Today it's my turnon the BlogTour Loot & I'm with the Band by Barry Faulkner. This is book 3 and Cases 5 and 6 in the DCS Palmer and the Serial Murder Squad series.
Faulkner was born into a family of petty criminals in Herne Hill, South London, his father, uncle and elder brothers running with the notorious Richardson gang in the 60s-80s, and at this point we must point out that he did not follow in that family tradition although the characters he met and their escapades he witnessed have added a certain authenticity to his books. He attended the first ever comprehensive school in the UK, William Penn in Peckham and East Dulwich, where he attained no academic qualifications other than GCE ‘O’ level in Art and English and a Prefect’s badge (though some say he stole all three!)
His mother was a fashion model and had great theatrical aspirations for young Faulkner and pushed him into auditioning for the Morley Academy of Dramatic Art at the Elephant and Castle, where he was accepted but only lasted three months before being asked to leave as no visible talent had surfaced. Mind you, during his time at the Academy he was called to audition for the National Youth Theatre by Trevor Nunn – fifty years later, he’s still waiting for the call back!
His early writing career was as a copywriter with the major US advertising agency Erwin Wasey Ruthrauff & Ryan in Paddington during which time he got lucky with some light entertainment scripts sent to the BBC and Independent Television and became a script editor and writer on a freelance basis. He worked on most of the LE shows of the 1980-90s and as personal writer to Bob Monkhouse, Tom O’Connor and others. During that period, while living out of a suitcase in UK hotels for a lot of the time, he filled many notebooks with DCS Palmer case plots and in 2016 he finally found time to start putting them in order and into book form. nine are finished and published so far, with number 10 at the editors.
Faulkner is a popular speaker and often to be found on Crime Panels at Literary Festivals which he embraces and supports wholeheartedly. He has recently been seen on screen in the Channel 5 Narcos UK series, Episode 2 The London Gangs and his DCS Palmer book ‘I’m With The Band’ has just been serialised in 16 parts by BBC Radio Bristol. He has been a subject of Corinium Radio’s Writer’s Room programme, Manchester FM’s Hannah Kate Book show, Hawkesbury Upton Lit. Festival ‘Best of British’ panel, Evesham Festival of Words Crime Panel and Bristol Crime Fest Indie Author Panel amongst others
Faulkner is a member of ALLI (Alliance of Independent Authors) and publishes a blog about the ‘geezers’ of his youth, the criminals and their heists. It goes in depth about the Krays, Brinks Mat, Hatton Garden ‘Nipper’ Read and all the other major heists and who ‘dun ‘em’. Take a look at geezers2016.wordpress.com
He also speaks about that era in illustrated talks for social clubs, WI and others. As a crime writer Faulkner is quite particular about ‘getting it right’ and as well as his own Facebook page he publishes a page called ‘UK Crime Readers and Writers Page’ which has lots of information about the forensic crime detection methods, police procedurals and other facts of use to both reader and writer of crime and detective books. Faulkner now lives in the glorious Forest of Dean with his wife and three dogs
About the book - Loot
Two bodies turn up, one in London and one in Brighton but both are in similar bags. With only this clue to go on the Serial Murder Squad are led through a series of twists and turns involving a villain from DCS Palmer's past, a hoard of Nazi gold, a Member of Parliament and some very feisty females all intent on keeping the gold for themselves. But Palmer has other ideas.
About the book - I'm with the Band
The 70's rock band Revolution are still touring and packing the major venues. But their worried manager asks for help when his band members appear to be being murdered one by one. Palmer is skeptical until the manager himself is killed. The trail leads the Serial Murder Squad into the band's past and the many people who could harbour a long held grudge. It's a needle in a haystack job checking them all out until the killer shows himself on Facebook and defies Palmer to find him before the last band member is murdered
This book contains Case 5 and 6 of the Serial Murder Squad.
Loot - I had to smirk when Palmer and Harry Robson first interacted. The criminal on the path of redemption. Living the life of a good citizen. What a wonderfully cooperative man he has become, right? As soon as Palmer is out the door the real face of Robson makes an appearance. Once a crook always a crook.
It's urban crime with a gangster vibe. The old police vs criminals schtick of prior decades when the sides had a grudging respect for each other, regardless which side they were on. The lines were clear and drawn with a fierce determination. Now times have changed and so has the type of crime and criminal the squad has to deal with.
There is no reluctant admiration for the naughty criminal - it has been replaced by disgust at the lengths some people are willing to go to make a profit nowadays. A new breed of criminal has risen from the ranks of the old guard, and the squad has to adjust their expections in order to deal with them.
I'm with the Band - the band members of a 70s rock band are being picked off one-by-one, at least that is what the manager says, because it just appears to be a coincidence. A series of accidents perhaps? The police aren't really inclined to believe that a very smart killer is at work until the manager proves his own point.
The two stories are quite different. Loot has more of an old school throw you into a river with cement boots kind of feel and I'm with the Band has a more modern criminal psycho killer vibe to it. Faulkner caters to more than one type of crime reader by using the squad to veer off into different sub-genres of crime.
Buy Loot & I'm with the Band at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: BSA Publications; pub date 2 Dec. 2017. Buy at Amazon com.
Read my review of Burning Ambition and Takeaway Terror by Barry Faulkner.
As usual you hit the nail right on the head! Thank you Cheryl. Barry
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