Tuesday 12 December 2017

2 BY JOHN MILNE





















A couple from the army of tubs currently in storage, tub 28 and tub 67. Admittedly John Milne isn't an author I have yet tried but I took a shine to this series of four Jimmy Jenner books published in the 80s and 90s. I bought all four and never read any of them - go figure!

Jimmy Jenner is an ex-Metropolitan police officer, now a London private investigator.

From his page on Fantastic Fiction John Milne was born in the 50s is British and is still with us. He has had seven, possibly eight books published with the last about 10 years ago, though I don't know if that is accurate as I can't find a copy of Dead Right available anywhere.

Amazon offers a bit more detail on him....John Milne was born in Bermondsey, 1952 and trained as a painter but only after false starts as a policeman and a factory worker. He lives in Bradwell on Sea, Essex. He is the author of Dead Birds, The Moody Man and Daddy's Girl. His TV scriptwriting credits include: Bergerac, Eastenders, Lovejoy, The Bill, Boon, Taggart, Wycliffe and Silent Witness. He won the 1998 Edgar Award for an episode of Silent Witness.

His books are...

Jimmy Jenner
1. Daddy's Girl (1982)
2. Dead Birds (1986)
3. Shadow Play (1987)
     aka The Moody Man
4. Alive and Kicking (1998)

Novels
Tyro (1982)
London Fields (1983)
Out of the Blue (1985)
Dead Right (2007)

The Moody Man (1987)



When Jimmy Jenner goes to the home of a former fellow policeman who he hasn't seen for eight years, he finds an open door, a blaring stereo, and a trail of blood leading to a dead young woman.















Alive and Kicking (1998)

Gangster Tommy Slaughter was ambushed in 1968, reputedly on the orders of a pimp. Thirty years later, private eye Jimmy Jenner is working on a divorce case. When someone tries to murder a man who looks like Jenner, the pimp gets his eyes shot out and the subject of Jenner's "divorce enquiries" is killed. Suddenly Jenner realizes he is a catalyst in these events. And so he begins to question his own past, particularly the accidental death of his brother Joe, 30 years earlier. Joe was a minor criminal, a peripheral member of the circle of South London gangster, Tommy Slaughter. Was Joe’s death what it seemed at the time? The answer may explain the violence now closing in on Jimmy Jenner.






If I ever move house and get my books back, I may actually read these.

6 comments:

  1. The cop-turned-PI character can be really interesting, Col. And you can't beat London for a series setting. I hope you'll enjoy these.

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    1. Margot, I'm not sure that I've read that many novels with a British PI, I have a tendency to follow more of our American cousins in action. It might make a decent change for me.

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  2. New author to me. Amazing that there are so many crime fiction authors out there that I haven't read or heard of. Will be interested to hear what you think when you read one.

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    1. I'm looking forward to these when I eventually get around to them. I think I will like them.

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  3. Maybe a bit too tough for me - I can put up with more from US authors than UK ones, I don't know if that is unusual. Distance lends enchantment.

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    1. Distance leads enchantment - I like that. It's only in the past few years I've started reading UK books. OK maybe the past 10 years, but I've ignored them for 20 plus.

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