Charlie Williams (1) (1971–)

There are two great reasons to read Charlie Williams' novel Stairway To Hell. Firstly the high concept premise, that back in the 70s Led Zep's Jimmy Page was messing about with witchcraft when he swapped the soul of David Bowie (along with a few other slightly less famous names) with that of a newborn infant in the maternity ward. That infant then grew up to be a frustrated club singer called Rik Suntan, the narrator, and the other great reason to read this.

Suntan is a truly monstrous show more creation, an out-of-control egomaniac with inversely proportionate talent who makes £15 a night murdering Cliff Richard songs and reinterpreting the hits of today in the way they were meant to be sung.

So far, so funny...

Read the full review at my blog. show less

Deadfolk
by Charlie Williams
Serpent's Tail
June 2004

Royston Blake ("Blakey") is the Head Doorman at Hopper's Bar and Bistro. Actually, that's bein' a bit posh. Coz Hopper's aint a Bistro.
Hopper's is a boozer innit? It's Blakey's job to keep the argy-bargy to a minimum and turn away undesirables. The Munton Brothers are the most undesirable of the lot. They get around in a van known by all and sundry as "The Meat Wagon." Thing about the Meat Wagon is, if you're in a position to know exactly show more why it's called that then you're not gonna be able share that information. The Meat Wagon takes its passengers on a one way trip to Hurk Forest. And that's the thing about the town of Mangel too. Only one way you leave Mangel and that's in a pine box. Unless, of course, you've been booked a one way trip in the Meat Wagon. The Muntons don't provide pine boxes.

Blakey's got trouble. He's had a run in with the Munton Brothers in which he got a right kicking and not even his trusty wrench, his weapon of choice, could get him out of it. Now there's talk around Mangel that Blakey's lost his bottle; he's regretting opting for backing down, it's damaged his reputation for being a hard man . He's not gettin looks from the girls any more and even spotty little Herberts are givin him lip now. A man can't live with that. A man's gotta do summat about that.

Blakey's chance comes when he's forced by the Muntons to take part in holding up his boss for the contents of Hoppers' safe. And a doofer in a box. Everyone wants the doofer in the box, and Blakey realises if he's to get out of that trip to Hurk Forest then he'll have to find that doofer in the box. Trouble is Blakey hasn't a clue what the doofer in the box actually is.

Deep down Blakey is a rather simple soul. All he really wants is a quiet life; the occasional fag and tin of lager and the respect of those around him but he's not all that blessed in the grey matter department. We follow events from his rather confused perspective. And therein lies a great deal of the humour of DEADFOLK. Blakey's way of dealing with the confusing events around him is to try not to think about them and just continue on his way.

WARNING: DEADFOLK is not for the squeamish. There is violence and a lot of it. There are bashings, slashings, burnings, stranglings, shootings,drownings and an assortment of other grizly deaths using a variety of objects. Oh, and there's a chainsaw named Susan. There is also a great deal of profanity.

Having issued that warning, if you are a bit of a sick puppy and black humour appeals to you then you'll love every blood soaked page of DEADFOLK.

DEADFOLK is Charlie William's first novel. He has since written two others in the Mangel series, FAGS AND LAGER and KING OF THE ROAD. Williams lives in the Worcester area in England with his wife and two
children. His website is http://charliewilliams.net/index.html

August, 2005 show less

This might have gone better if I hadn't been listening to it in the car most of the time. The accent it uses is even worse through the Kindle text-to-speech voice. Anyway, if you're a fan of Guy Ritchie movies like "Snatch" then you'd probably enjoy this.

I have not read the prior books in Charlie Williams' Royston Blake series and nothing in this book's blurb prepared me for the actual text. Had I read even the first page, I wouldn't have purchased this one. The narrative is written in the first person, from Royston Blake's point of view. The dialect for this character is incredibly heavy and difficult to read. His speech is that of someone bought up in the backwoods, who is uneducated and crude. The text is also heavy on slang words I had show more never heard before.

The blurb led me to believe that this book revolved around chasing down a serial killer. But that was secondary to Royston Blake's everyday oddities and his life of chasing down women. Between the heavy dialect and the meandering plot, I just could not get into this one at all. show less