SHARMAN AND OTHER FILTH

Sharman and Other Filth
Mark Timlin
First published 1996

Before Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor the only UK based private eye that managed to convince was Mark Timlin's Nick Sharman. The character was brought to the screen in the excellent though short lived, Sharman TV series with Clive Owen in the title role. There were five of these TV movies made in total and all are worth seeking out.

This collection contains eight short stories and the novella, Filth and all are full of the usual grit and downbeat realism that admirers of Timlin's work have come to expect. The driving narrative, usually first person and told with a street tongue powers along as the author takes us into London's seedier side. The fact that Sharman, disgraced ex-policeman and now private eye very much belongs among the seething criminal under class makes the Sharman stories all the more real. They belong to the hard-boiled school and the author presents a credible and often nasty depiction of life on the wrong side of the law.

The stories contained here are:
Ai No Corrida
Too Late Blues
Night Moves
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Christmas
Victoria
Don't Fear the Reaper
By Hendon Central Station I sat down and wept
Filth


Each story is a classic slice of Brit grit - Sweetheart of the Rodeo was short-listed for a Golden Dagger and Too Late Blues was originally written as an outline for an episode of the TV series, The Bill. Unfortunately the book is currently out of print but any of Timlin's stuff is well worth seeking out