Detectives Beyond Borders Gets The Cold London Blues

At his splendid blog, Peter Rozovsky say:

‘Back in December 2014, I praised Paul Brazill‘s Guns of Brixton for not pretending to be “anything but a comic romp, a kind of high-spirited musical without music, albeit one full of violence, the threat thereof, and all sorts of unpleasant bodily effluvia, whether the result of gun blasts or not.”

I’m not yet finished reading that novel’s follow-up, the brand-new Cold London Blues, but a few snippets suggest that this one will be as much fun as GOB:

“A group of drunken middle-aged men in Manchester United football shirts staggered out of a Thai restaurant shouting racial abuse at an angry looking chef who was chasing them out and wielding a machete.

“‘Ah, Northern scum,’ said Tim. ‘Cultural ambassadors.’

“‘Indeed,’ said Gregor, in the clipped RP English usually only found in 1940s public information films. ‘Unfortunately, at certain times of year, they infest the streets of this great city like lice.’”

and

“Father Tim slammed one of them in the Adam’s apple with his fist and then kicked him in the groin.”

and

“Kamilla grinned and head-butted him.”

Add an occasional jab at Cool Britannia and at noisy cafés, and I feel like I know England even better than I do when I’m there.’

Chris Rhatigan Reviews Cold London Blues

Over at Amazon.com, Chis Rhatigan says:

‘An American celebrity’s comic book collection is stolen and chaos ensues. That chaos involves seedy bars, flotsam and jetsam, and dark humor. It’s PDB people–sit back and enjoy the ride.’

 

Punk Fiction!

There has been a long and varied tradition of songwriters taking their song titles from books: Venus In Furs – The Velvet Underground, Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush, Lost Weekend – Lloyd Cole, 1984- David Bowie, Absolute Beginners- David Bowie.

And, of course, it goes the other way too.

My book Guns Of Brixton took its title from a song by The Clash and I used Clash songs to frame it. My follow up, Cold London Blues, does the same thing with the songs of Vic Godard and Subway Sect.

And it’s no surprise that many Brit Grit writers have taken the same approach, usually using punk and post- punk songs as inspiration.

Here we go 2,3,4:

Mark Timlin published a book called Guns Of Brixton years before I did.Ian Ayris’ April Skies uses the Jesus and Mary Chain, Tony Black’sLondon based short story collection is invariably called London Calling – The Clash again. Ian Rankin recently chose The Associates’ Even Dogs In The Wild.  Nick Quantrill used a Wilco song for the title of The Late Greats, and The Crooked Beat is one of The Clash’s lesser known songs.James Hilton’s debut thriller is Search and Destroy – Iggy and The Stooges, Jim Iron and John Steel’s Glory Boys is taken from a Secret Affair song. Ray Banks used The Stranglers for No More Heroes. Nigel Bird gave us Mr Suit (Wire) and Beat On The Brat (Ramones). Graham Wynd chose The Fall’s Extricate and Steve Suttie gave us the Road To Nowhere (Talking Heads).

And it’s not just punk songs that work as crime fiction titles. Nick Triplow used a Tom Waits song for Frank’s Wild Years and Adrian McKinty has used five of Mr Waits’ ditties, the most recent being Rain Dogs.

Cold London Blues

Sheila Quigley always uses song titles for her books, starting withLindisfarne’s Run For Home, and more recently The Sound Of Silence. Andy Rivers used The Beatles for Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Aidan Thorn chose When The Music’s Over (The Doors).

And that’s only this side of the pond. Josh Stallings Young Americans (David Bowie) and K A Laity’s White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane) are just a couple of recent American examples that come to mind.

And there are plenty more, I’m sure.

So, who did I miss? And any suggestions?

(This post first appeared at the All Due Respect blog.)

Graham Wynd Reviews Cold London Blues

‘As always it’s laugh out loud funny between bouts of wincingly painful chaos brought on by characters who are as unlikely as they are vivid: gangsters who are feeling their age, hitmen who miss, hoods who want to go straight, and an actor so far up his own arse he thinks he’s god — or maybe just Batman.’ 

Read the rest here.

Out Now ! Cold London Blues by Paul D. Brazill

COLD LONDON BLUES is currently available to buy in the UK , the US and all around the world.

The blurb:

‘A killer priest is on the rampage across London and an egotistical Hollywood action movie star is out for revenge when is his precious comic book collection is stolen.Meanwhile, gangster Marty Cook’s dreams of going legit swiftly turn pear shaped when one of his bouncers accidentally kills one of his salsa club’s regular customers.Razor sharp wisecracks, gaudy characters and even gaudier situations abound in Cold London Blues, a violent and pitch-black Brit Grit comedy of errors.’

Published by Caffeine Nights Publishing.

You can get COLD LONDON BLUES from Amazon.com,   Amazon.co.uk,Waterstones , Blackwell‘s, Foyles, and lots of other places.

Punk Fiction at All Due Respect

I’m over at the All Due Respect blog talking about Punk Fiction:

‘There has been a long and varied tradition of songwriters taking song titles from books: Venus In Furs – The Velvet Underground, Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush, Lost Weekend – Lloyd Cole, 1984- David Bowie, Absolute Beginners- David Bowie.

And, of course, it goes the other way too.

My book Guns Of Brixton took its title from a song by The Clash and I used Clash songs to frame it. My follow up, Cold London Blues, does the same thing with the songs of Vic Godard and Subway Sect. And A Rainy Night In Soho will do the same with The Pogues.’

Read the rest HERE!

Pre – Order Cold London Blues by Paul D. Brazill

COLD LONDON BLUES is currently available for PRE-ORDER in the UK and the US.

The blurb:

‘A killer priest is on the rampage across London and an egotistical Hollywood action movie star is out for revenge when is his precious comic book collection is stolen.Meanwhile, gangster Marty Cook’s dreams of going legit swiftly turn pear shaped when one of his bouncers accidentally kills one of his salsa club’s regular customers.Razor sharp wisecracks, gaudy characters and even gaudier situations abound in Cold London Blues, a violent and pitch-black Brit Grit comedy of errors.’

Published by Caffeine Nights Publishing.

You can get COLD LONDON BLUES from Amazon.com,   Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones , Blackstone‘s and lots of other places.

Eric Beetner reviews Guns Of Brixton

Over at Amazon.com, Eric Beetner says:

‘Short and to the point like a sharp stick to the eyeball. This one is aggressively British. All the slang, nicknames and pubs you’d expect from a book that reads like a late night, back alley hook up between the screenplays for Pulp Fiction and Lock, Stock And 2 Smoking barrels. Seriously, it was like Tarantino and Guy Ritchie were 69-ing in my skull.
Great fun. A lot of characters and in short bursts it’s a lot to track, but the style is Michael Caine cool and cinderblock hard.’

Pre-order Cold London Blues

COLD LONDON BLUES is currently available for PRE-ORDER in the UK.

The blurb:

‘A killer priest is on the rampage across London and an egotistical Hollywood action movie star is out for revenge when is his precious comic book collection is stolen.Meanwhile, gangster Marty Cook’s dreams of going legit swiftly turn pear shaped when one of his bouncers accidentally kills one of his salsa club’s regular customers.Razor sharp wisecracks, gaudy characters and even gaudier situations abound in Cold London Blues, a violent and pitch-black Brit Grit comedy of errors.’

Published by Caffeine Nights Publishing.

You can get it from Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones and a few other places.

 

Martin Stanley reviews Guns Of Brixton

Over at Amazon.co.uk , Brit Grit superstar Martin Stanley describes Guns Of Brixton as ‘A Guy Ritchie film in prose form‘

Read the rest here.

A Couple Of Tasty Reviews For Guns Of Brixton

Over at Amazon.co.uk, essexgirl says GOB Is ‘A bloody cracker… If you don’t have a sense of humour or are easily offended, don’t bother. If you want a cracking yarn, highly recommend.’

And at Lizzie Hayes’ Promoting Crime Fiction blog, Joanna Kennedy says ‘the comedic twists and witty use of language kept me engaged.’

Ta much!

A Couple Of Top Reviews: The Neon Moon/ Guns Of Brixton

Graham Wynd takes a look at THE NEON MOON: A ROMAN DALTON ANTHOLOGY.

‘Another fistful of fun from Blackwitch Press. A bunch of terrific writers run away with Paul D. Brazill‘s werewolf detective Roman Dalton and the dark madness of The City.‘

Read the rest here.

Nigel Bird takes a gander at GUNS OF BRIXTON.

‘the observations are sharp and the characters create small nuclear explosions as they collide with each other.’

Read the rest here.

Guns Of Brixton is As Cheap As Chips from Caffeine Nights Publishing

Would you Adam and Eve it?

You can pick up my potty-mouthed and violent crime comedy from  CAFFEINE NIGHTS PUBLISHING for 4.99, if you want the paperback, or 1.50, if you want the eBook or ePub.

What could be nicer than that? Runaround … now!

Dominic Milne reviews Guns Of Brixton

Over at Amazon, top crime fiction writer DOMINIC MILNE reviews GUNS OF BRIXTON.

Here’s what he says:

‘Pulp fiction at its hilarious, irreverent best…

For all the numerous and largely excellent crime books I’ve read this year, I can’t remember any offering raising quite as many smiles as this one. In Guns Of Brixton, Paul D Brazil creates a series of windows into the various weird, violent and thoroughly dysfunctional worlds of London’s underground. The plot centres around a pair of flawed heavies, Kenny Rogan and big Jim Lawson, who whilst pursuing a particularly valuable briefcase for their boss, mad Tony Cook, inadvertently manage to blow away one Half-pint Harry, the right-hand man of a north-eastern mobster. To compound matters, whilst carrying his corpse off in the back of their motor, they decide to carry out a robbery in drag, after which they crash their car then lose the briefcase to the son of an east-end rival of their own mad boss. Confused? No need to be, but even if you are it doesn’t really matter, because the ride is everything in this compelling and hilarious read. Every character that turns up along the ride is vividly drawn, none better than the murderous Father Tim, the mob priest who doubles up as a hit-man. There are various strands of subplot weaving throughout, but the key story centres around Mad Tony Cook’s personal holy grail, the silver briefcase with the glow, which may well be a nod to the excellent 1955 Micky Spillane-based, film noir, ‘Kiss Me Deadly’. The dialogue is littered with slick one-liners and the ending is suitably gross, rampant with irreverent humour. Pulp fiction at its absolute best.’