ISBN 1846686407

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THE SINGER

1981: Vincent Smith meets Steve Mullin and Lynton Powell at a Sex Pistols gig in Doncaster, where he tries to kiss Sid Vicious’ bass and gets a bloody nose. With this baptism they form Blood Truth with drummer Kevin Holme. Notoriety soon follows. Riots in the audience, fighting with journalists and Vincent’s self-styled persona as The King of Nothing stoke up their reputation as the most incendiary act around.

But when Vincent falls in love with beautiful American singer Sylvana it all starts to go horribly wrong. Plagued by her jealous ex-boyfriend, gradually ostracised by the rest of the band and developing a frightening appetite for bad drugs, it takes only six months from their wedding day to Sylvana’s suicide. Vincent breaks up the band and disappears, fading into cult obscurity.

2001: Journalist Eddie Bracknell sees a video of one of Blood Truth’s performances and is hooked. Yearning for the days when music really meant something, he decides to investigate what really happened to Vincent Smith. He gets a book deal and all the right contacts, but somehow he can’t get all the different angles to fit together. Was Vincent a genius or a psychopath? A visionary or a self-obsessed junkie? Eddie knows he has a dynamite story, but to truly make his name he will have to find Vincent Smith and bring him back from obscurity in the flesh.

‘An astonishingly evocative and emotional telling of the tale, a heartbreaking elegy for the blank generation’ Jake Arnott

What can I say? Cathi Unsworth has written the Great Punk Novel, so I can scratch that off my list of ambitions! The Singer s a compulsive andengrossing book, the characters and the narratives utterly convincing’ David Peace

‘Brilliantly paced, plotted and stylish crime novel from the hugely talented and highly original Cathi Unsworth’ Henry Sutton, Daily Mirror

‘A cracking page-turner that feels authentic, authoritative and evocative. And it’s beautifully written. This is a bloody good book’ Val McDermid

‘The best novel I have read about the punk era, and an absorbing mystery... a sad memory of an exciting, destructive and doomed era’ Marcel Berlins, The Times

‘This is not just essential reading, it’s also the ultimate punk noir novel,’ Billy Chainsaw, Bizarre

THE NOT KNOWING


What happens when psychopaths in the entertainment business meet psychopaths in the killing business? Set in London in the early 1990s, this is the story of movie wünderkind Jon Jackson, who has revitalised the gangster genre with his hit film Bent; Diana Kemp a young journalist on the make; and Simon Everill, a talented but troubled writer. All three have secrets that connect them, but who knows how much will only be revealed when a killer cuts between their worlds of rackety Camden Town pubs and exclusive Soho clubs, binding them in blood.

‘Unsworth has a sense of pace, growing unease, menace, terror and horror that is rare in a book for a first-time author… the best debut I’ve read for some time’ Marcel Berlins, The Times

‘…it cleverly explores questions of sexual identity and the deep roots of evil with pinpoint accuracy’ Maxim Jakubowski, The Guardian ‘It’s brash, trashy and fabulous!’ crimesquad.com

‘Brilliantly executed with haunting religious imagery, interesting minor characters, great rock’n’roll references and a spectacular ending… a cool and clever debut. Sleep on it at your peril’ Diva

‘I got the gist of it’ Shane MacGowan

LONDON NOIR


The city of William Blake and Jack the Ripper; the Bow Street Runners and The Krays; Bedlam and Newgate; the Pistols and the Clash – London is the ancient capital of crime. London Noir is an A-Z of what lies beneath the official city maps. It takes you on a tour from the mythic East End, where modern day gangsters hide behind a political front; to the bohemian West, where priests pray and police prey on their flocks. In the North unearthly sacrifices are taking place to terrible Gods and in the South strange beasts emerge from beneath the concrete walkways. This is a London of dream and nightmare, shadows and fog.

Contributors: Barry Adamson, Desmond Barry, Daniel Bennett, Ken Bruen, Max Décharné, Joolz Denby, Ken Hollings, Stewart Home, Patrick McCabe, Joe McNally, Mark Pilkington, Sylvie Simmons, Jerry Sykes, Cathi Unsworth, Martyn Waites, Michael Ward, John Williams

‘A-Z of everything that's evil but inescapably seductive about the city. Just don’t go south after midnight.’ Dazed & Confused