Rock and a Hard Place

By Laurence Watkinson

Dramatis Personae

Bill Ramsbottom: A detective chief inspector in the recently-formed Blackpool Metropolitan Police, the constabulary that serves Britain’s newest city and favourite seaside resort.

Lucy Brown: A chirpy young detective sergeant from East London now serving in the Blackpool Met.

Chief Constable Sir Ali Dar: Recently knighted for his efforts in stamping out corruption in the Blackpool Met; but exactly how successful was he?

Marcus Angel: A traditional London criminal character with a sloping forehead and fists capable of extracting the juice from carrots, currently living in Blackpool and insisting he’s gone straight.

Martin Masham: A gangster from Manchester determined to become top dog in Blackpool’s criminal underworld, and who especially longs to drive out any Yorkshire thugs who’ve had the nerve to cross the Pennines into Lancashire.

James Ouse: A debarred accountant from Yorkshire who now owns the Spitfire Club (legitimate) and various other businesses (less so) in Blackpool, and who delights in taking money off stupid Lancashire folk and tourists daft enough to venture west of the Pennines.

Douglas ‘Dagga’ Crosland: A Jamaican former reggae singer now living in Blackpool; an active pro-cannabis campaigner who few people realise is a leading gangster; the criminal mastermind behind almost the whole of Blackpool’s cannabis trade.

Gregory ‘Buzz’ Brzezinsky: A high-flying, go-getting American entrepreneur who owns Pleasure and Leisure Ltd, one of Blackpool’s major purveyors of family entertainment, and whose legitimacy as a businessman is beginning to be called into question.

Amanda Schindler: An American businesswoman who owns Blackpool’s other big leisure company, Tower Town Ltd, and who appears to have developed a soft spot for a man thought by the police to be potentially one of Blackpool’s most dangerous criminals.

Brian Barnfield: A greying greasy supergrass who has assisted the Other Met with their enquiries regarding London gangsterdom, and who has been resettled in Blackpool with a new identity; and who may turn out to play a bigger role in the defeat of Blackpool’s own gangsters than might have been thought possible.

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