FUTURE RICHES and THE FELT TIP MURDERS

THE PALMER  CASES        Justin Palmer started off on the beat as a London policeman in 1964 and is now Detective Chief Superintendent Palmer running the Serial Murder Squad from New Scotland Yard.Not one to pull punches or give a hoot for political correctness if it hinders his inquiries Palmer has gone as far as he will go in the Met. and he knows it. Master of the one line put down and slave to his sciatica he can be as nasty or as nice as he likes.     The mid-1990’s was a time of reawakening for Palmer as the Information Technology revolution turned forensic science, communication and information gathering skills upside down. Realising the value of this revolution to crime solving Palmer co-opted Detective Sergeant Gheeta Singh, a British Asian WPC onto his team. DS Singh has a degree in IT and was given the go-ahead to update Palmer’s IT with all the computer hard and software she needed to do the job. Most of which she wrote herself and some of which is, shall we say, of a grey area when it comes to privacy laws and accessing certain restricted databases!  Together with their small team of officers and Claire, a civilian computer clerk nicknamed ‘JCB’ by the team because she keeps on digging for clues, they take on the serial killers of the UK.  On the personal front Palmer has been married to his ‘princess’, or Mrs P. as she is known to everybody for nearly thirty years. The romance blossomed after the young DC Palmer arrested most of her family who were a bunch of South London petty villains in the 1960’s. They have four children and eight grandchildren, a nice house in Dulwich and a faithful dog called Daisy who Palmer dotes on. They also have a neighbour called Benji, a retired, rich Advertising Executive who Palmer doesn’t dote on although all Mrs P's friends seem to!  Gheeta Singh lives alone in a fourth-floor Barbican apartment having arrived on these shores as part of a refugee family fleeing from Idi Amin’s Uganda. Her father and brothers have built up a good computer parts supply company in which it was assumed Gheeta would take an active role on graduating from University. She had other ideas on this, and also on the arranged marriage her mother and aunts still try to coerce her into. Gheeta has two loves, police work and technology, and thanks to Palmer she has her dream job.  Combining the old ‘coppers nose’ and ‘gut feelings’ of Palmer with the modern IT skills of DS Singh the two make an unlikely but successful team. The books have been described as ‘NCIS meets the Sweeney’ which seems to sum them up well. All the cases involve multiple killings and twist and turn through author Faulkner's signature red herrings and hidden clues alike keeping the reader in suspense until the very end.   Faulkner comes from a family of small-time South London villains and his insights into that world add a ring of truth to his writing. He assures you he avoided that career path himself.