Deadfolk by
Charlie Williams
pbk out June 04
(Serpent's Tail)
at £7.99
An audacious first title from Williams; dark: dirty and painfully comic, with
characters you hope you will never meet whether in daylight or dark. Royston Blake,
Head Doorman of Hoppers Wine Bar & Bistro finds life going seriously awry when
rumours that he's lost his bottle spread round the deadbeat town of Mangel. The
Muntons are after him, deranged brothers who drive a Meat Wagon and deal with
their victims with easy brutality. Blake sets out to reclaim his tarnished reputation as
a hard man and in the ensuing carnage the bodies and body parts soon stack up.
Written in a deadpan vernacular that exposes all the ghastly foibles and tormented
thought processes of Blake and gives us a salutary glimpse into a life where a Capri
2.8i is the closest thing a man has to a soul mate and a fist in the face (or the growl of
a chainsaw) are the only ways to settle a disagreement.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries set on the mean streets of Manchester)
Deadfolk by
Charlie Williams
