Life on the Mean Streets of London
A colorful city still vibrant despite postwar decline
Before “Swinging London” there was post-war London, still recovering from the Second World War, the Blitz and Great Britain’s decline from its imperial height. In this memoir, Michael Hanson recalls his life on the streets and neighbourhoods of the great British city when he was a London Bobby in the 1950s.
He brings to life the “Barrow Boys” who prowled the streets around Covent Garden, the rebellious Teddy Boys, the prostitutes and other assorted criminals who were part of his life. Later, Michael joined the Criminal Investigation Department, the CID, the detective branch of “The Met,” better known as Scotland Yard, where he earned the rank of Detective Constable investigating more serious crimes.
After nine years with the force, he and his wife, Patricia, decided that police work was not compatible with a happy married life and they eventually emigrated to a new life in Canada.
British Gang Terror in the 1950s
Teddy Boys threaten small English Midlands town
Meet Daniel Compton, a Detective Sergeant on the Canonsfield police force who is out of favour with his superiors after refusing to look the other way when a politician’s son got caught with his fingers in a cookie jar. His new partner, Martin Devere, an impulsive young Constable who has a tendency to punch first and ask questions later, has been ordered to work with Compton. But the order comes down only because top brass think he’s bound to make things even worse for the Detective Sergeant and provide a good excuse for both of them to get the sack.
But if misery was supposed to bring them together, it worked, as Compton and Devere become natural allies and their partnership grows stronger every day. And they need to be as strong as they can! Together, besides dealing with the cop bosses trying to bring them down, they’re up against a violent “Teddy Boys” motorcycle gang suspected of a post office robbery and the brutal murder of a female accomplice. But they get invaluable help from some savvy World War Two veterans and a high-class Madam in a dramatic showdown that will blow your socks off!
Police race against time to prevent more brutal murders
DI Daniel Compton struggles to stop serial killer
It was a bleak and awful death. Her body was found by an ageing boozer, with his dog, on a morning hike to clear his brain of the vapours of the night before. She died in “The Fells,” a bleak landscape of exposed rock outcroppings and sparse grazing for the few sheep dependent on the struggling grass. Her body was splayed out on the rocks, arms and legs outspread, like a rag doll.
So begins The Lay-By Murders, Part Two of The Canonsfield Saga, with Detective Inspector Daniel Compton and Detective Constable Martin Revere. The two have emerged stronger and wiser after a gruelling investigation in Part One, Misery Loves Company. But they are severely tested by the case that starts with the young victim of “The Fells,” but expands outwards with the discovery of more and more victims.
After a long and exhaustive investigation, Compton is virtually certain that he has identified the killer but has very little evidence to prove it. So, he faces the worst possible situation, he can arrest the prime suspect without enough proof to convict him or allow another victim to die — if the killer is allowed to stay free. In a tense battle against a clever serial killer, it’s a race against time to prevent more women from being killed. And, once again, Compton’s efforts are hampered by uniform officers trying to discredit him.
It’s getting too Hot for Gangsters in London
Canonsfield under threat from Mobster fleeing Big City
He’s got big ideas about himself, this gang leader who likes jewellery, money, and fancy clothes. He also likes women, beautiful women, but they’ve got to keep their mouths shut and take orders. He can also grow a lot bigger in a quiet English small city than he could in London.
This is The Gangster Who Would Be Pharaoh, Part Three of the Canonsfield Saga. His name used to be Eduardo Raminello and he hailed from the island of Sicily, but now it’s Eduardo Rameses, and why not? He’d like to expand his power and influence even more than the ancient Pharaohs wielded in the past.
He is also a very dangerous man behind a series of violent armoured car robberies. Compton must stop him at all costs and plans a military-style operation against Rameses, with help from the same unlikely volunteers as before, in Part One of the Canonsfield Saga, “Misery Loves Company.” They include a group of World War Two veterans and a very determined, high-class Madam. Still, it is a damned close-run thing and Compton finds himself in his most dangerous situation yet.
Lebanese conflict spreads to Canonsfield
Muslim terrorists threaten town
Youths attack an old woman in front of a hospital in Canonsfield. But the attack is just baiting for their real target, Roger Phillips, a former bodyguard and security man who worked for several years in the Middle East. Phillips rushes to help the old woman and pays for his bravery with his life when one of the youths plunges a knife into his mid-section.
So begins Terrorism in the Midlands, Part Four of the Canonsfield Saga. It’s a frightening tale of violence and threats by a group of extremist Muslims with a permanent grievance against England and the West. Called to investigate the hospital murder, Chief Inspector Daniel Compton himself becomes a target of Muslim terrorists after they realize how much of a threat he is to their activities. In a violent showdown with the terrorists, Compton risks his life in a daring raid against a remote farmhouse filled with contraband weaponry.
After a Rape, a Deadly Assassin is Born
Police and Intelligence Officers join forces to thwart savage attacks
Born of a French father and a Caribbean mother, young Marie Savigny was overjoyed by her marriage in Paris to the son of a wealthy French wine exporter. But her happiness was not to last. It was only a few years after the end of the Second World War, but the nation was facing what many feared was another kind of invasion. Thousands of immigrants from former French colonies around the world were pouring into France, overwhelming health and social services in a country still recovering from a terrible war — and inspiring vicious race riots and civil disturbances.
After their marriage, Savigny and his young bride returned to the family estate in the Loire Valley, a region which had not, so far, been touched by the vicious attacks taking place more frequently in the Paris region. Shortly after their return, though, the newly married couple were attacked by a gang of toughs who beat and kicked Savigny so badly that he died before he reached hospital. Marie, a helpless witness to her husband’s death, was savagely raped by more than one of them.
It was the end of one life and the beginning of another, which could only end in more tragedy.