Mangel
5 total works
There’s bad stuff out there. Folks reckon things like vampires don't exist, but they does—Jock from the burger van told me. Plus I found an actual one of ’em, sleeping at the time in the back of a hearse I nicked that first morning. That's how me and Jock got to setting out freeing the world of ’em, using his bag o’ wooden stakes and special bottles of whisky. Course, I knowed that vampires didn’t exist, not when I stopped and done some thinking. And I knowed Jock had mental wossnames, what with his son falling off that roof and him reckoning them immigrants pushed him. It’s just that I didn't get much time for thinking, not with the coppers on our arse. Jock were off…and me with him.
Released after a long stretch at Parpham Mental Hospital, Royston Blake finds that the world has moved on. Even in Mangel. Gone are most of his old haunts, including Hoppers. In its place: a huge shopping mall, servicing the town's every consumer need. But not everyone is happy seeing the old ways swept aside, and the "Old Guard" - a mysterious opposition group well known on the letters page of the local paper - sets about recruiting Blake as its agent of retribution. Meanwhile Blake just wants to settle down with Sal, get to know the son he has never met, and do the right thing. King of the Road is the final volume in Charlie Williams' acclaimed Mangel trilogy. With his inimitable blend of satirical humour, slapstick action and rural noir, Williams has carved a unique niche in modern British crime fiction.
No-one leaves Mangel ? at least not alive they don?t. Royston Blake is the Head Doorman of Hoppers Wine Bar & Bistro. He drives a Capri 2.8i and can walk down the street in Mangel knowing he?s respected by folks. But now there?s a rumour out that Blake?s lost his bottle. Even Sal?s heard the rumour. What?s more, the Muntons are after him and the thought of ending up in the back of their Meat Wagon is almost too much to bear. Something?s got to give. Determined to prove he hasn?t lost his nerve, Blake embarks on a plan designed to re-establish his reputation as a hard man, ensure his everlasting appeal to women and seal his future with the new owner of Hoppers, even if he is an outsider. Murder, mayhem and a chainsaw called Susan intertwine in this astonishing debut which marks the appearance of a fresh, funny and brutal new voice in British crime fiction. ?Cross James Ellroy?s unblinking eye for vicious gangland enforcement with Bill James?s gut-feeling for Britain?s meaner streets and you would end up in a trashcan alley somewhere near Mangel? I can?t wait for the next instalment? 5-star review, Western Daily Press ?Demented, hilarious, and near impossible to put down? Jason Starr, author of Tough Luck ?There is a dark heart to England, a claustrophobic core of oddity and violence. Deadfolk comes straight from this English heart, and even through all of its offbeat humour, there is no mistaking the earnestness of a writer who has something to say.? Nicholas Blincoe ?Plenty of memorably grim moments along the way? Big Issue in the North ?Carnage, chaos and a chainsaw called Susan add to his remarkable debut, which marks the appearance of a totally new voice in British fiction? Buzz ?Charlie Williams has come up trumps? the more politically correct among you can read this as social comment, the rest can just enjoy the ride? Guardian ?Imagine if you will the comparatively genteel Midsomer Murders transplanted to darkest Somerset and given a delight in excess worthy of Tarantino, the whole dripping with pitch black comedy and panache... this is compelling and highly enjoyable? The Third Alternative
In this darkly comedic follow-up to Charlie Williams’ breakthrough novel Deadfolk, Hoppers head doorman Royston Blake is once again up to his eyeballs in trouble of the worst kind. Since his face-off with the Munton brothers, Blake has been enjoying life as a “pillar” of the Mangel community. Sure, it’s a bleak and rather dodgy town, but it’s his town all the same. At least, until enigmatic outsider Nick Nopoly waltzes in and starts collecting friends faster than can possibly be legal. Blake doesn’t think much of him until he notices a change in the behavior of Hoppers’ younger clientele: less beery violence, more nonsensical blathering. But when Doug the shopkeeper comes to Blake for help “sorting out” the newcomer (who just happens to be dating Doug’s teenage daughter), the bruiser figures helping out Doug will be good for business…never mind the 400 cigarettes and 400 cans of lager the shopkeeper has offered as payment. Of course, Mangel is Mangel, and it wouldn’t be a normal day if Blake didn’t soon find himself in an unholy mess. Raunchy, violent, and hysterical, Booze and Burn is an addictive trip into the dark underbelly of small-town England.