Needless Alley

  • Crime; Historical

  • January 2023

  • World Rights: Baskerville

William Garrett Book I

BIRMINGHAM, 1933.

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.

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.

Drenched in evocative period atmosphere and starring an unforgettable cast of characters, Needless Alley takes the reader from seedy canal-side pubs, to crumbling Warwickshire manor houses, and into the hidden spaces of Birmingham's Queer, bohemian society.

Selected Praise

Conjures up a backdrop so vivid you can taste the smoke in the air
— Val McDermid
Creates an atmosphere of mounting menace
— The Times
Has all the seamy glitter and cynical grime of the genre
— Daily Mail

Other books by Natalie Marlow

William Garrett series