Baskerville has signed two titles in a new series by debut author Natalie Marlowe, with the first, Needless Alley , to be published in January 2023.

Needless Alley by Natalie Marlow | Goodreads Needless Alley by Natalie Marlow | Goodreads

There were some very challenging themes, including the tragic impact of WW1 on the young men who had fought and those left behind and bereaved, the sex and drugs industry, the rise of the British fascism movement and the effects of poverty running through it all. I was impressed with the authors knowledge and research that was obvious to the reader. Ronnie is an attractive man, a little fey and living a bohemian life, like a streetwise Oscar Wilde but with a deep libertine streak. This could be down to the effects of war, but more likely his desire for money without honest toil. The fact he can rub shoulders with canal boatmen and drink in their pubs is beguiling if a little unlikely. At heart he is a damaged man with a nihilistic streak. William finds himself a refuge from all this for a while, an unexpected refuge, but in doing so he brings more trouble on himself than he could have imagined. When reputations are threatened, his hard-won status will count for little except to identify him as someone who doesn't know their place and who can therefore take the blame for whatever is really going on. The writing and scene setting in this book was absolutely brilliant. I could see the scenes so clearly I could have been watching on a screen . The setting of 1930s industrial Birmingham will evidently draw Peaky Blinders comparisons but it is not a city I see in books often so I enjoyed the fresh perspective.

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The characters were really well written and I had no difficulty in envisaging them and feeling for them. William was a really good and believable main character. The best way to explain my feelings on this story is to compare it to others; not great practice, but I feel it works for this. Some stories have multiple perspectives (this doesn't but bear with me here), within which there may be one that you dislike reading. As such, you slog through the difficult chapter because the proverbial carrot is dangling over yonder and you'd like to reach it. This is irritating but fine- just view the big picture.

Needless Alley: The critically acclaimed noir crime debut

Set in the early 30s Birmingham, Needless Alley explores the contradictions of that city - the powerful and wealthy with their country houses and vast incomes from manufacturing, and the demimonde. The bridge between the two is William Garrett - Billy - a private detective whose trade is to facilitate divorces for husbands who wish to be shot of their wives. When Private enquiry agent William Garrett, a man damaged by a dark childhood spent on Birmingham's canals, specialises in facilitating divorces for the city's male elite. With the help of his best friend -charming, out-of-work actor Ronnie Edgerton - William sets up honey traps. But photographing unsuspecting women in flagrante plagues his conscience and William heaves up his guts with remorse after every job.

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I have only known Birmingham since the 1970's but a lot of the places and building mentioned still exist. Needless Alley is a beautifully written novel, a very material book. Natalie Marlow dwells on the physicality of her city - the heat of the Summer, the stink of the canals, the Birmingham brass of a bullet casing, the new steel handcuffs chosen for that modelling session. And always the cigarette smoke, the drink, the noise, a cacophony that lets up only briefly when William finds... well, that would be a spoiler. The book conjured up the dark side of a city and its people still recovering, or not, from the Great War and the build-up to the next. Private enquiry agent William Garrett facilitates divorces for the city's male elite. With the help of his best friend - charming, out-of-work actor Ronnie Edgerton - William sets up honey traps. But photographing unsuspecting women in flagrante plagues his conscience and William heaves up his guts with remorse after every job. Photographs and film play a large part in narrative and are ultimately responsible for throwing light an all the mysteries.

Needless Alley | Natalie Marlow | 9781399801836 | NetGalley Needless Alley | Natalie Marlow | 9781399801836 | NetGalley

Being a Private Detective mostly means taking pictures of wives or husbands in flagrente, often a set-up. Easy money – unless someone dies, of course. In 1930s Birmingham, William (Billy) Garret does this sort of work, although he despises it. In fact he despises his whole life, trawling around in the underbelly of the city, Le Demi-monde, a place where the elite (usually rich men) keep company with and exploit prostitutes (usually female but males always feature). Born into poverty among the bargees who work the city’s canal system, he had been conscripted into the army at the start of the Great War, and developed skill as a trench raider, i.e. someone who crept covertly into enemy trenches for ‘clearance’ purposes, a task that required a strong will. Not a very useful skill in civvy street, but the will power meant he was less damaged mentally than many of his cohorts. Unlike Ronnie, his childhood friend and wartime comrade, for whom Billy maintains an avuncular interest. Ronnie is a tall, elegant, theatrical, Ivor Novello like, dipsomaniac, and Billy pays him to act as seducer in the honey-traps he sometimes needs to engineer. In this case Morton, a rich manufacturer and rising star in Oswald Mosley’s “Britain First” fascist movement, has been receiving letters accusing his wife of being involved in a range of depravities. To find out if there is any truth in this he hires Billy to follow her. When he can find no evidence to present to his employer, Billy sets up a honey-trap, using Ronnie in his usual role. But then the bodies start piling up, and Billy discovers that the Birmingham demi-monde is much worse than Dumas ever envisaged that of Paris. William's life changes when he meets the beautiful Clara Morton and falls in love. Little does he know she is the wife of a client - a leading fascist with a dangerous obsession. Soon, what should have been another straightforward job turns into something far more deadly. This is a gritty murder mystery set in 1930’s Birmingham. Our main protagonist is William, a private investigator who earns a living by providing evidence for divorce cases for a shady solicitor. One case that he takes on introduces him to Clara, the wife of a rich industrialist and his growing relationship with her makes him begin to look at his life differently. When the murder happens, he begins to act as a proper investigator and starts to see how little he actually knows about people.It starts with William a P.I. setting up rather sordid encounters with women so he can provide photographic evidence of infidelity for husbands who wish to divorce their wives but then turns into something much darker; pornography, BDSM, drug dealing, murder. Needless Alley gives us a rich and earthy insight into underbelly of mid-war Birmingham. I know the city well and I do love an early 20th century setting, so this was a good choice for me.