Poland-based British author Brazill is one of the leading lights of a burgeoning independent crime publishing landscape in which he has been a prolific pen as well as nurturing editor. This short novel is an expansion of a popular short story and its title places it right at the centre of the hardboiled genre. Foul mouthed, fast and furious, at times even comic, this is Lock Stock and Barrel fiction without the annoyingly tongue in cheeck nature of the movies. When a kingpin London gangster despatches his clumsy acolytes to retrieve a briefcase of goodies sent down from the North, bodies are soon littering the landscape and the hapless goons end up in drag robbing a jeweller's. And this only the beginning. Enjoyable mayhem.
When London gangster Mad Tony Cook gives aging thugs Big Jim and Kenny Rogan the simple task of collecting a briefcase from northern courier Half- Pint Harry he doesn’t suspect that the courier will end up dead in his lock-up or that Kenny and Big Jim will then dress up in drag to rob a jeweler's shop and lose the coveted briefcase. A fast-moving, wild and hilarious search for the missing briefcase quickly ensues, with fatal consequences. Guns Of Brixton is a foul-mouthed and violently comic crime caper that is choc-full of gaudy characters and dialogue sharp enough to shave with.
Paul D. Brazill is the author of A Case Of Noir, Guns Of Brixton and Roman Dalton - Werewolf PI. He was born in Hartlepool, England and lives in Bydgoszcz, Poland. His writing has been translated into Italian and Slovene and has been published in various magazines and anthologies, including The Mammoth Books of Best British Crime 8, 10 and 11.
