Consumed By Fire: Sometimes Crime Pays, Sometimes There Is Not Enough Evidence To Convict. Sometimes Death's Door Is The Only Exit. Book #2 in The Liston ... Thriller Series.

by Stephen Gane

It’s Bristol, the St. Paul’s area, August 1990. Liston Pearce, who used to be the crime boss, is in prison.
Leon Brown is the criminal mastermind and organized crime boss now running every illegal money-making racket. His empire is on the up but he still wants to expand into new drugs, prostitution, protection, murder and now people-trafficking and gun-running.
There’s Mr Patel’s body to dispose of too. The police under detective chief inspector John Orchard hit a wall of silence and false alibis. Three members of Leon's yardie gang are becoming loose cannons.
When Liston is released from prison Leon has to make a decision. And what is he to do with his gangsters who can’t handle the pressure? A hard boiled story of gangland killing and power...

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 17, 2015

About the author

I'm Stephen Gane and I was born in Bath, Somerset, in 1948. I left school with no qualifications. I then found employment as an apprentice chef. I joined P&O and worked on cruise liners for a while. Then I moved to London where I ended my cooking career as head chef of a London Club. Liston's love of cookery is something he shares with me. My second career was selling antiques which I did until I retired. Suffering from dyslexia I've always had problems with reading and spelling so writing a novel never entered my head. But, Christmas 2013, I had a dream and had to write the story. Seven weeks and three days later "A Questionable Hero" was finished. And now I have written the sequel. I hope you enjoy reading my novels as much as I enjoy writing them.

Reviews

[Charles Chuckles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read.

A good sequel that kept me engaged throughout, although I did find the ending rather disappointing. Will definitely read the concluding novel.

[wally · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 jul 15
2nd from gane for me. i've also read his A Questionable Hero and i enjoyed that story. i have read this one in an earlier incarnation...so i am interested to see what changes gane made to the story. how often is one afforded the possibility of a chance like that? i'm coming off a reading of macdonald's travis mcgee stories, just finished The Lonely Silver Rain. so many stories, so little time.

onward, ever onward.

part two in the liston pearce series
this story begins
it was the beginning of august 1990. it had been a burning hot summer with record high temperatures over large areas of southern, central and eastern england. the heat placed strains on everyday life. it affected transport with closure of roads and even airport runways whose surfaces melted. and, as a precaution, speed restrictions were in force one some inter-city trains in case rails buckled.

there's a few more lines like the above followed by:

samuel jones, luton campbell and roy king had been working for leon brown for a few months. they loved the warm weather as it made them think of long, hot sunny days on the beaches of the caribean, cloudless blue skies, plam trees and rum punch. not that st. paul's, the area in bristol where they lived and worked in, was anything like this. they had been recruited to leon brown's criminal organization when liston pearce, their previous boss, was convicted and sent to prison for five years for carrying an unlicensed gun in a public place.

time place scene setting
* august, 1990, st. paul's area of bristol, england
* no. 49, a restaurant & cocktail bar owned by leon brown
* an office at back of the bar, leon's office
* a nearby pub
* a taxi
* a cafe owned/operated by jacob powell
* the black & white cafe, where sam, luton and roy spend much of their time
* the coconut club...where two of them go at night
* city road, an area of bristol where hookers are present
* patel's superstore, kumar patel, indian, owner
* an off-license next door to patel's store
* a place where a gang rival brawl took place
* time's passage is noted with phrases like "summer passed into autumn"...early november..."bonfire night tomorrow"
* leon owns four terraced homes and the layout is described...one can pass from one to another through interior walls
* roy's pad
* luton's place, a small terraced house w/a red wooden door
* waste ground at the back of temple meads station

characters major
* samuel jones, late 20s, prone to see doom, enjoys and collects comics
* luton campbell, ealy 30s
* roy king, mid-20s, black...all three are now members of leon brown's organization
* liston pearce, their previous leader/boss, serving time in prison, that story: A Questionable Hero he killed a young man who was attacking a police woman
* leon brown, crime boss in bristol, early 30s, is married, two children, and they have a pomeranian, mitzy, he is fond of
* kunmar patel, indian, though many mistake him for paki, born gujarat, immigrated to england, owns/operates a store in bristol, a kind of convenience store
* mrs patel, kunmar's wife

17 jul 15, finished. life got busy, work work work, as they say down in the mine shaft.
good story, fast-paced as in things happen one after another, drinking a cup of tea happens as does the killing of a man. story of gang life in bristol, yardies. whose story was this i asked as i finished...finally...work work work. whose story? leon brown? the crime boss? mr patel? the indian mistaken often for a paki, killed? sam's? luton's? roy's? or some of the many cops herein: orchard's? he retires by story end. floyd's? sweet's? a gay black policeman. m's? leon's sister. or maybe mrs. patel's? there's a cast of characters and time does not sit still, event follows event and the story progresses through time. to be continued, and this is #2 in the liston pearce series. an entertaining story...just wish time and work hadn't gotten in the way of reading, reading this that the other.