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Guns of Brixton by Paul D. Brazill

GUNS OF BRIXTON by Paul D. Brazill

‘FAST, HARD, GUTSY NOIR WITH HEART – JUST HOW WE LIKE IT!’ – Bristol Noir

I became aware of Paul D. Brazill as he stood out amidst the general noise of social media but hadn’t yet read any of his work. I was keen to, suspecting similarities in taste, love of crime noir and us both hailing from the North East of England. Everything pointed to me loving it.

…And I really did – what a grit-brit-noir gem!

It’s a rich, compact piece. In fact, I willingly devoured it over four pints and a coffee.

Rich quick-fire dialogue full of colorful characters fill each page from start to finish. Their words are all delivered like solid noir gold bricks; bang, bang, bang; building up a wall of intermixed noir screwball fun that leaves you looking forward to the final bite…but also hoping it doesn’t end.

As clued by the title itself, taken from a CLASH song by the same name, canny references to bands and music are used by Brazill to pin down characters’ personalities. This also feeds tensions and momentum with a killer soundtrack.

It’s steeped in a classic brit gangster atmosphere, typified on-screen by the likes of Love Honour and Obey, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and also comes with a healthy dose of Get Carter (1971). As it turns out Brazill is an aficionado of the whole Brit-Grit genre. Read his blog here: https://pauldbrazill.com

It all felt like a collection of complimentary short bursts of action, running in parallel as their stories all eventually feed into one on the streets of London. Since finishing the book I’ve read up on Paul’s writing about GUNS OF BRIXTON, on his blog, and it turn out this wasn’t too far off his concept at the time of writing.

Guns of Brixton by Paul D. Brazill

 

‘NOT A SPARE WORD OR SENTENCE. EACH LINE SINGS OUT A STORY IN ITS OWN RIGHT!’ – Bristol Noir

 

Guns of Brixton by Paul D. Brazill

 

You can buy your own copy of this Brit-Grit delight from Paul D. Brazill’s Amazon page.

Other popular reviews by BRISTOL NOIR:

SAVAGE LANE by Jason Starr

THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block

 

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