Book synopsis
There’s a serial killer at work murdering cinema-goers in London. Has he done it before? The team uncover a cold case that says he might have but where is he now? As usual with this best selling series the plot twists and turns to the final curtain as Palmer and his team chase shadows.
At home Mrs P has enrolled in Peloton and Palmer’s nemesis neighbour Benji has put a trampoline in his garden just the other side of the hedge to where Palmer’s new fish pond is situated… surely nothing can go wrong….can it?
About the Author
Barry Faulkner was born into an extended family of petty criminals in Herne Hill, South London. His father, uncles and older siblings ran with the notorious Richardson Crime family from time to time. At this point we must point out that he did not follow in that family tradition although the characters he met and their escapades he witnessed have added a certain authenticity to his books.
His mother was a fashion model and had great theatrical aspirations for young Faulkner and pushed him into auditioning for the Morley Academy of Dramatic Art at the Elephant and Castle, where he was accepted but only lasted three months before being asked to leave as no visible talent had surfaced.
His early writing career was as a copywriter with the advertising agency Erwin Wasey Ruthrauff & Ryan in Paddington, during which time he got lucky with some light entertainment scripts sent to the BBC and Independent Television and became a script editor and writer on a freelance basis, working on most of the LE shows of the 1980-90s. During that period, while living out of a suitcase in UK hotels for a lot of the time, he filled many notebooks with DCS Palmer case plots; and in 2015 he finally found time to start putting them in order and into book form. Thirteen are finished and published so far plus the first books in The Ben Nevis and The Gold Digger private eye series, with more to come in both series. On the factual side Faulkner has London Crime, a book detailing the big UK heists and the ‘geezers watt did ’em’ from 1930s on and UK Serial Killers looking at the serial killers from 1930 on, their lives, crimes and punishments. Faulkner also regularly gives illustrated talks on that era to WI and other social clubs. Contact him on Facebook or at barryfaulkner1@btopenworld.com. Lots more about the author on his web site www.barry-faulkner.com
My review
I was lucky enough to be gifted this copy of this wonderful book. I was a little worried as it was number 14 in the series, and I hadn’t read any of the others. This is a great standalone story, and you are given a quick insight into who the characters were at the beginning of the book, which I loved! So, you can most definitely pick it up without reading the other ones.
If you love crime and thrillers, then this is absolutely the book for you! The first chapter had me engrossed and I really couldn’t put it down. We follow the story of the serial killer known as ‘The Cinema Slasher’. We are thrown into the world of the police trying to find out who this person can be, and we have the perspective from the serial killer too. I loved the parts with Mrs P as they were hilarious, and they gave a good bit of humour to an otherwise serious matter.
I am now engrossed in this series, and I want to read the rest of them.
Disclaimer – Thank you to the Author for my gifted copy of this book for my honest review.