What do you think?
Rate this book
Paignton Noir #7
Meat Bubbles and Other Stories: The Paignton Noir Case Files
Still licking his wounds after the brutal events of 'Skull Meat', Paignton private investigator Joe Rey is reluctant to take on another case that could have violent repercussions. However, a lucrative pay-day from a soon-to-retire cop tests his resolve, and Rey quickly finds himself on the trail of a deranged plastic surgeon with a queasy line in body modification procedures.
Over the course of a long, bloody summer, Rey tangles with rogue ex-cops, suburban hitmen, neo-Nazi scumbags and even Paignton’s richest man—a notorious hoarder of unknown horrors. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it…
Over the course of a long, bloody summer, Rey tangles with rogue ex-cops, suburban hitmen, neo-Nazi scumbags and even Paignton’s richest man—a notorious hoarder of unknown horrors. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it…
152 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 2, 2018
5 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Tom Leins
30 books14 followersAuthor of the Paignton Noir series and the wrestling noir collection The Good Book: Fairy Tales For Hard Men.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 4, 2019
Meat Bubbles and Other Stories is a collection of short stories involving a private investigator named Joe Rey. His story is more than dark. It is more than dirty. It is the underbelly of a cesspool a light is rarely shined upon. Tom Leins not only cutting to the bone in each and every story involving this man, but exposing the muscle and nerve endings that lay beneath with such deftness that I know I'll be coming back for more. As did I, so should you: go forth. Seek out. Purchase and enjoy.
July 7, 2018
Private investigator Joe Rey gets down and dirty in the not-so-picturesque seaside-town of Paignton. Tracking down a disturbed plastic surgeon, he encounters a variety of low-life scumbags, prostitutes, hitmen and bent coppers. If he’s lucky, he might wake up with all his body parts intact, but when almost everyone seems to be toting a gun or a knife, the odds are against it…
‘Not for the faint-hearted’ is a phrase I’ve used a lot, but it really is true in this case. Tom Leins has created a world that is so densely populated with horrible people, murder, rape and a generally bleak outlook, you might think it’s going to be hard to enjoy. But enjoy it I did, and though I occasionally got a bit confused about who the good guys were, it all turns out fine in the end. Relatively speaking.
Packed with crude language, crude characters and some corking one-liners, this is an interesting and down-to-earth take on the old private detective story.
‘Not for the faint-hearted’ is a phrase I’ve used a lot, but it really is true in this case. Tom Leins has created a world that is so densely populated with horrible people, murder, rape and a generally bleak outlook, you might think it’s going to be hard to enjoy. But enjoy it I did, and though I occasionally got a bit confused about who the good guys were, it all turns out fine in the end. Relatively speaking.
Packed with crude language, crude characters and some corking one-liners, this is an interesting and down-to-earth take on the old private detective story.
February 3, 2022
Like someone tried to surgically insert ‘Chinatown’ into the emaciated husk of ‘The League of Gentleman’ as it lay slumped in the filthy water of a Motel bathtub, but the transplant didn’t take and the wound is fast turning septic.
If that feels like your (crime) scene, you’ll love this. And even if you don’t, you can’t help but be impressed by Leins absolute commitment to his broken world; where everything in it’s greasy, rotten, or prone to leaking some kind of visceral fluid either through natural decay or a violent bludgeoning.
Following 'The Good Book: Fairy Tales for Hard Men', this is the second of this author's books I've read, and I'm absolutely lapping them up.
If that feels like your (crime) scene, you’ll love this. And even if you don’t, you can’t help but be impressed by Leins absolute commitment to his broken world; where everything in it’s greasy, rotten, or prone to leaking some kind of visceral fluid either through natural decay or a violent bludgeoning.
Following 'The Good Book: Fairy Tales for Hard Men', this is the second of this author's books I've read, and I'm absolutely lapping them up.
December 21, 2018
Another trip into Paignton's dirty underbelly wit Joe Rey. Remind me to never go anywhere near that place next time in England! Tom Leins' turn of phrase and style hit the right notes with me every time. Great work.
August 3, 2020
Visit Paignton for:
The people: A wonderful array of rheumy-eyed psychos, sickos, perverts, murderous millionaires and scarred up prostitutes of varying genders.
The places: The Dirty Lemon with their highly erotic(?) floorshows, Paignton Yards and it's deep history of buried bodies, Paignton Harbour where you can go fishing… for the odd bloated corpse.
The weather: "The summer heat has settled over Paignton like a chloroform-soaked rag over the mouth of a snatched child."
The cuisine: "When I arrive at the pub a pair of elderly St. Johns Ambulance-men are carrying a cadaverous middle-aged man out on a canvas stretcher.
"Glassing? Knife fight? Pool ball in a sock?"
The first medic laughs bitterly.
"No. He ordered from the lunchtime specials menu…"
The smells: "sour milk and anal mucus."
The business opportunities: "The older I get, the more I realise that this town is full of mercenaries. Leftover soldiers from old, messy wars. When the dust settles everyone still wants a pay-day, and they don't care how they get it."
Visit Paignton
I'm not au fait with the tourist board situation in Devon, but it's highly likely that there is an office somewhere with a dartboard sporting Leins visage in the middle. Meat Bubbles and Other Stories treats us to the short greasy, bloody case files of Paignton's finest PI, Joe Rey. Here he is predominantly taking on various jobs for a disgraced ex-cop known as Wet Look. Be it finding a missing person, as a courier or providing muscle, there isn't much Joe will say no to and he knows as much; "Sometimes I really wish I didn't have principles. They only ever get in the way…"
This volume includes Snuff Racket, the second Joe Rey novella, which on initial reading I wasn't a great fan of, but it was the stories I read online that kept me coming back to Rey and Paignton and made me much more a fan of the work. It almost goes without saying that these stories are not for the faint of heart or the prudish and it Is definitely not advisable to eat tomato soup whilst reading.
The people: A wonderful array of rheumy-eyed psychos, sickos, perverts, murderous millionaires and scarred up prostitutes of varying genders.
The places: The Dirty Lemon with their highly erotic(?) floorshows, Paignton Yards and it's deep history of buried bodies, Paignton Harbour where you can go fishing… for the odd bloated corpse.
The weather: "The summer heat has settled over Paignton like a chloroform-soaked rag over the mouth of a snatched child."
The cuisine: "When I arrive at the pub a pair of elderly St. Johns Ambulance-men are carrying a cadaverous middle-aged man out on a canvas stretcher.
"Glassing? Knife fight? Pool ball in a sock?"
The first medic laughs bitterly.
"No. He ordered from the lunchtime specials menu…"
The smells: "sour milk and anal mucus."
The business opportunities: "The older I get, the more I realise that this town is full of mercenaries. Leftover soldiers from old, messy wars. When the dust settles everyone still wants a pay-day, and they don't care how they get it."
Visit Paignton
I'm not au fait with the tourist board situation in Devon, but it's highly likely that there is an office somewhere with a dartboard sporting Leins visage in the middle. Meat Bubbles and Other Stories treats us to the short greasy, bloody case files of Paignton's finest PI, Joe Rey. Here he is predominantly taking on various jobs for a disgraced ex-cop known as Wet Look. Be it finding a missing person, as a courier or providing muscle, there isn't much Joe will say no to and he knows as much; "Sometimes I really wish I didn't have principles. They only ever get in the way…"
This volume includes Snuff Racket, the second Joe Rey novella, which on initial reading I wasn't a great fan of, but it was the stories I read online that kept me coming back to Rey and Paignton and made me much more a fan of the work. It almost goes without saying that these stories are not for the faint of heart or the prudish and it Is definitely not advisable to eat tomato soup whilst reading.
August 9, 2019
Meat Bubbles and other stories by Tom Leins is a hard-hitting book of nasty noir tales told in only a way Tom Leins can write. His writing won't be for everyone and some may find it a bit too graphic, however, Leins has a wonderfully unique way of describing things.
The book mostly consists of very short stories involving PI Rey and his encounters in a very nasty Frank Miller-like world.
Reading this book is like walking down a dirty, stinking and damp dark alley full of all sorts of denizens of a world you'd prefer to just avoid.
Good stuff for hardcore noir lovers.
The book mostly consists of very short stories involving PI Rey and his encounters in a very nasty Frank Miller-like world.
Reading this book is like walking down a dirty, stinking and damp dark alley full of all sorts of denizens of a world you'd prefer to just avoid.
Good stuff for hardcore noir lovers.
June 23, 2018
Violent, fast-moving, gory, depraved, and great fun. Leins' stories featuring scuzzy detective Joe Rey show an ugly Paignton that probably isn't going to be recommended by the Devon tourist board anytime soon, but it does make the town a character in its own right. And a bloody strong one at that (pun intended). Featuring organ harvesters, cops so bent they resemble fusilli, and a diverse cast of strong villains, this collection should be high up the list for all readers of Brit Grit. Top stuff.
June 3, 2018
A Google search will show Paignton to be a lovely little seaside town on what is known as the English Riviera.
Tom Leins will show you that Paignton is a festering cesspool overflowing with filth and debauchery.
The only law in Paignton comes in the form of two aged cops named Benson and Hedges, so if you want justice, you call on Joe Rey.
Joe is the local PI/fixer/one-man army holding back this wretched tide.
Sit back, relax and dig into this collection of Joe's adventures and pray you never find yourself in Paignton. If you do, stop in at the Dirty Lemon and have Spacey Tracey pour you a stiff one. You're going to need it.
Tom Leins will show you that Paignton is a festering cesspool overflowing with filth and debauchery.
The only law in Paignton comes in the form of two aged cops named Benson and Hedges, so if you want justice, you call on Joe Rey.
Joe is the local PI/fixer/one-man army holding back this wretched tide.
Sit back, relax and dig into this collection of Joe's adventures and pray you never find yourself in Paignton. If you do, stop in at the Dirty Lemon and have Spacey Tracey pour you a stiff one. You're going to need it.
May 3, 2021
Sick but not too sick. Leins is an amazing writer, although I do worry about him.
July 30, 2018
WHOA.
Amazing. Tom Leins has crafted the dirtiest, most corrupt, vile world in Paignton. I want to live there. More of an experience than just reading a book.
Amazing. Tom Leins has crafted the dirtiest, most corrupt, vile world in Paignton. I want to live there. More of an experience than just reading a book.
July 19, 2019
It doesn’t get much grittier than this, and I love the seedy world these stories are set in. Fun reading.
July 11, 2018
Joe Rey, our violent Paignton private investigator, is at it again with his own special way of getting the answers he needs.
Full Review On YouTube Here: https://youtu.be/Bjdk2fFqzS8
Don't miss his unique tactics for investigating in this follow up to Skull Meat.
Full Review On YouTube Here: https://youtu.be/Bjdk2fFqzS8
Don't miss his unique tactics for investigating in this follow up to Skull Meat.
December 29, 2022
I enjoyed this gritty British noir.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews