4 Bones Sleeping

The book switches between post-war London and a small market town in Oxfordshire. A London club full of outrageous characters, spivs, extortionists, con-men & ladies of the night. This contrasts starkly with a rural backwater, where it's all wide lawns and narrow minds. The story is narrated by Jack, a clever (too clever) reporter and his relationship with two brothers, Wyn a womanising con-man and Harry, a professional boxer. Teddy Lewis, an unstable racketeer and Shirley, a gorgeous femme fatale. Shirley twists them all this way and that, in the end she proves to be the catalyst for an ending fitting for a bloodthirsty Greek tragedy. This has all of the elements that the discerning thriller reader craves, betrayal, revenge, older men exploiting a beautiful, under-age girl, a murder or two, convoluted plot twists, powerful & credible characters, dialogue that crackles and a gothic romance. This is literary noir at its best.