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Nick Sharman Mystery #1
A Good Year for the Roses
Nick Sharman is nobody's favourite person. Ex-cop, ex-doper, invalided out of the Met after a stray bullet in the foot saved him from an investigation into the missing evidence from a drugs haul. The cops don't like him. The villains don't like him. Sharman is unemployable. So he's hired himself an office and set up shop as a private investigator in his south London patch. Divorces and debt-collecting were what he expected. What he gets is Patsy Bright, young, pretty and missing. Her father wants her back. She's a good girl, a model, and only a little bit into drugs. With Sharman's connections it should be a piece of cake. Only when he comes to with a split head, a pocketful of planted heroin, a dead girl and two policemen acting on a tip-off, does Sharman realise this case is different. And serious. And personal. 'Hard-boiled story-telling with attitude' - Daily Mail
- GenresCrime
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
3 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Mark Timlin
52 books14 followersaka Johnny Angelo, Tony Williams, Jim Ballantyne, Lee Martin.
Mark Timlin lives in east London, has a Rolex and drives flash old American cars.
Mark Timlin lives in east London, has a Rolex and drives flash old American cars.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 1, 2014
A Good Year for the Roses is the debut crime novel from Mark Timlin and the first appearance of his hardboiled ex-cop private eye Nick Sharman who would later be played by none other than the man with the ultimate hardboiled voiceover voice, Clive Owen, in a movie and TV series adaptation of the books. Written whilst living in an abandoned bus as a way to get himself off of government handouts it's a remarkably accomplished novel but has several weaknesses that detract from overall enjoyment.
Sharman is a reformed junkie and an ex-cop, he's seen the very worst of what London in the 80s had to offer and he knows all of the wrong people on both sides of the law. He's got a hole in his foot from where his former partner shot him and his ex-wife has run off with a dentist. He has a rundown office opposite a rundown pub, he has a stray cat for a friend and his first customer is a weak middle aged man who cries when he talks about his missing daughter. Sharman needs the money and a week later eight people are dead.
Derek Raymond, king of British noir in the 80s, called the Sharman novels "very black and very bitter" and Timlin obviously set out to achieve that mood from the very beginning, in some ways emulating the great work done by Raymond as well as the classic American private eye tales, only with more drinking and fighting, like Mickey Spillane perhaps.
His first major issue is that it takes a good 100 pages for things to start happening, the first third of the book is Sharman moping around describing how low he had fallen in the previous year or so, the state of London and the passionate sex he used to have with his wife. After the first major event things pick up dramatically but Timlin still resorts to filling pages with unnecessary "colour" descriptions of street directions etc. but this is tempered by the fact that people are dying and Sharman is a bumbling, clueless fool of an investigator, letting his heart and his libido rule his head. The most notable scene in the entire book is the aftermath of a beheading as the effect had on Sharman is allowed to slowly seep in to the narrative, a superb piece of writing and for that alone Timlin deserved to have a career in publishing gritty crime fiction.
There's a rather blatant piece of deus ex machina on display as Sharman needs the entire plot explaining to him but I take great solace from the fact that things are far from peaches and cream as the final full stop rears its head, here is a man prepared to torture his protagonist, to run him through the mill both physically and mentally refusing to provide even a modicum of a happy ending, and that bodes well for the ongoing series, preferably with the help of a good editor and an author developing his skills in a residence that isn't an abandoned bus.
Sharman is a reformed junkie and an ex-cop, he's seen the very worst of what London in the 80s had to offer and he knows all of the wrong people on both sides of the law. He's got a hole in his foot from where his former partner shot him and his ex-wife has run off with a dentist. He has a rundown office opposite a rundown pub, he has a stray cat for a friend and his first customer is a weak middle aged man who cries when he talks about his missing daughter. Sharman needs the money and a week later eight people are dead.
Derek Raymond, king of British noir in the 80s, called the Sharman novels "very black and very bitter" and Timlin obviously set out to achieve that mood from the very beginning, in some ways emulating the great work done by Raymond as well as the classic American private eye tales, only with more drinking and fighting, like Mickey Spillane perhaps.
His first major issue is that it takes a good 100 pages for things to start happening, the first third of the book is Sharman moping around describing how low he had fallen in the previous year or so, the state of London and the passionate sex he used to have with his wife. After the first major event things pick up dramatically but Timlin still resorts to filling pages with unnecessary "colour" descriptions of street directions etc. but this is tempered by the fact that people are dying and Sharman is a bumbling, clueless fool of an investigator, letting his heart and his libido rule his head. The most notable scene in the entire book is the aftermath of a beheading as the effect had on Sharman is allowed to slowly seep in to the narrative, a superb piece of writing and for that alone Timlin deserved to have a career in publishing gritty crime fiction.
There's a rather blatant piece of deus ex machina on display as Sharman needs the entire plot explaining to him but I take great solace from the fact that things are far from peaches and cream as the final full stop rears its head, here is a man prepared to torture his protagonist, to run him through the mill both physically and mentally refusing to provide even a modicum of a happy ending, and that bodes well for the ongoing series, preferably with the help of a good editor and an author developing his skills in a residence that isn't an abandoned bus.
December 3, 2009
A solid private eye novel. The first in the series and the author's first book. More Spillane than Chandler, but it shows promise with a good ear for dialogue. Considering Timlin has written at least 20 books since this one, I look forward to seeing how he evolved.
I read in an interview with Timlin that he thought this book was 100 pages too long. Probably more like 50, as it takes a while to get going. But once it gets up to speed, it really flies to the end. Although, to make up for the slow start, the book feels ends too abruptly.
Sometimes I think I should start on the third or fourth book of a detective series and then go back to the first one, but I'm just too much of a purist and like to read them in order. I have a feeling this series is going to get good.
I read in an interview with Timlin that he thought this book was 100 pages too long. Probably more like 50, as it takes a while to get going. But once it gets up to speed, it really flies to the end. Although, to make up for the slow start, the book feels ends too abruptly.
Sometimes I think I should start on the third or fourth book of a detective series and then go back to the first one, but I'm just too much of a purist and like to read them in order. I have a feeling this series is going to get good.
April 5, 2022
Sharman just flirts with being unlikeable - he cheated on his wife, was fired from the police force with cause, and is occasionally chauvinistic - but he is trying to get his life on track, and let's face it: many men in that era were at least occasionally chauvinistic.
July 31, 2021
Nick Sharman P.I. has all the qualifications required for crime noir - he's a disgraced ex-cop, was shot in the foot, is just out of a year-long stay in a mental institution after a breakdown, he's a recovering addict, divorced, drives a Jaguar E-Type, and he drinks a lot.
First published in 1992 it is set in the London of that time, mostly in the grubby parts of it. It draws heavily on pulp crime and, of course, Hammett and Chandler - it works for me.
Nick has been hired by the father of Patsy Bright to find his missing daughter. Traces of Patsy prove elusive and it soon becomes clear that she knows more than her prayers :)
Nick does all the right things and finds out absolutely nothing except that his investigation is becoming increasingly dangerous - it's a good thing for him that he can take a beating!
Luckily for the length of the book a mysterious stranger steps out of the shadows and solves just about every aspect of the case for him.
"A Good Year for the Roses" is a slow burn of a book, it takes a long time to get going but once it does it builds up a considerable head of steam.
If it were to be published today it would surely draw down the wrath of the PC brigade - but then, what doesn't?
I enjoyed it a lot - it doesn't bring anything new to the table but what it does bring is a fine example of the genre.
First published in 1992 it is set in the London of that time, mostly in the grubby parts of it. It draws heavily on pulp crime and, of course, Hammett and Chandler - it works for me.
Nick has been hired by the father of Patsy Bright to find his missing daughter. Traces of Patsy prove elusive and it soon becomes clear that she knows more than her prayers :)
Nick does all the right things and finds out absolutely nothing except that his investigation is becoming increasingly dangerous - it's a good thing for him that he can take a beating!
Luckily for the length of the book a mysterious stranger steps out of the shadows and solves just about every aspect of the case for him.
"A Good Year for the Roses" is a slow burn of a book, it takes a long time to get going but once it does it builds up a considerable head of steam.
If it were to be published today it would surely draw down the wrath of the PC brigade - but then, what doesn't?
I enjoyed it a lot - it doesn't bring anything new to the table but what it does bring is a fine example of the genre.
November 8, 2024
A rock solid late 80’s PI novel with a British twist. Nick Sharman is an ex-copper, ex-junkie and thus ex-husband who is doing his best as a bottom-feeder PI in a tough part of town (South London). He accepts a simple missing person job in order to make the rent, but like all the best hard-boiled crime yarns, things are never quite as simple as they appear. Things get violent and bloody as the bodies pile up and the mystery gets deeper. I’m glad there are a bunch more in the series because I’m gonna need more Nick Sharman shenanigans in the near future. Highly recommended! 😎
March 2, 2023
FOOKING BRILLIANT! Guy was 20-30 years ahead of his time, really edgy for his time and for some "Cozy" types, but in the vein of current grit lit guys this guy cuts the grade.
A great storyline and an anti-hero you can cheer for, but this is not a book for "snowflakes"
A great storyline and an anti-hero you can cheer for, but this is not a book for "snowflakes"
June 4, 2021
Quite good. The plot is a little far-fetched, but good. The protagonist sounds a little like Philip Marlowe. Not quite yet.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 21, 2014
Private detective Nick Sharman trawls the mean streets of London in search of missing girl Patsy Bright in the first book in the classic series of Sharman novels by British crime author Mark Timlin. Timlin writes in a cool sardonic style giving Nick Sharman an air of Philip Marlowe about him combined with a gritty British slant. Sharman is an ex-cop, ex-drug addict, drives a classic E-type Jaguar and likes booze for lunch. This is tough crime noir given a talented and stylish polish by the author. Mark Timlin makes an impressive start to the series, building slowly at first then halfway through the novel stepping on the gas, racing to the explosive denouement. To conclude A Good Year for the Roses is brutal, shocking and heartbreaking in equal measure and leaves me searching for the next book in the series.
July 31, 2015
Private detective Nick Sharman trawls the mean streets of London in search of missing girl Patsy Bright in the first book in the classic series of Sharman novels by British crime author Mark Timlin. Timlin writes in a cool sardonic style giving Nick Sharman an air of Philip Marlowe about him combined with a gritty British slant. Sharman is an ex-cop, ex-drug addict, drives a classic E-type Jaguar and likes booze for lunch. This is tough crime noir given a talented and stylish polish by the author. Mark Timlin makes an impressive start to the series, building slowly at first then halfway through the novel stepping on the gas, racing to the explosive denouement. To conclude A Good Year for the Roses is brutal, shocking and heartbreaking in equal measure and leaves me searching for the next book in the series.
June 22, 2016
What a difference to that last book I read, you knew his was based in the 80's, loads of references to it, loved the main character. Lots of violence and some sex scenes but that doesn't bother me, only downside is the rest of the books in the series are more than 99p, so unless they go down in price may never finish series, not that I'm tight but loads of good books out there cheaper! :-(
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews