The Streets of Town

Suzie Mountford #2

by John Gardner

The second book in the new detective series from a master storyteller The year is 1941, and London is still at war. After her adventures in Bottled Spider, WPC Suzie Mountford is back, and working the beat in West End Central - a notoriously dangerous patch controlled by the infamous Balvak Twins. When Detective Chief Inspector Tony - Big Toe- Harvey is brought in, ostensibly to swell their ranks, Suzie predicts trouble. For Big Toe is every bit as unpleasant a character as the Balvak brothers, and he has good reason to dislike Suzie...

352 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

Before coming an author of fiction in the early 1960s, John Gardner was variously a stage magician, a Royal Marine officer and a journalist. In all, Gardner has fifty-four novels to his credit, including Maestro, which was the New York Times book of the year. He was also invited by Ian Fleming’s literary copyright holders to write a series of continuation James Bond novels, which proved to be so successful that instead of the contracted three books he went on to publish some fourteen titles, including Licence Renewed and Icebreaker.

Having lived in the Republic of Ireland, the United States and the UK, John Gardner sadly died in August of 2007 having just completed his third novel in the Moriarty trilogy, Conan Doyle’s eponymous villain of the Sherlock Holmes series.

Reviews

[Oundle Crime]

I only recently discovered this author when I read an article about him in a magazine and decided to try one of his books. Most of them are out of print but I managed to track down 'Bottled Spider', which was the first book in his Suzie Mountford series. I enjoyed that so much I searched out this, which is Book 2. It's set in London in December 1941, and Mountford has been sent to work at the West End Central police station as she and her boss try to uncover police corruption connected to organised crime. If anything this is a darker, more violent story than the first book and, in places, I found it decidedly grim. But having said that, it was an intriguing plot and the descriptions of life in wartime London were very atmospheric, so I didn't stop reading, even though there were moments I wished I could!
Review by Mo, Oundle Crime

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

September 1940 The Ghoul is on the prowl, but who is he, why does no one know he exists. Meanwhile the team at Camford, including WDS Suzie Mountford investigates the Balvak twins. But can they be caught.
An entertaining historical mystery.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I picked it up expecting a story about the Blitz in London, but instead got a who-dun-it happening toward the end of the Blitz. But, the mystery kept me reading and reminded me of the joys of London.

[Tom Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit easier to read than the first book of the series. Detective Mountford go after a gang trying to take over all of the sordid businesses in part of London.