Kevin Sampson?s take on the dark side of Merseyside urban life: Is Liverpool also a C

[ahlam1399]

Kevin Sampson?s take on the dark side of Merseyside urban life: Is Liverpool also a C

</p>CRIME doesnâ??t pay? Yes it does. The evidence is all around us â?? whether real-life or fiction, millions of people across the world are fascinated by the dark and deeply unpleasant side of human behaviour.

Why is there yet another crime drama on television?

Why does Crimewatch remain such a popular programme?

Why do newspapers and TV news programmes carry so many reports of crimes and court cases?

And why are the shelves of our bookshops piled high with crime books â?? fact and fiction?

Because this is what a large chunk of the population demands.

People may be appalled by the terrible acts their fellow man and woman can be capable of, but they are still interested in finding out as much as they possibly can about them.

All of which helps to explain why the new, based-in-Liverpool work of fiction by Birkenhead author Kevin Sampson â?? The Killing Pool â?? is set to be the first in a five-part series of crime thrillers based on the central character of Detective Chief Inspector Billy McCartney.

In this first adventure, McCartney discovers a headless corpse close to the Liverpool docks. It is identified as being Kalan Rozaki, an informant who just happened to be informing on his notorious, drug-trafficking brothers â?? thereby helping McCartney in his bid to bring them to justice.

And yet talk of crime associated with a particular place â?? even when itâ??s fictional crime â?? can often be followed by accusations from some that the biggest things to take a hit are the image and reputation of the city concerned.

In The Killing Pool, the author gets inside his main characterâ??s head and writes: â??You wonâ??t catch McCartney going all Liverpool ECHO, trying to make out the cityâ??s a cultural this or a cosmopolitan that, just because some Scouserâ??s put a chess table in his cafe.

â??Letâ??s have this right. This is Liverpool weâ??re talking about, one of the great dirty knocking shops of the world…Capital of Culture? Liverpool is one of the great capitals of criminality.â?*

Blimey, Macca â?? sounds like a good starting point for a real-life debate.

Kevin says: â??I think port cities around the world classically show two faces.

â??They are cultural melting pots and there is no denying they have a rich tradition of folklore, music, great actors and actresses and a great arts scene, in general. And here in Liverpool, we would all like to perceive ourselves as being quick-witted and warmhearted â?? as demonstrated, for example, by the cityâ??s response to the IRA bomb threat at the Grand National in 1997 when Aintree was evacuated. That side of Liverpool is there â?? that humanity.

â??But there is, equally, a flipside and I think itâ??s puzzling that anyone would want to deny the dark side of all major international port cities. There is a black economy and there is a tradition of criminality.â?*

The man whose previous books include Awaydays, Powder, Outlaws and Clubland, stresses: â??None of my books that have been locally-set have been mistaken for tourist book guides for the city.

â??I evoke a Liverpool thatâ??s familiar to many of us that live in the area and part of my job is to bring the city to life â?? good and bad. I hope that comes off the page, whether itâ??s describing the flavours and aromas of Chinatown or the docks.â?*

And he adds: â??I donâ??t know why some people in cities are so touchy about the subject of crime. If you take The Wire, there is now a Baltimore tourist industry that has spun off from the show, while thereâ??s an Ian Rankin/ Rebus trail in Edinburgh.

â??Thereâ??s this assumption that it (crime fiction) might put people off going to a place, but I donâ??t think it works like that.â?*

Indeed, itâ??s not put people off joining the Morse and Lewis tours in Oxford, either.

One of the bookâ??s other characters is Roddy Dixon, â??Chief Crime Reporter of the Liverpool ECHOâ?*, and thereâ??s also an ECHO reporter called Barnaby Giles â?? and Kevin says: â??Without being flippant about it, the ECHO and all local media are among the best resources a crime writer could have.

â??I am not just saying this â?? I am an avid ECHO reader and I do listen to all the local radio stations. Itâ??s almost like piped music â?? you absorb it.

â??Meanwhile, for police procedure and the nitty gritty of terminology I was dead lucky to be able to consult a couple of now retired detective inspectors.â?*

Of his audience, he says: â??A surprising phenomenon about crime thrillers is that, worldwide, 70% of the people who consume crime fiction are women. And itâ??s the exact opposite for true crime â?? so itâ??s mostly men who will read biographies of the Kray twins and so on.â?*

Regarding McCartney, himself, Kevin explains: â??He has a conflicted relationship with the city. He lives in a lovely attic flat in Mossley Hill and has been here for many, many years â?? but his job is to fight crime, so he knows there is a certain endemic culture.

â??I definitely understand him and his motivation. To me heâ??s a caped crusader persona â?? and he refers to himself as being so.â?*

Kevin is close to finishing the second book in the Billy McCartney series and has â??very well-fleshed out ideasâ?* for three further ones.

And while they will feature different parts of the world â?? including Ibiza, Morocco, Amsterdam, Southern Spain and Bangkok â?? the action will still be rooted in Liverpool.

Thatâ??s Liverpool, Capital of Culture. Or, perhaps, Capital of Criminality. Or both â?? and many other things, besides.

The Killing Pool by Kevin Sampson is published by Jonathan Cape at آ£12.99. Kevin will be signing copies at Waterstones in Liverpool One at 1pm tomorrow.

* Explore our news map for latest updates from where you live

** Buy Tickets for days out – go to attractions in Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales with our new service






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