Cycle of Violence, written with appealing verve and Colin Bateman’s unique blend of sinister violence and sidesplitting dialogue, is a thrill ride through Belfast’s most terrifying neighborhood with Miller, Ulster’s wisecrack
Colin Bateman grew up in the pleasant seaside town of Bangor in Northern Ireland. Ten miles away, the IRA, the UDA and the UVF were blowing Belfast apart, but he was more concerned with making his first million through the GBA – the Gerbil Breeding Association (sadly short-lived when his gerbils turned out to be cannibals). Inspired by All the President’s Men and The Odessa File to become a crusading journalist, Bateman joined the local paper when he was a seventeen-year-old punk rocker, where instead of bringing down Presidents and finding Nazis, he found himself being hunted down by the notorious Kilcooley Strollers, a dance troupe with an axe to grind. So close to the Troubles, yet so far away – Thunder and Lightning is the story of one boy’s journey through the rather soft side of life in a town which lacked tough streets but boasted many cul-de-sacs. A town where an occasional terrorist bomb was seen as an opportunity to profiteer and where his father became a paramilitary by accident.
They say moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do. Well, as far as Dan Starkey's concerned, 'they' can stick it where the sun don't shine because right now helping his wife with the unpacking is the least of his worries... No sooner has Dan moved house, than his best mate, Mouse, is brutally murdered - leaving him to catch a killer, become editor of celebrity scandal magazine Belfast Confidential and compile its much-coveted Power List edition. But he's not the only one with a hit list to complete. Someone's systematically killing local celebrities and unless Dan can stop them, the magazine's going under and so is he... by about six feet.
A sequel to Divorcing Jack, set in a mythical Northern Ireland town. Drunken journalist Miller is sent as a punishment from his Belfast newspaper to small-town Crossmaheart as a replacement for someone who has disappeared. Once there, he falls is love with the missing man's girlfriend.
Detective Martin Murphy investigates when someone starts to kill the killers - who happen to have been under the surveillance of Confront, a support group for relatives of murder victims... Suspecting the group of revenge killings, Murphy goes undercover and joins them. But Confront are one step ahead and the group is forcing him to face his own harrowing history... Now Murphy must come to terms with the past and bring the killers' killer to justice. The problem is he's starting to think that the killer may have a point. After all, revenge is sweet...isn't it?
In Belfast, reporter Starkey arrives in the apartment of his mistress, a politician's daughter, to find her dying from bullet wounds. Her last words send him on a hunt for an audio tape, pursued by various factions in the Northern Ireland war. Irish politics, Irish humor.
Baring Island, the Canadian Arctic. Michael and Katya are alone, in the middle of a blizzard. There are wolves snapping at their heels, and somewhere ahead of them, a gigantic polar bear with the taste for human blood. They've come with the SOS team in search of a missing satellite, but now they're just struggling to stay alive.
Deep in Africa, Michael and Katya are in desperate danger. The SOS team is having a spot of rest and relaxation - all except its two newest members. Michael and Katya are on a trek through the jungle, where they are threatened by lions, elephants, ivory poachers ... and someone much more unexpected.
Through world wars and civil strife, the Bangor Express has never missed an issue, but now it is losing money hand-over-fist and Rob Cullen, fresh off the plane from his London news desk, has absolutely no idea that he's the man to save it. Lured back to Northern Ireland for the first time in 20 years by the demise of his one-time mentor, the Bangor Express makes Rob an offer he can't refuse and the Guardian reporter can't resist sticking around. After all, it has been a long time since Rob had a real story to get his teeth in to... and with the Bangor Express, that's just what he's going to get. Rob is standing outside a local carwash, when a young woman jumps out of a van stopped at a red light and is knocked unconscious. Rob rushes to her rescue and calls her an ambulance. When Alix goes to visit her in hospital, he discovers she is a prostitute who has been trafficked into Ireland from the Czech Republic. Marja has managed to escape her kidnappers, but her friend Anna is still captive at a local brothel. The Bangor Express take matters into their own hands to set her free...
Michael and Katya have travelled with the SOS team to bring fresh water to a small island in the Phillipines. But a series of small earthquakes bring warning that the long-dormant volcano that dominates the island is about to explode back into life. Michael and Katya are in for the most thrilling adventure of their lives ...
Through world wars and civil strife, the Bangor Express has never missed an issue, but now it is losing money hand-over-fist and Rob Cullen, fresh off the plane from his London news desk, has absolutely no idea that he's the man to save it. Lured back to Northern Ireland for the first time in 20 years by the demise of his one-time mentor, the Bangor Express makes Rob an offer he can't refuse and the Guardian reporter can't resist sticking around. After all, it has been a long time since Rob had a real story to get his teeth in to... and with the Bangor Express, that's just what he's going to get. A burglar phones the office to report the dead body of Bertha Molloy that he found in a house, and when Alix discovers Bertha's daughter is still claiming her pension, the Express team spring into action. It's all going so well, but Rob has been offered his old job back at the Guardian. Rob misses his children and knows what he should do, but he can't help feeling that there are reasons to stay; the future of the paper hangs in the balance, as does his developing romance with Alix...
The new Titanic sets sail against the background of a world in ruins ... with Jimmy and Claire as main survivors, on whom the future of our civilisation depends.
The first part of a serial novel about journalist Rob Cullen's fight to save a Northern Irish newspaper. Will he succeed in rescuing The Bangor Express, or will he die trying?
Through World Wars and civil strife, the Bangor Express has never missed an issue, but now it's limping towards an inevitable doom – until London-based journalist Rob Cullen arrives on the scene. Lured back to Northern Ireland for the first time in 20 years by the demise of his one-time mentor, the Guardian reporter can't resist fighting for the paper where he first made his name. After all, it has been a long time since Rob had a real story to get his teeth in to... and with the Bangor Express, that's just what he's going to get. It's just another day in the office at the Bangor Express: struggling to make ends meet and arguing over who buys the buns, when local nutter 'Magic' Martin turns up with the breaking news that he's found a human skull on a piece of land at the end of the bay. This is just the opportunity young reporter Michael has been waiting for to cut his teeth, so he sets off with Martin to investigate. After a close shave with a gun-wielding farmer, Martin unearths a 200-year old graveyard. Perhaps Martin was onto something and there is a story to be told after all...
In “post-terrorist” Belfast, the old hatreds continue to fester, and the politics remain deeply personal. Anyone, at any moment, may decide the war’s not yet over. When his wife catches Belfast journalist Dan Starkey wrapped in the arms of a woman he hardly knows, his troubles are only beginning. Within hours his virtually anonymous girlfriend has been murdered, and before anyone can sort out whether she was killed by the IRA, Protestant extremists, or a jealous beau, Starkey becomes the killer’s next target. He had always kept himself above Belfast’s violent fray with the cynical, beer-drenched wit that fueled his notorious column in a Protestant newspaper. But when the Belfast police mark Starkey as their prime suspect, his wits are suddenly all he has left to keep himself ahead of both sides of the law—and to win back his wife. As he seeks to solve the crime himself, his frantic pursuit of the only clues to the killer’s identity leads him deep into the most guarded reaches of Northern Irish political power. Overflowing with crisp dialogue and taut with sinister violence, Divorcing Jack, winner of the Betty Trask Prize for Fiction, is a novel you won’t want to put down.
Through world wars and civil strife, the Bangor Express has never missed an issue, but now it is losing money hand-over-fist and Rob Cullen, fresh off the plane from his London news desk, has absolutely no idea that he's the man to save it. Lured back to Northern Ireland for the first time in 20 years by the demise of his one-time mentor, the Bangor Express makes Rob an offer he can't refuse and the Guardian reporter can't resist sticking around. After all, it has been a long time since Rob had a real story to get his teeth in to... and with the Bangor Express, that's just what he's going to get. When Patrick Casey robs the O'Connor's post office, holding Gavin O'Connor hostage, Rob Cullen is the only man Patrick will consider speaking to and the police send him in to try and calm things down. It turns out Patrick has a mental illness and has stopped taking his medication. He is unpredictable and dangerous and no-one knows what he will do next. He offers Rob an ultimatum: to compromise the integrity of the paper, or risk his life. A single gunshot is heard outside...
Through world wars and civil strife, the Bangor Express has never missed an issue, but now it is losing money hand-over-fist and Rob Cullen, fresh off the plane from his London news desk, has absolutely no idea that he's the man to save it. Lured back to Northern Ireland for the first time in 20 years by the demise of his one-time mentor, the Bangor Express makes Rob an offer he can't refuse and the Guardian reporter can't resist sticking around. After all, it has been a long time since Rob had a real story to get his teeth in to... and with the Bangor Express, that's just what he's going to get. When local artist and Turner prize nominee Richard Turner returns to Bangor to open a retrospective at a small gallery, not everyone is happy to welcome him home. As Richard takes to the stage to make a speech, he is greeted by violent heckling from his former teacher Pat Hadley. Alix resolves to get to the bottom of the story behind this hostility and uncovers a deep-rooted personal grudge: it's not just a matter of stolen art, but a matter of a stolen heart...
Through world wars and civil strife, the Bangor Express has never missed an issue, but now it is losing money hand-over-fist and Rob Cullen, fresh off the plane from his London news desk, has absolutely no idea that he's the man to save it. Lured back to Northern Ireland for the first time in 20 years by the demise of his one-time mentor, the Bangor Express makes Rob an offer he can't refuse and the Guardian reporter can't resist sticking around. After all, it has been a long time since Rob had a real story to get his teeth in to... and with the Bangor Express, that's just what he's going to get. Rob is having his usual at Bangor's Hong Kong Palace, when the immigration police storm the restaurant hauling off several members of staff including waitress and local netball star Anna. Rob can't sit back and let this bright young thing be deported and launches a campaign against the UK Border Agency via the Bangor Express. And, as if he didn't have enough on his plate, Rob's blossoming romance with Alix is rudely interrupted by the arrival of his estranged wife and children...
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