The effervescent Martina Cole has established a new genre of empowered, strong female-led crime books that has taken her to the top of the bestseller liosts, but she is also one of the best chroniclers of modern London and its suburbs and much of the reason for her success is the way the places she writes about are familiar to her readers. Timlin effortlessly pulls off the same trick with his fast-paced tales of South London gangsters and families, and also happens to be a friend of Martina’s!
Recommended:
Martina Cole - HARD GIRLS. A retired policewoman returns to the fray to assist a younger colleague, following the discovery of a young woman’s mutilated body. The challenges that face the duo prove tough and uncompromising. Realistic, gritty and believable.
Mark Timlin - GUNS OF BRIXTON. Best known for his Nick Sharman capers, this is Timlin’s major stand-alone novel, a tough saga of South London families, of cops and villains and loves lost and violence and lives broken. Never less than gripping and a veritable page-turner.
THEN: Once upon a time in south London, three young men without a future decide to invent their own. The Sixties are starting to swing and Jimmy, John and Billy want it all: the clothes, the pills, the music and the women. Through drugs, protection and armed robbery, they start building their crime empire; everything they've always dreamed about is within their grasp. But then Billy changes sides and becomes a cop...and finds that his days are numbered. NOW: Billy's son, Mark, is working for John Jenner and waiting for the day when his father's killer gets out of prison. It's any time now and Mark is determined to be there when the doors swing open. An epic novel spanning forty years of love, life and villainy, Guns of Brixton is a major tour de force from an author at the peak of his powers.
In over twenty years as an author, Mark Timlin has written some thirty novels under many different names, including best selling books as Lee Martin, innumerable short stories, an anthology and numerous articles on diverse subjects for various newspapers and magazines.
He has made a few friends, many enemies, of whom he is most proud, and drank a good few bars dry. His serial hero, Nick Sharman, who appears in Stay Another Day, has featured in a Carlton TV series, starring Clive Owen, before he went on to become a Hollywood superstar.
Mark lives in a Docklands penthouse with a panoramic view across the River Thames of his beloved south London. He drives a massive Lincoln Town car, collects old vinyl, crime novels, music magazines, while watching far too much daytime TV and DVD box sets.
