Available now.

Once more it’s that time of year to hear the streets and smell the weather.
Hard-bitten, Detective Chief Inspector Philip Marlowe and his tight knit team are back policing the streets of Hull, in this, the third DCI Marlowe novel.
A cash-strapped publican in fear of losing his pub, a friend with a grudge and Robert Arthur Bacuss, a wealthy student who thinks he’s God’s gift to gamblers. They all have one thing in common – poker. When Bacuss, the stepson of the DCI’s ex-wife, goes missing, Marlowe is dragged back from holiday to solve his disappearance.
DCI Marlowe must utilise every available resource in an attempt to unravel the case and avert a tragedy. Meanwhile, young DC Tanya Etherington is tasked with a sensitive covert investigation into the theft of drugs from the evidence room. Her findings leave Marlowe with a dilemma that tests loyalty, resolve and professionalism .

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but there can only be one winner. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01ECLUYBW

Book signing in Driffield, EasyYorkshire

 A date for your diary - Alfie will be at WH Smith in Driffield, East Yorkshire on Saturday 28 February, signing copies of his latest crime novel Funeral Rites.

Funeral Rites - Book signing in Hull.

Funeral Rites

 

 

Available Now!

 

The day that DI Harry “H” Blackburn suffered a cardiac arrest on the cobbles things changed forever.  In a journey from life to death and back again, he glimpses his past and, more significantly, his future. When Blackburn stumbles across a young woman Katya, an Eastern European prostitute, lying broken and bleeding in a shop doorway he and his team are drawn into a heart-rending case of human trafficking. Discovering that an old adversary is the man behind the operation, Blackburn is determined to bring him down. At any cost.

 

Little Beirut

 

 

 

 

Little Beirut

or

An inner city police station somewhere in England.

 

  9.30am. Tick-tock, tick-tock, the second hand on the clock ticked its way around the dial. High in a corner of the room a video camera flashed its red light recording the proceedings. A female Detective Sergeant sat facing the man at the opposite side of the Formica topped table, an A4 pad in front of her, fiddling with the pen in her right hand.

‘Mr Harrison, you do know why you are here?’

‘I’m old love, not senile,’ replied sixty four year old Herbert Harrison as he sat tearing frills around the rim of an empty polystyrene cup.

            ‘Sorry Mr Harrison I’d didn’t mean to sound patronising.’

‘Don’t worry about it love, when you get to my age everyone thinks you’re either deaf or daft.’

She glanced at the wall clock. 

‘I’m ready whenever you are ready Mr Harrison,’ said the detective, leaning forward on the table with pen poised.

‘Where to start…’ Mr Harrison said thoughtfully, as he sat back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest.

‘The beginning is usually a good place.’

‘We might be here some time.’ Harrison rocked in his chair.

‘Take your time, I’m in no rush.’ She hoped it would not be too long.

‘You know it’s a crying shame, I’ve lived down that street for nigh on all of my life, I was even born in the front room of number 152, back in 1950. Things were a lot different then I can tell you. I went to school two streets away and left when I was fifteen; the brass foundry I worked in was less than a mile away from home. I was there until I was made redundant and bastards stole whatever pension I was due, but that’s by the by.

It was a real community, there was always someone there that you could rely on. We never used to think twice about going out and leaving the door unlocked, see, we all looked out for each other.

            At the time I thought it was bad luck on my part when my girlfriend fell pregnant. In those days having an abortion wasn’t the done thing, so in the June of 1968 I married Josie, the girl I had been going out with since I was at school. I suppose you could call use childhood sweethearts. Anyway nine months later Tricia was born, a healthy 8lb 6oz bouncing baby. I like to think we gave Tricia a happy childhood. Things were ok. I had a good job and Josie went back to work, fair enough we did have our ups and downs along the way, but then again don’t we all?’

            ‘Is this relevant Mr Harrison, you seem to be going off on a tangent?’

‘It’s relevant to me.’ The police officer decided maybe the long game was the best. ‘It wasn’t until Tricia left school that thing started to go a bit pear shaped.  Tricia made the same mistake we had; she went off and got herself pregnant. She’d met the lad at work, he was a shelf stacker at the local supermarket, not the brightest crayon in the box. When she told him the news he couldn’t run fast enough, and to this day I’ve no idea where he disappeared to.

Well there we were, me, Josie, Tricia and our new addition Aaron, he was a good lad in the early days, bright, know what I mean? I hoped maybe one day he’d go to university. Things went smoothly for a few years until Josie took ill that was when me and Tricia had a bit of a falling out, over money of course and her staying out all hours expecting us to bring the lad up.

            Josie just couldn’t see Tricia was taking advantage of her, and Tricia, well she just didn’t give a damn and I just wasn’t having it.  Needless to say things were said that shouldn’t  have been, resulting in Tricia and Aaron moving out into a one bedroom flat. That was the last I saw of them for a while, not a word, not even a Christmas card. 

She decided to show her face at the funeral. See, Josie just went downhill after they left, never fully recovered.             I was in pieces as you would expect, I mean, we’d been together since we were kids. Tricia put on a good show as the caring daughter but that is all that it was, show. Things changed a bit, she started to come and see me once, maybe twice a week, I thought maybe she’d turned over a new leaf. She convinced me to let her and the boy move back in, unknown to me her landlord was in the process of evicting her. I found out once she’d got her feet under the table. Aaron, he was a little bastard, Tricia had no control over him, at thirteen years old he was running wild, and even the school had given up on him. I tried my best with the lad; I really did but just couldn’t get through to him.

            Needless to say it wasn’t long before Tricia found herself a new man, another no hoper. With the lad in tow she moved out, lock-stock and barrel into his council house on the estate just over the flyover. I tried to get her to leave the lad with me.  I thought maybe without her around I’d be able to straighten him out like. She wouldn’t listen. The only time I ever saw Tricia after that was when she was on the cadge for a few quid.

This was about the time the council in their wisdom started to demolish the area, the bulldozers came in and people were sent out to the new estates on the edge of the city. The problem came when the council ran out of readies, leaving half streets standing amongst what amounted to  bomb sites. Families moved out and the rats moved in, you couldn’t walk two hundred yards down the road without seeing one of the disgusting things, and the nights, well they move about in packs don’t they?

Those empty houses that weren’t bulldozed were boarded up and left to rot. It used to be a decent sort of neighbourhood, it really did.  About the same time residents moved out the rats moved in, so did the druggies and the squatters. They just came along, took down the steel plates from the windows and doors and moved in lock stock and barrel, one or two of them were ok, but on the whole they were a bad lot.

It got so bad people were scared to open their front doors, never mind walk down the street and that was in the daytime When it was dark you just had to keep yourself inside with the door locked and the curtains shut.

Do you know, one day last week I had a walk to the supermarket and came back to find dog shit blathered all over my front door. Who did that eh? You tell me? Bren, who lives next door to me was took ill not so long back and the bloody ambulance parked at the top of the street and wouldn’t  go any further until your lot came to escort it because of the gangs. Twenty bleedin minutes they waited for ‘em to turn up!

Dog shit, wheelie bins tipped over, empty cans and syringes, how can decent people live amongst that? I despair, I really do.’

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

‘Mr Harrison, can we get back to the reason why you are here today?’

‘Aye, well, the gangs began to rule the area. Don’t deny it - you know full well they do, you lot do bugger all about it. Gangs of young kids during the day, some of ‘em can’t be older than twelve, but the buggers frighten you all the same. Soon as it get darks it’s the druggies that take over, but to be honest they don’t bother me so much, it’s not  often I venture out once it does get dark. It’s the kids, proper little bastards, gangs of ‘em.

Aaron, he started running with one group nasty little bastards and things came to a head this morning. There was all this yelling outside, I looked out of the window but there was bugger all to see. That’s when I opened the back door and the little bastards rushed me, backed me up against the kitchen unit, goading me. They was all wearing them hoodies and shouting and pushing me they were, that’s when I put my hands behind me and grabbed the carving knife to frighten the buggers. It didn’t work, they just kept pushing, I was holding the knife in front of me. Then the next thing I knew there was blood everywhere, he backed away and fell to the floor and the others ran out calling me a murdering bastard.

I grabbed a tea towel and knelt down next to him. It was Aaron, he was dead.

End

 

 

 

New for 2015 - "Funeral Rites"

 

More Tales From The Riverbank

 

 

 

 

 

I am pleased to announce that "Funeral Rites", featuring DI Harry "H" Blackburn, will be published by the top UK Crime and Horror publisher Caffeine Nights Publishing.

 

Once more the novel is set in the English east coast city of Hull and due for publication in 2015.

Snakes and Losers hits the streets of Europe.

Once more it’s time to hear the streets and smell the weather.
Alfie Robins
does it again, with this sequel to the best selling police procedural,
‘Reprisal’, featuring hard bitten, Hull cop, DCI Philip Marlowe and his
tight-knit team.
Take one unscrupulous night club owner and his psychopathic
nephew; throw in a missing bundle of cash and some class ‘A’ substance. Then
toss three small time villains into the equation and what do you get? Trouble!

When the body parts start to stack up, it’s down to Hull’s finest to gather
them up.

http://viewbook.at/snakesandlosers

ALFIE ROBINS INTERVIEW

ALFIE ROBINS INTERVIEW with Steve Rudd

Snakes and Losers - Latest Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Snakes & Losers 4 Dec 2013
By Bookworm
Format:Kindle EditionIf you like gritty crime fiction that doesn't pull any punches, then you'll enjoy this.

Three petty crooks find themselves in a whole heap of trouble when they mug the local crime lord. What follows is a race against time, punctuated by some pretty brutal retribution and it's up to DCI Marlowe and his team to sort it all out before any more body parts turn up.

I loved the black Northern humour in this, there are some very funny lines, and I also enjoyed the clever weaving of two separate investigations.

A worthy sequel to Reprisal.


5.0 out of 5 stars Snakes and losers 20 Jan 2014
By kev dilks
Format:Kindle EditionAlfie robins philip Marlowe books are very well written with good storylines very believable characters would highly recommend readers to try these books. Kevin dilks


5.0 out of 5 stars Another cracking story, 12 Jan 2014
By KTS - See all my reviewsAmazon Verified Purchase(What is this?)
This review is from: Snakes and Losers (Kindle Edition)
I was looking forward to reading Alfie Robins latest work and wasn't disappointed. A well crafted piece with brilliant characters and realistic dialogue. A story with a smattering of black humour throughout. Hope its not too long to wait for the next one!

Introducing Alfie Robins

Alfie Robins

Out Now - Snakes and Losers

Once more it’s time to hear the streets and smell the weather.  

Alfie Robins does it again, with this sequel to the best selling police procedural, ‘Reprisal’, featuring hard bitten, Hull cop, DCI Philip Marlowe and his tight-knit team.

Take one unscrupulous night club owner and his psychopathic nephew; throw in a missing bundle of cash and some class ‘A’ substance. Then toss three small time villains into the equation and what do you get? Trouble!  

When the body parts start to stack up, it’s down to Hull’s finest to gather them up.

 

Click here to buy Here

'Snakes and Losers' coming Soon.

 

 At last, Alfie Robins long awaited sequel to the best selling police procedural novel,"Reprisal". December will see the return of  DCI Philip Marlowe  in "Snakes and Losers" 

 

Keep checking back for further details.

The Thackery Journal, a tale of the American Civil War.

Essex author John Holt is primarily one of the Hard-Boiled brigade, with several titles under his belt featuring Tom Kendall, PI.  Mr Holt’s latest novel “The Thackery Journal” is way off his usual genre, an historical fictional account of the American Civil War.

Have a look at the blurb, see what you think then buy the book!

On the night of April 14th 1865 President Abraham Lincoln attended a performance at The Ford Theatre, in Washington. A single shot fired by John Wilkes Booth hit the President in the back of the head. He slumped to the floor, and died a few hours later without recovering consciousness. Was Booth a lone assassin? Or was he part of a wider conspiracy? What if Booth had merely been a willing party to a plot to replace Lincoln with General Ulysees S. Grant.
Let us suppose that Booth had been set up by a group of men, a group of Lincoln’s own Army Generals; Generals who wanted Ulysees S. Grant for their President, and not Lincoln. And let us also suppose that the funding for the assassination came from gold stolen by the Confederate A

 

 

BEDLAM the ultimate chiller thriller.

The latest release by bestselling author BA Morton

 

BA would like to welcome you  to enter "BEDLAM" if you dare!.

 

AVAILABLE NOW on FREE Promo.

 

 

 

Love hurts. Obsession kills.

Joe loves Kit. Everyone thinks she’s dead. Joe knows she’s not.

 

If you lost the love of your life, how far would you go to get them back?

Detective Joe McNeil would do absolutely anything.

When Joe breathes life into a killer’s victim, he discovers what anything really means.

 

Nell will use whatever is necessary to ensure she survives, including Joe. Is she really a victim or merely the weapon being wielded by a much more cunning foe?

 

As Joe struggles between his love for missing Kit and his growing obsession with the enigmatic Nell, he plunges headlong into a spiralling nightmare of kidnap, murder and betrayal. His relentless search for the truth jeopardises his career, his sanity and his life.

 

But for Nell, the risk is even greater.

 

A haunting tale of obsessive love, ultimate sacrifice and deadly consequences.

 

“Bold ... Different ... Scary.” 

REPRISAL by Alfie Robins FREE TODAY

Some of the most vibrant and varied crime writing around anywhere is centred on the evocative industrial fishing port of Hull, with its shadowy wind-swept streets, its hard-bitten attitudes, its drugs, its gangsters and yet its underlying humanity that clings like untended weeds amid the cracks of the endemic poverty and the violence.

And Alfie Robins' 'Reprisal' is an outstanding example of the genre, a classic police procedural where you can hear the streets, smell the weather, savour the taciturn banter, and feel the four inch nail being driven into the heads of victims by a vengeful, meticulous and psychotic serial killer.

This is a criminal environment as real as it gets, and this is how people die if DCI Philip Marlowe and his over-stretched, tight-knit team don't get there first.

Recent  Reviews from Amazon.

More please!!!!, 12 Jun 2012

By 

Mrs. A. J. Hyde "Amanda Hyde" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase(What is this?)

This review is from: Reprisal (Kindle Edition)

I don't leave many book reviews and it is only when a book really grabs me that I do. This book was enjoyable all of the way through and in my opinion the author has managed to do what many more seasoned authors fail to do adequately. He adds a twist that you were not expecting, but it is carefully woven into the story and well thought out. There are 'honest to goodness', believable characters and even a few laughs along the way to lighten the tension. I really hope that there are further books to follow this one, as I would love to see how the characters develop over time. Well done to the author ..... a great read!!

Rerisal, 24 May 2012

By 

AljipanF - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reprisal (Kindle Edition)

Reprisal, is a well crafted and interesting thriller, it is one of those good interesting reads that you can not put down and is one which leaves you wanting more crimes to solve by the tough, professional police team. Come on Alfie please give us more.

JUST WHISTLE is a masterpiece by Karen J Dahood "moxie cosmos"

Art in Life and Vice Versa in Hull, UK,

Luckily, I downloaded JUST WHISTLE first, before this delightful writer's more predictable procedural, REPRISAL (which I purchased next). JUST WHISTLE is a masterpiece. It takes into account the traditions of hard-boiled crime fiction, including the detective who is somewhat isolated from even himself. In this novel, the remarkable Robins is playing with the genre, and manages to keep alive the straightforward crime procedural in a recognizable, gritty port city, Hull, UK, while exposing the case -- that is to say, his novel -- as a fiction. I cannot do service to his technique by explaining how. You must read it. If nothing else, it is a lesson in literature and why we love to read and write fiction. In an interview, Robins confesses he is a late-bloomer, having first worked in the environment he portrays - a very good thing. He also claims not to have been in a creative writing program - perhaps also a good thing. He did read a "how-to" by Stephen King, and while I am not a King fan, I can guess his playfulness might have found its inspiration there.

Promotion Trailer for REPRISAL

Make a video of your own at Animoto.

CRIME WATCH in Beverley

If you happen to be in Beverley, East Yorkshire on Saturday 23rd February, Nick Quantrill, Nick Triplow and myself will be discussing our novels and taking part in a Q & A session from 1pm to 3pm.
The event is FREE and to book your place telephone 01482 392750.

Hull Noir - Alfie Robins, Nick Quantrill & Nick Triplow

 

Tomorrow Saturday 1st December, I will joining fellow crime fiction authors Nick Quantrill (Broken Dreams & The Late Greats) and Nick Triplow (Frank's Wild Years) at the Hull History Centre, for an afternoon of readings and a question and answer session.

If you fancy something different before the Christmas mayhem begins, come along and join us at this free event and pick up signed copies for Christmas.

 

Sell Out Signing.

Saturday 27 October, the weather was cold and the sleet came down, but this didn't put people off. I'd like thank everyone who braved the elements to come to the signing of 'Just Whistle' and making the day a sell out!

 

 



 

  

 

 

The Radio Humberside evening show with

presenter James Hoggarth prior to my signing at WHSiths, Beverley.