A Street That Rhymed at 3am

Sharman’s Christmas with his daughter Judith starts with the worst of gifts: news that his ex-wife Laura, her new husband, and their baby son have been killed in a bomb explosion on a plane. Sharman and Judith seek what little consolation they can from each other, but she instinctively knows that Sharman needs to take his mind off things. Pushed by her, he accepts a seemingly straightforward, if unlovely job babysitting a big-time American dealer who is in custody but doing one last deal—only this time on the right side of the law. But when Sharman’s around, babysitting is one step away from carnage and disaster; wanted by the police, he turns for help from the most unlikely of sources—the Yardie gangs that infest the estates of "sarf London." What begins as work turns to vengeance for his ex-wife’s murder and battle to save the innocence—and life—of his daughter.

Mark Timlin is the author of more than 30 novels, including All the Empty Places, Answers from the Grave, Guns of Brixton, and Stay Another Day, as well as Gangsters' Wives and Lipstick Killers under the pseudonym Lee Martin.