Ever since his Brit grit debut, Frank’s Wild Years, Nick Triplow has been a favourite here at Crime Fiction Lover and in the British crime fiction community. One of the original organisers of the Hull Noir event, he has written a biography of inspirational North East author Ted Lewis, but more recently Triplow’s writing has gravitated south. Last year he introduced Max Lomax of London’s Metropolitan Police in Never Walk Away, and The Last Days of Johnny Nunn is its sequel – a police procedural leaning more towards political conspiracy.
This novel sees Max treading the same dangerous streets but there’s a whole new conspiracy to overturn. There’s a year to go before London 2012, and the upcoming Olympics fill the air with a sense of optimism. A lot of money is floating around too with huge construction projects. However, people have been displaced and there are questions around how much the locals will benefit. Close by is the Jamaica Docks development, another multi-billion pound project.
This part of London is changing beyond recognition, no matter what locals want. It’s rampant gentrification. Campaigner Fraser Neal is one of the few voices standing up for the interests of the community against the government, the council, developers and the financial backers behind the scheme. The Marlowe estate is being squeezed out, social housing residents made homeless. There’s a lot of suspicion on the streets about who’s behind the project, talk of dodgy investors and dirty money. It’s Max’s job to look into it.
When Neal is murdered, found stabbed to death in an alley behind a fast food shop, Lomax is blamed for endangering Neal via a corruption investigation. Is this a deflection to cover for the killers? It only leaves Lomax more certain he was on the right track and his inquiry now runs in parallel with the murder hunt. Building a picture of what’s going on in the street will prove a lot easier than penetrating the boardrooms and shady dealings to find proof of conspiracy, if there is one.
Johnny Nunn has his own story. A former boxer, today he lives on the streets, beat up and tired from the wear and tear of five years spent searching for his missing 15-year-old daughter, Bethany. It’s a quest that has so far failed. When Max comes across Johnny he doesn’t realise the man is key to his investigation but getting to the truth will be tough. Johnny isn’t looking to get involved, he needs peace in his life. Things change when he witnesses a vicious attack on a woman working at the local soup kitchen.
Max Lomax is the cop we want to be, a man who is prepared to put himself out there for the truth. He won’t let something rest if it smells wrong, no matter the vested interests or what odds he’s up against. There are dark forces lying in wait for him; one way or another they want to shut him up.
There are riches to be made at Jamaica Dock, dubious investors want a slice of the pie. This is a tale of dirty money, embezzlement, corruption and coercion, and ultimately murder. This is fiction but it echoes reality. The marginalised Marlowe estate is being dismantled and corporate power is rampant under the guise of progress. The backdrop nails the South London location, the febrile atmosphere of racism, the reactions to it and institutional failure. That realism gives this novel authenticity and bite.
I enjoyed Never Walk Away, it was a solid political thriller, but this is a step up. A classy thriller that channels the spirit of Brit noir that comes from the 1950s social realism and crime fiction of Ted Lewis. The conspiracy hangs over the story like a pall, the characters surely drawn from the very streets featured here. Triplow has nailed a place and time so that if you weren’t there and don’t know it you can get a sense of what it was like.
The art of the novel is in conveying a big story, political intrigue and massive financial corruption with all its societal impact while still telling a very personal tale that binds us to the people on the page. In that sense Johnny Nunn is such a human character, we can sense his weariness, his pain and that creates an emotional kick as the story progresses.
I can’t wait to see where Lomax goes next.
No Exit Press
Print/Kindle
£4.99
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
