New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Mainstream Press 2003 July-Sept

File Updated: 16/12/2006

New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Mainstream Press JULY-SEPT 2003

Alan Baker Shadows - Inside Northern Ireland's Special Branch Published September 2003 by Mainstream Press at Ł15.99 ISBN: 1840187530

Shadows is the life story of Alan Barker, a Belfast boy who dreamed from an early age of a career in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. It charts his childhood spent in the Middle East, his return to school in Belfast and his experiences as a teenager growing up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Following a flirtation with the loyalist fringe, Barker fulfilled his dream of becoming a police officer. His personal battle against terrorism led him to join the RUC's most elite department, the Special Branch. The 'Branch' subsequently became Barker's life as he and his colleagues were charged with the task of combating terrorism by infiltrating agents into the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).
Barker recruited one of Special Branch's top agents, Raymond Gilmore, and placed him with the PIRA, enabling the 'Branch' to wreak havoc within the organisation. His success as an agent handler eventually found him positioned at the hub of the intelligence network, and he gives an intriguing insight into all aspects of intelligence gathering.
Shadows offers a candid insight into the work of a Special Branch agent. Set against a backdrop of the violence and the political mire of the Irish Troubles, it details Barker's outstanding work and the damaging effect that it had on his personal life.

Alan Barker is married with four sons and the family now reside in the south of England, where Alan is self-employed.
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Michael Connor The Soho Don Pbk published September 2003 by Mainstream Press at Ł7.99 ISBN: 1840187816

Billy Howard dominated the London underworld for 30 years. This is the story of a South London boy from a respectable family who became the shadowy figure of the Soho, Mayfair, South London and Brighton underworlds. He did not lead a gang and was in many aspects a loner. The protection business drew him into a lucrative world of night-clubs and gambling, on the back of the black-market trade that had flourished during the World War II. His reign was long, punctuated only by short stays in prison. Unlike the Krays, he did not court publicity but on the occasions his name did hit the headlines, it was often with the tag "Laughing Boy". A boxer in the army, a powerful street fighter and fearless with a knife, he was capable of meting out punishment to villains who stepped out of line, and instilled terror in witnesses who were prepared to speak out. His story exposes the links between the vicious gang bosses, the police, the celebrity hothouse of Mayfair clubs, high-class prostitution and international gambling. It portrays his slide from power and, finally, his pathetic death in 1985.

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David Corbett Both Sides of the Fence - a Life Undercover Pbk published September 2003 by Mainstream Press at Ł7.99 ISBN: 1840187697

'An absorbing, honest account of police life and the bravery of a man in extreme circumstances' The Herald

As one of a handful of UK police officers trained in SAS deep-cover surveillance, David Corbett infiltrated the toughest communities, living among junkies, prostitutes, murderers and firearm dealers in order to gather evidence that would lead to dozens of convictions.
The pinnacle of his career was an operation in the former pit town of Blyth, where there had been 15 drug-related deaths in 12 months. Leaving his wife and family, he spent five months undercover, wired up, winning the confidence of the dealers, and had to cope with having his life endangered by a corrupt officer. Corbett's work led to 31 convictions and commendations from his superiors, but, without any form of counselling, the stress took its toll and he was forced into early retirement, feeling betrayed by the force that had sent him out on these dangerous missions.

David Corbett was born in the Gorbals in 1958 and still lives in Glasgow. This is his first book.
Pagination: 208; Paperback; ISBN 1840187697 Cost: Ł7.99 True Crime David Corbett was born in the Gorbals in 1958 and still lives in Glasgow. This is his first book.
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Phil Sparrowhawk Grass Published September 2003 by Mainstream Press at Ł15.99 ISBN: 1840187069

Grass is the story of Phil Sparrowhawk, a working-class boy with gambling in his blood. Like most gamblers, he once enjoyed an incredible run of luck, but finally he rolled the dice once too often. In 1970, Sparrowhawk staked his entire capital on Nijinsky in the Epsom Derby - and won. With his large capital base he was able to launch a business importing clothing into the UK. Life was sweet. Phil enjoyed living it up as a young business tycoon, but one day in the mid-1970s his brother introduced him to a hippy student friend and life would never be the same. Enter Howard Marks. Marks was enthused by Phil's Far East connections and educated him about marijuana and the growing numbers of the population that enjoyed smoking it. The self-styled "Mr Nice" persuaded Phil to join his burgeoning drugs business. Soon, Phil's gambling habit stepped up a plane and he eventually struck out on his own. This text tells of his experiences with corrupt governments; his donation to Mother Teresa after sitting next to her on a plane and being plagued by guilt; how the IRA nearly killed him when they thought his grass was really grass; the death of Lord Moynihan as the net tightened on the syndicate; and his scheme to dump the world's nuclear waste on some small islands off New Zealand, thwarted by Greenpeace at the last minute. The winning streak ended when the US Drug Enforcement Agency arrested Phil in Thailand. By this time he had amassed a fortune of nearly Ł30 million, which was promptly confiscated. He spent the next four years in two of Thailand's most notorious prisons, where his spirit was nearly broken. His experiences and battle to survive in this medieval violent environment, where life was cheap and the drugs even cheaper, is recounted painfully. The US then extradited him but a further 18 months being spirited around America from penitentiary to penitentiary followed.

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