Stephen Larkin
4 total works
Karen Moir ran away from home in Edinburgh when she was just sixteen; all her father, Detective Inspector Henry Moir, knows is that she was headed for London. Following a trail of warring drug dealers, child prostitution and born-again Christian gangsters, the search for Karen Moir becomes an increasingly dangerous trawl through London's underworld. And it soon becomes clear that there are others who want Karen found--the only difference being that they don t care whether she's dead or alive."
A gritty crime thriller from the crown prince of 'Brit noir', centred around the 1984 miners' strike. The action takes place in a depressed mining town in the North East. Switching continuously between 1984 and the present day, the plot follows the intertwined lives of a small group of characters, all linked in various ways to the miners' strike: Tony Woodhouse, a professional footballer who can't escape his shady past; Tommy Jobson, cruising the streets of Newcastle, violently collecting debts, about to be sucked into something far more dangerous; Mick Hutton, a striking miner, increasingly desperate to find ways to support his wife and growing family; Stephen Larkin, an idealistic young journalist, determined to expose the truth about the strike - as he sees it; Stephen's sister, Louise, in love with Tony Woodhouse, stalked by a shadowy figure from her past. As the lives of these five characters unfold, it becomes clear the strike will have devastating repercussions - not only for those directly involved, but for future generations too.
Stephen Larkin is back in his native Newcastle. Working as an agency journalist, he's busy blackmailing the powerful into keeping their campaign promises. But he still feels dissatisfied - which is why he jumps at the chance to track down a child abuser with friends in high places. Cynical Larkin is automatically suspicious of people like Alan Swanson, the charismatic self-styled Minister for Youth and the man behind the 'Rebirth of the Region' project. But is his interest in the kids a chance for a photo-opportunity or something more sinister? Larkin thinks that he knows all there is to know about the evil that men do. But nothing has prepared him for this...Tough, gutsy and brutal, "Little Triggers" is a tale of modern city crime.
Sober and disillusioned with London, tabloid journalist Stephen Larkin reluctantly accepts an assignment to cover a gangland funeral back home in Newcastle. Several years earlier he had left sick and disgusted, vowing never to return, but the pull of the city, and the promise of a juicy story, finally persuades him to return. While there, Larkin's old flame Charlotte asks him to check out the alleged suicide of her friend Mary - a course of action that will leave Larkin bruised, battered and with some painful memories of the city he was trying to forget. Dark, compelling and relentless, Mary's Prayer is a razor-edged crime debut from a powerful new voice in crime fiction.