Northern Ex

by Colin Campbell

Overview

Once a cop always a cop. Ex vice squad cop Vince McNulty copes with life outside the force by visiting the Northern X massage parlours he used to police. Until a return to his old stomping ground prompts a change in fortunes. Several girls have gone missing. All young masseuses. All from parlours that McNulty has visited. When one of them turns up dead everything points to a regular customer being involved. And McNulty is top of the list.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947290259
Publisher:	WildBlue Press
Publication date:	08/30/2017
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ex Army, retired cop and former scenes of crime officer. Colin Campbell served with the West Yorkshire Police for 30 years. He is the author of UK crime novels, Blue Knight White Cross and Northern Ex, and US thrillers Jamaica Plain and Montecito Heights featuring rogue Yorkshire cop Jim Grant.

Editorial Reviews

“Campbell’s dark muscular prose suggests the best pulp writers of the 50s.” -Kirkus Reviews

“Very real. And very good.” - New York Times Bestselling Author Lee Child

From the Publisher

In this middling crime novel from British author Campbell (Blue Knight, White Cross), 36-year-old Vince McNulty, who was bounced after 18 years with the West Yorkshire police for brutalizing a pedophile, now patronizes the Northern X chain of massage parlors he used to bust during his time on the vice squad. While enjoying a masseuse’s services in a room at one such establishment, he hears a young woman’s screams elsewhere in the house. Vince goes to the rescue of a girl who appears to be in her early teens, overpowering the brute he suspects is abusing her. When the girl disappears, the “disgraced ex-copper” teams with ex-con Don “Donkey” Flowers to track her. Vince’s inquiries overlap with Det. Constable Jimmy Tynan’s investigation into seven missing massage parlor girls. While Vince likes to replay scenes from his favorite movies and recite the lyrics from the ’60s song “The House of the Rising Sun,” he remains a stock type. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Vince McNulty was a pretty good cop, but his fiery temper and use of violence got him kicked off the force. Depressed, Vince loses himself in old movies and visits to the Northern X massage parlors, which used to be among his targets as a vice cop. Then Vince discovers that young girls from the very massage parlors he's visited have disappeared. Fearing a setup, he decides to run his own investigation. But his lone-ranger approach only leads him into terrible danger after he learns an appalling secret about Northern X, its owner, and a group of customers with very special tastes. Vince's childhood in an orphanage makes him particularly sensitive to any form of mistreatment, and despite his tough exterior, his hidden heart of gold makes him determined to save the young prostitutes from Northern X. Full of white-knuckle suspense, shocking violence, and unexpected twists. A fine choice for fans of gritty, realistic cop dramas.

Booklist

An ex-vice cop is compelled to investigate when a string of disappearances, culminating in murder, strikes too close to home. After 18 years with the West Yorkshire Police, Vince McNulty has been abruptly fired for misconduct. A firestorm of bad press hasn't helped. McNulty now spends most days watching old movies and getting erotic massages, at first on the outskirts of his former stomping grounds. But so aimless is his life and so deep his addiction that he starts patronizing the same parlors he used to bust as a vice cop in Leeds and its vicinity: the Northern X chain. Unbeknownst to McNulty, girls from several of these clubs have recently vanished. The mystery takes a darker turn when the corpse of one masseuse is discovered next to an oil drum. CCTV footage depicts the Vauxhall Astra of McNulty, whose past difficulties are well-known to the Ecclesfield Station's weary Inspector Tynan, the man working the case. Unfortunately for him, McNulty has been disorderly in more than one parlor of late. He hooks up with petty criminal Donkey "Donk" Flowers to learn the word on the street. They walk back to McNulty's flat, where they find another body, and Donk lights a match before McNulty can tell him that he smells gas. And that's only half the story. A retired cop himself, Campbell crafts a familiar plot in his sixth novel (Blue Knight, White Cross, 2009, etc.). But every detail feels authentic, and his dark, muscular prose suggests the best pulp writers of the '50s.

Kirkus Reviews