Dead Flowers

Nick Sharman’s daughter Judith has returned to Scotland and nothing will tempt him back into the business again—unless it’s Ray Miller. Miller, a lottery rollover double-jackpot winner, wants to find the wife who left him. This should be a simple task for Sharman, giving him easy money and evidence for Judith that he’s trying to get his life together. When Miller’s wife, Sharon, turns out to be a whore addicted to heroin supplied by her pimp, Sharman’s fate appears to be sealed. The news of Miller’s newfound wealth has brought out south London’s worst villains, the most unpleasant of whom—Adult Baby Albert and Mr. Freeze—decide the best way to get what they want is to use Sharon to prise it from Miller. And Sharman, the patsy, is primed to take the fall.

Mark Timlin is the author of more than 30 novels, including All the Empty Places, Guns of Brixton, and Stay Another Day. His Nick Sharman novels were made into a television series starring Clive Owen.