truecrime
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- €3.99
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- €3.99
Publisher Description
It's thirty years since Harry Starks and his gang kept the underworld of Soho under control but the consequences of their brutal reign are still being felt. Julie McCluskey, the actress daughter of one of Starks' victims, has grown up without a father and now that she's discovered it was money from her father's murderers that put her through drama school, she's furious. Furious with her mother for accepting it, but even more furious with Harry Starks - and she's decided she wants revenge. Tony Meehan, journalist and part-time murderer ('I've only killed three') has added another occupation to his list: he's ghostwriting the autobiography of one of the Bullion Job (Brinks Mat) gang, a robbery in which Starks was also involved, and the gold's still missing. And then there's Gaz, who worked for Starks' rival Beardsley in the 80s and is now running bouncers, taking too many drugs, and playing a very dangerous game. Moving his focus on to the greedy 80s and the rave scene of the 90s, Arnott delivers another hard-edged, riveting, brilliant novel that will delight his many admirers and win him more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Talk about antiheroes: the three narrators of this novel of London's gritty underworld are set on murder, revenge and larceny. Tony Meehan is a washed-up crime journalist currently ghosting the memoir of Eddie Doyle, "ewel thief, bank robber, known associate of most of the major gangland faces," who's just out of prison after serving time for his role in a heist of 15 million in gold, most of which was never recovered. Julie McClusky, the daughter of a murdered gangster, has become a middle-class actress but she's also searching for her father's killer under the guise of working on her boyfriend's movie about London criminals. Shady businessman Gary "Gaz" Kelly has always modeled himself on "illains and gangsters. The Kray Twins. Harry Starks. Flash bastards. Legends." Unlike the Kray Twins, Harry Starks is Abbott's creation (last seen in 2001's Long Firm); he's the supposed mastermind of the bullion theft, the possible key to the whereabouts of the gold and Julia's number one suspect. When Starks is spotted at Ronnie Kray's funeral, the search for him begins in earnest, and that search, as well as the crimes uncovered in its wake and committed during its progress, dominate the rest of the book. Arnott's plotting is intricate and his prose hard-edged, made more so by his atmospheric use of Cockney and slang and his close-up look at frightening but human villains.
