Dead Flowers: The hard-boiled stories of a South London Private Eye

By Mark Timlin

Nick Sharman's daughter Judith has returned to Scotland and nothing will tempt him back into the business again... unless it's Ray Miller. Miller, a Lottery rollover double-jackpot winner, wants to find the wife who left him. This should be a simple task for Sharman, giving him easy money and evidence for Judith that he's trying to get his life together.

When Miller's wife, Sharon, turns out to be a whore addicted to heroin supplied by her pimp, Sharman's fate appears to be sealed. The news of Miller's new-found wealth has brought out south London's worst villains, the most unpleasant of whom - Adult Baby Albert and Mr Freeze - decide the best way to get what they want is to use Sharon to prise it from Miller. And Sharman, the patsy, is primed to take the fall.

'Old murders, family secrets and long-told lies are the ingredients of this splendid, gripping crime debut' - William Ryan

'Tension builds slowly but surely in this dark gripper' - Sunday Sport

'I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the little nostalgic glimpses back in time and how the characters interact with their own hopes and desires is brilliantly told' - The Reading Desk

• Language: English
• Publisher: No Exit Press
• Release date: Sep 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781843448006

Mark Timlin

In over twenty years as an author, Mark Timlin has written some thirty novels under many different names, including best selling books as Lee Martin, innumerable short stories, an anthology and numerous articles on diverse subjects for various newspapers and magazines.

Reviews for Dead Flowers

[chrissilu68 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very good book! True life story kind of! Very entertaining!

[novelbookworm_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

To see my review in its entirety, please check out my blog.Its frequently hard for me to read and review a book filled with such unlikable characters. Adam Bloom, is, in short and to use the vernacular of today’s teens…a douche. A strutting banty rooster of a man, certain he behaved heroically, when what he did was panic and over-react. Adam’s self-absorbed wife, intent on fighting off the years and looking young as she hooks up with her trainer. His spoiled, equally self-absorbed daughter Marissa, who flits from relationship to relationship while posting all her “deep” thoughts on her blog. The type of young woman who is not only sure of her place in the world, but believes it to be her place because she deserves it, not because she’s earned it. Then we have the antagonist, Xan. Yikes, is he a piece of work. I do believe he’s even more egotistical and arrogant than Adam Bloom. At one point in time, I thought that Adam’s character had a moment of clarity and possibly redemption, but I was wrong. Up until the end, Adam was sure that Adam knew best and only he could save the day. Xan remained a deluded and arrogant sociopath, and Marissa, who had the most to learn from all this, remained completely oblivious to her own responsibility for the situation.Now comes the hard part. Would I recommend this book? I just can’t seem to answer that. But then, maybe that’s an answer right there. I thought it had an unsatisfying end, although there was an "oh crap" moment that I wasn't expecting. And none of the redemption I was looking for showed up at all. I guess it’s probably pretty realistic, but I like it more when clueless, self-absorbed jerks, realize the error of their ways and try to make things better. This bunch…didn’t even bother, which sort of left me feeling vaguely depressed and disappointed.