by Timlin, Mark
Praise for Mark Timlin
‘A pure pulp vision closer to Spillane than Chandler. The Sharman books are bloody romances of the South London badlands’
– John Williams
‘As British as a used condom in a fogbound London taxi...’
– Observer
‘The plot races along like a salsa dancer – a guilty pleasure...’
– Guardian Unlimited
‘It is possible that South London contains some law abiding citizens in conventional relationships but they make no appearance in Timlin’s immoral, wildly enjoyable books’
– Times
‘The king of the British hard-boiled thriller’
– Times
‘Full of cars, girls, guns, strung out along the high sierras of Brixton and Battersea, the Elephant and the North Peckham Estate, all those jewels in the crown they call Sarf London’
– Arena
‘Brit-pulp’s tough guy prize goes to work on Mark Timlin’s Nick Sharman’
– Evening Standard
‘The most impressive aspect of Timlin’s compressed style is the constant juxtaposition of the witty and the tense . . . Brilliantly conveys the dereliction and moral emptiness of the London underworld’
– Sunday Times
‘Grips like a pair of regulation handcuffs’
– Guardian
‘The plot races along like a salsa dancer – a guilty pleasure...’
– Guardian Unlimited
‘The mean streets of South London need their heroes tough. Private eye Nick Sharman fits the bill’
– Telegraph
‘Definitely one of the best’
– Time Out
‘Reverberates like a gunshot’
– Irish Times
‘The mean streets of South London need their heroes tough. Private eye Nick Sharman fits the bill’
– Telegraph
‘Timlin’s South London is well drawn, full of dodgy boozers and villains, dodgier clubs and coppers, cemeteries and second- hand car dealers’
– The Face
‘Hard-boiled storytelling with attitude’
– Daily Mail
Other books by Mark Timlin
A Good Year for the Roses 1988
Romeo’s Tune 1990
Gun Street Girl 1990
Take the A-Train 1991
The Turnaround 1991
Zip Gun Boogie 1992
Hearts of Stone 1992
Falls the Shadow 1993
Ashes by Now 1993
Pretend We’re Dead 1994
Paint It Black 1995
Find My Way Home 1996
Sharman and Other Filth (short stories) 1996
A Street That Rhymed with 3 AM 1997
Dead Flowers 1998
Quick Before They Catch Us 1999
All the Empty Places 2000
Stay Another Day 2010
OTHERS
I Spied a Pale Horse 1999
Answers from the Grave 2004 as TONY WILLIAMS
Valin’s Raiders 1994
Blue on Blue 1999
as JIM BALLANTYNE
The Torturer 1995
as MARTIN MILK
That Saturday 1996
as LEE MARTIN
Gangsters Wives 2007
The Lipstick Killers 2009
ROMEO’S
TUNE
MARK TIMLIN
NO EXIT PRESS
This book is dedicated to the memory of
Hazel Madeleine Griffith
who died tragically on the ninth of April 1989.
Mark Timlin is the creator of South London’s premier private detective, Nick Sharman. Born in Cheltenham, Glos. on 15th June 1944 (at the local borstal requisitioned by the Royal Navy for the use of the WRNS as a maternity home), within nine days he was back in London with his mother and grandmother dodging V2 rockets, and spending most days under the kitchen table in the family’s Kilburn home. When Timlin was seven, the family relocated to Tulse Hill in south London where he was later educated at the Strand Grammar School in nearby Brixton Hill. As a young adult, Timlin tried a panoply of various jobs: a forklift truck driver, mini cab driver, skateboard manufacturer, roadie for T-Rex and The Who (giving him a healthy sampling of the excesses of the era - which he was later to put to good fictional use). It wasn’t until 1985, faced with another period on the dole, that Timlin decided to add ‘novelist’ to his ever expanding CV.
A Good Year For The Roses (1988) was Timlin’s answer to the hardboiled noir of 1940s America, uprooted lock, stock and barrel to the dingy back streets of 1980s south London. Nick Sharman, a down-at-heel ex-copper with a gunshot wound in his foot, is opening his own private investigation business in a shop front close to Tulse Hill station when he is hired to track down a teenage runaway named Patsy Bright.
Timlin’s love of vintage cars is reflected in the vehicle that Sharman drives - a shiny E-Type Jaguar, which comes to a sticky end during a particularly frenetic car chase. Combining humour with brutal violence, Timlin’s breezy writing style tapped into the rich tradition of British gangster films such as Get Carter (1971) and The Long Good Friday (1980) with Sharman himself very much a modern take on the quintessentially American Philip Marlowe-style ‘tec, which mirrors the author’s love of Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Richard Stark, John D. MacDonald et al. More Sharman books followed, with The Turnaround (1991) being chosen to launch Sharman’s television career in a one-off pilot starring Clive Owen. Alas, caught in the crossfire of media hysteria concerning screen violence following the tragic Dunblane massacre in March 1996, the series proper was eventually shunted to a late time slot, only managing four more episodes before the plug was pulled. Latterly though, it has enjoyed re-showings and a welcome reappraisal.
Other notable Sharman books include Pretend We’re Dead (1994) and Quick Before They Catch Us (1999) which dealt with the hot topic of racism in the Asian community, in both London and Manchester. All The Empty Places (2000) saw Sharman dealing with the problems of a girlfriend, when a thuggish ex-flame of hers promised violent retribution, and had the surprising plot turn of Sharman leaving the country to live on a Caribbean island. After a long break Stay Another Day (2010) sees the return of Sharman to London when his daughter is in danger.
Answers From The Grave (2004) is a long (for Timlin) stand-alone novel about a criminal family in south London where Sharman makes a guest appearance. Timlin’s nom-de-plumes include Jim Ballantyne, Martin Milk, Tony Williams and (most recently) Lee Martin for his more mainstream novel Gangsters Wives (2007). This may have explored the female side of gangland violence, but it still offered the same copious amounts of sex and violence so prodigiously displayed in the author’s previous more male-dominated offerings.
Mark Campbell
An event that changed my life forever. But I don’t want to write about it myself. Too close you see. So instead, let’s go back to the inestimable and absolutely essential, for any crime fan (but you’ll need deep pockets), British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia, where Ali Karim wrote a piece on the series. With thanks to him, Barry Forshaw who edited the two volumes, and Greenwood World Publishing who published them, and kind permission from all, here it is:
Actor Clive Owen was coming into prominence in the mid 1990’s, following his appearance in the TV series Chancer; when he was cast as the tough South-London P.I. Nick Sharman [World Productions for Carlton/ITV] based on the gritty novels by Mark Timlin. As a character, Sharman has his share of problems: a former police officer whose career was derailed due to drink and drugs which also cost him his marriage; he lives on the edge as a private eye scratching a living in the alleyways of south London. He has a daughter, Judith, to support as well as a string
of girlfriends and low-lifes who are forever on his case. The young Clive Owen is perfectly cast as Sharman, as he has the bad-boy good looks and a sneer that breathes life into his portrayal of Sharman but, most importantly, his eyes show the pain and the void in his heart brought about from his hard life, living day-to-day and from woman to woman.
The first of the Nick Sharman adventures was the feature-length The Turnaround [1995] based on the book of the same name, and adapted by writer Tony Hoare and directed by Suri Krishnamma. The Turnaround actually follows the novel’s plot closely. Sharman is on a hunt to clear his name, following a case in which he’s hired by a James Webb [Bill Paterson] to find the men who murdered his sister and her family. The case goes seriously off the rails and Sharman is on a race to clear his name as he becomes the principal suspect to the murders. Timlin makes a cameo appearance but blink and you’ll miss him. This episode pilot for the Sharman series attracted 10 million viewers and was the only episode released on VHS.
It was not until 1996 that we’d see Owen return as Sharman in Take the A-Train [Episode 1] with supporting actress Samantha Janus playing a Page 3 model. This time, Sharman investigates the [apparent] suicide of a former police colleague who appears to have thrown himself off a tower-block. Sharman’s investigation gets involved in a gang war in the neon world of club land. Hearts of Stone [Episode 2] is probably the best of the series, due to writer Paul Abbott following the novel’s story closely. Sharman is in pursuit of a couple of heavy-handed debt collectors when he gets roped by former colleagues from the police drugs-squad to infiltrate a dope smuggling operation. It is a mission he can’t refuse as the alternative offered is fifteen years on the wrong side of prison bars. The episode features a manic Keith Allen playing to form. A Good Year for the Roses [Episode 3] is actually based on Nick Sharman’s debut in print, and features a strong performance from Ray Winstone. Sharman is hired as a minder for a lesbian dancing duo when Winstone (playing hard man George Bright) hires Sharman to track down his missing eighteen year old daughter. The case takes a turn for the worse when Sharman finds Bright’s daughter dead, overdosed in a squalid squat. Sharman [Episode 4], the last in the series, was an original screenplay but does feature a scene from Timlin’s novel Pretend We’re Dead and would be the last in this cult series. Apparently due to the uproar about violence on TV, in the aftermath of the Dunblane shootings, Carlton / ITV cancelled Sharman, just as the series was finding its feet. Tragically it has never been repeated on terrestrial or satellite TV, and is long overdue for a DVD release. In this final episode we see Sharman roped into a case of money laundering and dodgy dealings at a local bank. Simultaneously, he’s about to get married. Although Nick Sharman is British, his roots from Timlin’s novels are pure Raymond Chandler as the cynical eye he deploys comes from the American P.I. tradition. Timlin will forever be remembered for Nick Sharman, as Chandler is always associated with Philip Marlowe, and those with long memories will always associate Clive Owen with Nick Sharman, despite whatever he does under the shadow of Hollywood’s famous hills.
Ali Karim
SHARMAN ON TV
THE TURNAROUND [5/04/1995]
Director - Suri Krishnamma
Writer - Tony Hoare
Co-stars - Bill Paterson, Rowena King, Roberta Taylor, John Salthouse
TAKE THE A-TRAIN [4/11/1996]
Director - Robert Bierman
Writer - Guy Jenkin
Co-stars - Samantha Janus, Roberta Taylor, John Salthouse, Gina Bellman
HEARTS OF STONE [11/11/1996]
Director - Robert Bierman
Writer - Paul Abbott
Co-stars - Keith Allen, Roberta Taylor, John Salthouse, Julie Graham
A GOOD YEAR FOR THE ROSES [18/11/1996]
Director - Matthew Evans
Writer - Dusty Hughes
Co-stars - Ray Winstone, Adie Allen, Colette Brown, Hugo Speer, John Salthouse, Roberta Taylor
SHARMAN - EPISODE 4 [25/11/1996]
Director - Matthew Evans
Writer - Mick Ford
Co-Stars - John Salthouse, Adie Allen, Colette Brown, Roberta Taylor, Danny Webb
SOURCES
Mark Timlin Website
http://marktimlin.co.uk/
CrimeTime – Rise and Fall of Nick Sharman
http://www.crimetime.co.uk/features/marktimlin.php
Fantastic Fiction
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/t/mark-timlin/
Thrilling Detective
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/sharman.html
No Exit Press
http://www.noexit.co.uk/authorpages/mark_timlin.php
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When you’re an ex-cop and an ex-doper scratching a living as a private investigator in the unromantic streets of south London, you take any work you can get. Even a dreary little debt collection job for some toe-rag of a used-car dealer.
When Nick Sharman collects the money due on a classic Bentley he finds himself stepping into another world. A world where a reclusive rock musician in a secluded mansion complete with its own recording studio – and firing range – broods on the royalties stolen from him by a crooked management – and decides Sharman is just the guy to get them back.
Taking the job could be the worst mistake of Sharman’ disaster ridden life. And when rock ’n’ roll’s godfathers take on the Mafia, south London explodes in a maelstrom of violence.
1
The cold rain angled down and beat a faint tattoo on my office window. The water was trapped against the glass by the vicious wind and blurred my view of the outside world. The gas fire bubbled blue flame, and the air in the room was warm and comforting. I sat in my office chair and read the new John D. MacDonald novel. Although I didn’t know it at the time it was to be his last. I rested my foot on the open drawer of my desk as I relaxed. The weather was cruel to the walking wounded at that time of the year, the early months when the bills come in and people give up and die quietly in their beds. I longed for the touch of sun on my body.
My old beaten-up cat seemed to agree with me. He was stretched out on the carpet in front of the fire, fast asleep. He was dreaming as cats do and his body twitched with the excitement of his fantasy world.
I had nothing to do and I wasn’t looking. For a change I was fairly comfortably off, money-wise. It was a good feeling to know that I didn’t have to go out on to the cold streets and hustle for a pound coin.
The telephone rang. Cat’s body jumped at the sound. I picked up the receiver.
‘Hello, Nick. Charlie,’ a voice said. Charlie was an old friend who owned a garage located a mile or so from my office. He looked after my transport and I owed him one or two.
‘Morning Charlie,’ I said. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘I need your help,’ he replied. ‘Not for me – it’s for a friend in the trade.’
‘What kind of help?’
‘A debt, well overdue. He can’t locate the face that owes him the dough. I told him you might be able to help.’
‘How much?’
‘Twelve or fifteen hundred quid. I’m not sure exactly, but he did say he’d pay you a straight twenty per cent recovery fee.’
‘Travis McGee gets fifty p
er cent,’ I said.
‘Who?’ Charlie asked.
‘Never mind,’ I said. I had forgotten that Charlie wasn’t a great reader. ‘What’s the bill for?’ I asked after a moment.
‘Car repairs, a respray, who knows?’
‘What’s the name on the ticket?’
‘I don’t know that either Nick, but I’ll find out.’
‘Seems to me you don’t know much,’ I moaned. ‘And it’s a pretty small amount –’ I left the sentence unfinished. I suppose that I hoped that Charlie would go away and leave me alone. Fat chance.
‘Come on, Nick. Don’t tell me you’re too big-time to earn a few bob these days.’
‘I never said that,’ I retorted.
‘Just because you were in the papers for a day or two, there’s no need to turn down work.’
I capitulated. ‘All right Charlie, all right,’ I said. ‘I give in. Find out the details from your mate, or better still, get him to give me a call. I’ll need the name and address of the debtor, and a receipt book or a letter of receipt with the amount filled in. Does your pal think it’s fraud or what? How come he let the car out without payment?’
‘I don’t know any details,’ Charlie interrupted. ‘I think I’d better get him to call you – his name’s Ted Dallas.’
‘Oh, really,’ I said. ‘I bet he gets a lot of stick down the boozer with a name like that.’
‘Yes he does, but he’s all right, one of your own. I hate to see him get ripped off. We go back a long way.’
‘Yeah,’ I agreed with what I hoped was a hint of irony, ‘it is a shame to see a motor trader get the worst of a deal.’ I think the irony was lost on Charlie and I left it. ‘Well if he gets in touch, I’ll see what I can do, but I haven’t got a lot of time to spend on it.’
‘Cheers, Nick. I’ll call him up now. How are the motors by the way?’
I was the proud owner of three cars then. All illegally parked by my office. My VI2 E-type had been repaired by Charlie after a little contretemps with a firm of particularly nasty villains the previous year. I’d bought an old Pontiac Trans-Am off him after I’d borrowed it when my Jaguar was off the road. And he’d lately sold me a 1978 Volkswagen Golf to use in my business as a private investigator, the other two cars being somewhat conspicuous.
