LEADING CHARACTERS
Eliot Darke. Smoothie, sharp dresser, cuts corners and can’t keep it in is trousers. Is secretly shagging one of the crime families’ daughters and becomes dragged into their world. He clashes with his superiors but not Vic Mullen or his bagman DS Bill Rourke. Darke has earned their respect because he has their backs. His superiors want rid of him but can’t whilst his record is so good. Is he heading for a fall?
Georgina (Georgie) Darke. Eliot’s wife, ambitious wife of for her husband to move up the ranks, and not averse to using her network of contacts to advance his career. Former Deb, independent and loyal despite amorous approaches from her social group, and his husband’s colleagues.
DI Vic Mullen. Hard as nails, Bermondsey-born. Ex-Military Policeman who joined the Met after serving in Malaya, where he is rumoured to be involved in a village massacre. Won his transfer to the Squad after helping put away a Turkish gang, for which they have sworn revenge. He lives with his Chinese girlfriend.
DC Paul Grist. Unexpectedly transferred to the Flying Squad after he starts investigating the death of a solicitor, the disappearance of some papers and the prostitute who enlisted his help. Grist becomes obsessed with the case despite realising he faces resistance from outside the force, and within.
Fenella. Darke’s girlfriend and Georgie’s supposed best friend. Well connected, especially in high places, Fenella has Eliot under her spell, but why and to what ends isn’t clear. She threatens to tell George of the affair unless Darke agrees to do her bidding. Whatever that might be.
Jack Tate. Used to work for Jack Spot in the 1950s after arriving from Ireland. He and his wife run a scrap metal yard from where they control crime in northeast London. Their manor borders the Dicks, and they have connections to Belfast too.
Freddie Dicks. Affable, generous and loves to play mine host in the family pub. In reality, Freddie is as ruthless as the rest of his family. There is an uneasy truce between the Dicks and Tate’s, until a string of armed robberies bring the unwanted attention of the Sweeney, and Eliot Darke.
WHY BUY…IT’S DARKE OUTSIDE
The Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad is determined to stop a new generation of crime families from stepping into the shoes of the Krays and Richardsons. In doing so, the Squad has to battle bent colleagues, MI5 and their superiors, each trying to steer their investigation in different directions for their own, different ends.
1969 is a time of rising economic, social, and criminal problems. Man may have gone to the moon but the 60’s have stopped swinging. There’s civil unrest, racial tensions in Notting Hill and Birmingham, widespread strikes, and industrial action.
If you’re a fan of the books of Stephen Leather, Simon Kernick, LJ Ross or the master, Peter James, this could be the book for you. An ensemble team of cops, robbers and spooks fighting it out for their own ends against a London that is both decayed and renewed in equal measure.
THE DARKE SERIES
In the series of Darke books, the action takes place against the background of the police corruption scandals of the early 70s involving the Porn Squad and Drugs Squad; the IRA’s bombing campaign in England; the plot against Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s government by rogue elements of the security services, and the attempted coup by General Walter Walker in the mid 70’s.
Each of the books centres on Eliot Darke’s progress in the force as he is dragged into the grey area between policing and secret policing. The team around Darke changes over the course of the trilogy’s narrative. Some are jailed, others forced to leave the Met and some die.
Darke is a flawed hero. His inability to be monogamous leads him to being manipulated by sinister forces and, ultimately, he is left to take the blame for the failings of others.
