Needless Alley: The critically acclaimed noir crime debut (William Garrett Novels)

Product Information

Save An Evening with Cara Hunter at Waterstones Birmingham to your collection. Share An Evening with Cara Hunter at Waterstones Birmingham with your friends. The best way to explain my feelings on this story is to compare it to others; not great practice, but I feel it works for this. Some stories have multiple perspectives (this doesn't but bear with me here), within which there may be one that you dislike reading. As such, you slog through the difficult chapter because the proverbial carrot is dangling over yonder and you'd like to reach it. This is irritating but fine- just view the big picture.

Natalie Marlow (Author of Needless Alley) - Goodreads

Thoroughly enjoyed 'Needless Alley' from start to finish. With an engaging flawed protagonist driving this murky, period drama/thriller read, you can't help but be pulled into their dark world of crime set in 193os Birmingham - and yes there are Peaky Blinder vibes, which I loved. The characters were really well written and I had no difficulty in envisaging them and feeling for them. William was a really good and believable main character. Needless Alley is a noir thriller set in 1930s Birmingham, with a private eye investigating the seedy underworld around the canals and dodgy photographic studios of England’s second city. I really enjoyed this book as it was something quite different from my usual Golden Age murder mysteries, but set in the same time period. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. I have only known Birmingham since the 1970's but a lot of the places and building mentioned still exist.

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The Bookseller - Rights - Baskerville signs two books in

Marlow’s very engaging protagonist may herald the birth of a new genre: Midlands Noir’ Financial Times Needless Alley is an engrossing historical noir with engaging characters an intense plot and a few surprises for the reader.

Advance Praise

William finds himself a refuge from all this for a while, an unexpected refuge, but in doing so he brings more trouble on himself than he could have imagined. When reputations are threatened, his hard-won status will count for little except to identify him as someone who doesn't know their place and who can therefore take the blame for whatever is really going on.