You Can’t Make Old Friends

(Brighton’s No.1 Private Detective #1)

by Tom Trott

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU 

 

Blacklisted by the police. Being sued by a client. And broke. Things can’t get any worse for Brighton’s No.1 Private Detective, Joe Grabarz.

That’s when his best friend’s body washes up on the beach.

Could it really have been ten years? What happened? How could his life have ended like this? He needs answers.

But with the city in the grips of organized crime, and struggling to deal with an influx of legal highs, who cares about just another dead drug dealer?

Joe, that’s who. After all, you can’t make old friends.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I’ve been on the beach at two a.m. and found it just as packed as during the day. Full of people lighting pointless disposable barbecues and pouring vodka into a watermelon for no good reason.

 

I must be off my game. Being around her was like putting a magnet next to a compass.

 

‘I love lawyers.’ I smiled as genuinely as I could pretend, ‘Estate Agents. Politicians. Anyone who makes me feel like I have scruples.’

 

He was wearing a polo-neck with some kind of symbol over the left breast. What symbol doesn’t matter, just the presence of a logo seems to say “I can afford to buy nice things, unlike you”, although a lot of the time it just says “I have more money than sense.”

 

I have never felt scruffier than when I walked inside those doors. The way the guy on the reception desk’s eyes bulged when he saw me I might have been a marauding crackhead about to chow-down on his limbs.

 

You know, most people grow up to regret bullying people. The other people are psychopaths. If I was charitable I’d say he hadn’t grown up yet.

 

You were as thick as thieves then, and look at you now: still thick and still thieves.

 

My Review:

 

I have a new author to fangirl and lucky me, I have two more of his books to read already loaded on my shiny new Kindle. I am totally enamored with the cunningly talented Thomas Trott, his agile writing style was top-shelf entertainment with sly snark, colorfully amusing descriptions, prickling intrigue that continually jabbed at my curiosity, and compelling characters who were tattered and besmirched yet remained endearing with a battered but not beaten vibe. I frequently smirked and occasionally cringed, yet I didn’t want to put this captivating tale down despite the periodic gruesome finds and crime scenes, as the quirkiness of the character’s inner musings and unusual encounters kept beckoning to me. Mr. Trott is surreptitiously sneaky and cleverly slipped in wry humor in the most unexpected places; I bet he is a total caution at parties. And score – I have three new additions to my Brit word list with: half-inch – which is to steal; chav – a subculture of aggressive hooligans who wear designer clothes; and nonic – a conical shaped pint glass used in British pubs.

 

And now a moment in memoriam of my beloved faithful servant, Redhot. Sob, I am heartbroken to report I had to lay my precious red Kindle to rest (in a tissue lined box and placed in a bottom drawer). My dear Redhot apparently expired from exhaustion and could not be revived despite repeated attempts at defibrillation. Her canary blonde replacement was immediately placed into service and was dubbed as Ms. Bombshell. Bombshell has been primed with Mr. Trott’s next Brighton adventure, Choose Your Parents Wisely.

Author Bio 

 Born in Brighton, I went to school in here, worked many jobs here, and have never lived anywhere else. I first started writing at school, where I and a group of friends devised and performed comedy plays for assemblies, much to the amusement of our fellow pupils. The young ones would cheer (and the old ones would groan) as we stepped up onto the stage, the buzz was tangible. It has been with me ever since.

As an adult I have written a short comedy play that was performed at the Theatre Royal Brighton in May 2014 as part of the Brighton Festival; Daye’s Work, a television pilot for the local Brighton channel; and won the Empire Award (thriller category) in the 2015 New York Screenplay Contest. I published my first novel, You Can’t Make Old Friends, in 2016; my second, Choose Your Parents Wisely, in 2017, my third, The Benevolent Dictator, in 2018, and now my fourth, It Never Goes Away, in 2019. When I’m not writing books, I’m writing about writing, books, and film on Medium.

My inspirations as a writer come from a diverse range of storytellers, but I have a particular love for the works of Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Joel & Ethan Coen, Arthur Conan-Doyle, Daphne du Maurier, Alfred Hitchcock, Bryan Fuller, Ira Levin, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Towne, JRR Tolkien, and many many more books and films beside. If you can’t find me, or I’m not answering my phone, I’m probably at the cinema.

Social Media Links 

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