Mark Timlin - "Find My Way Home"
Gollancz (0 575 06300 9) £15.99
What must it be like to
be a private investigator with a name like Albert Hardwicke or Melvin Pringle? Not so
bad....... unless you wanted to publish your exploits. In that case it would be an
absolute must to have a moniker with some élan, some pizzazz - say Philip Marlowe, or
Mike Hammer or, maybe, Nick Sharman. Yeah, Nick Sharman. That sounds like the kinda guy who's handy with his fists, packs a rod and, even though he leads a tragic and lonely life, is irresistible to the dolls. A loner who rubs up the cops the wrong way because of his uncanny ability to break a case wide open just by leaning on a few low lifes and applying his boozy, but logical, mind to the elements overlooked by his ex-colleagues. A latter day knight errant whose wise cracking demeanour hides a heart of gold.
Turn it in mate. Old Nick ain't your upstanding P.I. who has to walk those mean streets, yet is not mean himself. He's meaner. He doesn't give a Lady Luck about ethics. He lies. He steals. He kills. And he writes in these really short sentences. You think they're short? You should see his chapters. Seventy of them. Seventy! And the flaming book's only 256 pages long. A quick browse through Find My Way Home reveals that most of the novel consists of dialogue. In really short sentences. They say that's what readers like. I reckon it must be true. I rattled through this story in record time and found it very agreeable. You can't beat a sense of rapid progress when tackling an involved investigation. Then you don't dwell on inconsistencies in characterisation and plot.
This particular yarn is concerned with the search for the missing months in the life of a dismembered ex-cop on behalf of the predatory widow. Sounds familiar and so it should. Once a genre has been set it takes an exceptional writer to break the bounds and extend the range of the subject. I have to say that Mark Timlin ain't that man, but so what? I still enjoyed the book. Nick is an anti-hero for our times and it's only a silly goose who believes his name is rhyming slang. (J.R.C.)
Mark Timlin Paint it Black
Vista Pbk £4.99
Those of you accustomed to
the high - octane flare of a book from Timlin won't be surprised or disappointed by Paint
it Black. The book finds Sharman in the familiar role of avenging angel but also
in the maybe less familiar guise of defender of the morals of youth. Summoned to Scotland
to find his missing daughter Sharman develops a grudge against dealers who sell to
teenagers and decides that someone must pay. Cue the setting up of the target, the revenge
and later wage paid for that revenge by Sharman. As in the quote at the head of the last
episode "blood will have blood" and the cycle recurs. Timlin's way, is not to
give the reader time to reflect and in the lulls between the violence there are
descriptions of hardware and sleaze to keep the punters happy. The whole thing rocks along
with a will to the end. Maybe these books are just an exercise in mid nineties
"lad" wish fulfilment but are no less entertaining for it. The cover has a
glowing recommendation from Loaded magazine. Says it all. (R.L.)
