot watch the Philadelphia antics unfold, backing their favourites and watching them crossed off the list through the grizzly action before them.

I guess the reason it almost spins too far is that it’s difficult to see the people you’re rooting for being bumped off one by one. As
each is sent to their wonderfully creative ending, the emotional investment lessens by a degree. Not that it should really matter. This is high rise, high octane, high adrenaline drama for the action junkie.

Apart from being a terrific read, it’s also a beautiful object. There are some books that feel great in your hands and this is one of
them. Silky smooth, malleable and illustrated at regular intervals with art work I’d happily hang on my wall. What more could you ask for?

NOIR FROM THE BAR (a charity antholgy)

ALL PROFITS FROM THIS TITLE WILL BE DONATED TO NHS CHARITIES

UK      US

This anthology, consisting of 30 stories by crime and mystery writers from all over the world has been conceived, created, and published in a month.

All stories have been donated free-of-charge by the authors, with the vast majority of them written specifically for this very special book. Originating from Virtual Noir at the Bar, a weekly online gathering where authors — best sellers, award winners and up-and-coming — join together to read sections live from their works to the public, the organisers of that event put the word out to writers who had appeared to submit a story to help raise funds for NHS charities. The result is this book. Inside you’ll find short pieces that have nothing in common other than their quality and a general tale-from-the-bar theme.

So whatever sort of crime and mystery fiction you enjoy, you’ll find something to appeal:

• Locked room mysteries
• Gritty noir
• Cozy capers
• Psychological thrillers
• Twist-in-the-tales
• Revenge dramas
• Shocking shorts
• Longer dramas to savour

With combined sales of more than three million books and awards galore, you’ll find familiar names and new finds within.

Support NHS charities and treat yourself by reading this exceptional collection. 

Full list of authors included in this anthology:

Suzy Aspley, Alison Belsham (The Tattoo Thief (Sullivan and Mullins)), Simon Bewick (You Could Make a Killing), Sharon Bolton (the Lacey Flint series), Neil Broadfoot (the Connor Fraser series), Philippa East (Little White Lies), Ashley Erwin (A Ballad Concerning Black Betty or the Retelling of a Man Killer and her Machete), Derek Farrell (The Danny Bird Mysteries), Margaret Kirk (the DI Lukas Mahler series), Neil Lancaster (The Tom Novak series), Louise Mangos (Strangers on a Bridge), Danny Marshall, Chris McDonald (A Wash of Black), Kirsten McKenzie (The Old Curiosity Shop series), Effie Merryl, Phoebe Morgan (The Doll House), KC Murdarasi (Office Life (and Death)), Rob Parker (The Ben Bracken series), Robert Scragg (The Porter & Styles series), Zoe Sharp (the Charlie Fox series), Sara Sheridan (the Mirabelle Bevan series), Dave Sivers (the DI Nathan Quarrel and Archer & Baines series), Graham Smith (the Jake Boulder series), DC Smith, Eve Smith (The Waiting Rooms), Martyn Taylor (The Price of Everything), David Turton (The Malaise), Fiona Veitch Smith (The Poppy Denby Investigates series), Roz Watkins (The DI Meg Dalton series) and Olga Wojtas (The Miss Blaine’s Prefect series).

More details of how you can join, free of charge, future Virtual Noir at the Bar events are included in the book.

Paperback available here.

One Man's Opinion: ED'S DEAD by RUSSEL D McLEAN

The last thing I expected to happen when I had lots of time on my hands is that my concentration would fragment so much that focussing on stories would be difficult to manage. And it hasn’t just been the concentration either - the will to pick up a book also faded during the early days of lockdown. I’ve had a similar experience with writing, but at least over the Easter holiday I managed to find the self-discipline to sit and type and my next novel is beginning to take shape.

My problem with reading made choice of book quite tricky. Anything too dark was out of the question – there’s enough bleakness out there (and in here) already – and I wasn’t in the mood for anything too light and entertaining. 


In the end, I think I made a wise choice when I plumped for Russel D McLean’s Ed’s Dead (US).


I first came across this one at a Noir At The Bar in Edinburgh (more on this later) when he read an early chapter that had me looking forward to buying a copy on publication. I did just that, but because it was on my kindle, it became camouflaged in that virtual bookshelf as so many titles do. When struggling something to find a lockdown-friendly read, this seemed ideal. 


Jen Carter, our protagonist, hasn’t lived up to any of her ideas about herself. She’s prone to settling for the easy option. Instead of writing her novel, she’s selling the books of others; instead of having a loving and responsible boyfriend, she’s got Ed; and instead of dumping him for good, she kills him.

True, the murder isn’t premeditated, but that’s beside the point. She has a body on her hands and has no idea what to do with it. 


Enter Ed’s flatmate. He knows exactly how to handle the situation. Not just with the corpse, but the bag of cash and the huge stash of drugs. He enters like an overweight, less attractive Harvey Keitel, ready to clean up the mess and improve his own life in the process. 


Neither Jen nor Ed’s flatmate have heard of the adage if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. The drugs and money haven’t dropped from heaven. Ed had siphoned them off from the last of the city’s old-school gangsters. Needless to say, he wants to get his hands on what’s his and will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal.


The only positive that’s going to come from what unfolds before us is that Jen finally finds something she’s really good at: murder. 


From the outset, this one’s lots of fun. Ed’s death sets of a chain reaction that blows Jen’s ordinary life to smithereens. She’s being chased by the police and some seriously twisted lowlifes and finds herself stuck between a rock, a hard place and psychopath. She finds inner strength she never knew she had and has to be quick witted and ready for anything just to survive. 


The escapade is tense, exciting and underpinned with a dark humour that adds texture and shade to the developments. The characters feel very real as does the build-up of the nightmare. McLean does a great job of creating cliff-hanger endings for each chapter which accelerates the pace at every step, and the gripping action and ever-rising stakes keep this enjoyable throughout. 

Perfect for the current situation and likely perfect for a future date when things settle down for us all. 
It's not a book that will have you asking lots of questions about your life or the meaning of it all, which is absolutely fine by me. Sometimes you've just got to sit back and enjoy the ride and you know you can relax when RDM's in the driving seat. 
  

And I mentioned Noir At The Bar earlier on. They’re planning some quality events to help you keep your spirits up and you can sign in for updates here.

New From Paul D Brazill (you know you want to)

Ageing hit-man Tommy Bennett left London and returned to his hometown of Seatown, hoping for respite from the ghosts of the violent past that haunted him. However, things don’t go to plan and trouble and violence soon follow Tommy to Seatown. Tommy is soon embroiled in Seatown’s underworld and his hopes of a peaceful retirement are dashed. Tommy deliberates whether or not to leave Seatown and return to London. Or even leave Great Britain altogether. So, he heads back to London where violence and mayhem await him.

Man of the World is a violent and darkly comic slice of Brit Grit noir.

Praise for the Books by Paul D. Brazill:

“If you took Ken Bruen’s candor, the best of Elmore Leonard’s dialogues, sprinkled in some Irvine Welsh, and dragged it all through the dirtiest ditch in South London, the result will be something akin to Brazill’s writing.” —Gabino Iglesias, author of Zero Saints and Gutmouth, for The Last Laugh

“A broad range of cultural strands come together in the melting pot and form a delicious stew of criminal adventure… The observations are sharp and the characters create small nuclear explosions as they collide with each other.” —Nigel Bird, author of Southsiders, for The Last Laugh

“Brazill offers a series of amusing episodes filled with breezy banter in this offbeat slice of British noir.” —Publishers Weekly, for Last Year’s Man

“It’s all here, everything you’ve come to expect from a Paul D. Brazill caper—the fast pace, the witty banter, the grim humour and the classic tunes—except this time he’s REALLY outdone himself. Unlike the lament in the song the title takes its name from, Paul’s best years are surely still ahead of him.” —Paul Heatley, author of Fatboy, for Last Year’s Man

“Paul D. Brazill is the Crown Prince of Noir. That’s my opinion, granted, but I stand by it. For those who require proof, just pick up his latest novel, Last Year’s Man, and it will be clear why I make that statement. All hail the crown prince!” —Les Edgerton, author of The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping, Just Like That and others

“Brazill is brilliant, a unique voice which stands out from the crowd.” —Keith Nixon, author of the Solomon Gray books, for Last Year’s Man

MAN OF THE WORLD by Paul D. Brazill — Published by All Due Respect, an imprint of Down & Out Books (April 2020)

• Amazon — Trade Paperback | eBook
• Amazon UK — Trade Paperback | eBook
• Barnes & Noble — Trade Paperback | eBook
• IndieBound — Trade Paperback
• iTunes — eBook
• Kobo — eBook
• Play — eBook