Review - Fifth Columnist

Fifth Columnist is a crime short story by Frank Westworth. It also serves as an introduction to his novel The Redemption of Charm, as there’s an extract at the end of the story.

These books are labelled as for an adult audience, as they contain explicit language and scenes of a sexual and violent nature.

Initially, I wasn’t comfortable with the introduced nameless characters; however, I was soon sucked into the story, which was about a British army sergeant being hired for a hit by, of all people, the police.

The one-liners come thick and fast, there’s innuendo and some great enjoyable word-play, too. There’s not a lot of action until we get to the devastating end, when the tables are turned, and not only tables. The slick switcheroo worked well; I didn’t see it coming.

Westworth’s anti-hero is J.J. Stoner, a former soldier and black ops assassin, who appears in the excerpt. However, the short story ‘Fifth Columnist’ isn’t about Stoner but one of his contemporaries, a sergeant.

The novel excerpt begins with Stoner on his Harley in the American north-east, enjoying the scenery. Unfortunately, a group of bikers take exception to him and a little friction results. Here, we get to see action, plenty of it, swift, brutal and bloody, laced with irony and wit. While this episode can stand alone, the excerpt nevertheless does what is intended, arm-twisting the reader in wanting to read more.

Like a number of crime novelists, Westworth has latched onto a motif for his short story series titles:

First Contract

Two Wrongs

Third Person

Four Cornered

Fifth Columnist

He must be doing something right, because he has picked up reviews in double figures!

And with endorsements from R.J. Ellory and Maxim Jakubowski, I suspect that he’s going places, doubtless on his beloved Harley-Davidson. [Our neighbours in UK owned a Harley or two, and one of their retired greyhounds was called Harley…]

Good old sex and violence – can’t beat it!

Writing – Market - Professor Moriarty Adventures

Maxim Jakubowski is a prolific and highly regarded editor (as well as writer). One of his latest projects is an anthology of brand new material – The Mammoth Book of Professor Moriarty Adventures – which he will edit for Constable Robinson.

He is seeking original stories to feature Professor Moriarty (preferably not always involving Sherlock Holmes, but can feature other characters who’ve appeared in the Sherlockian canon, such as Lestrade, Irene Adler, Mycroft, etc…). Ideal length between 4,000 and 7,500 words.

Rights required are non-exclusive World English language anthology rights, with an option for foreign language translation within the anthology should offers be made for overseas editions.

Deadline: 15th February 2015. He will accept email submissions (in Word doc) – see below.

Payment £130 (or, at current exchange rate $215) on publication.

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Moriarty, the Napoleon of crime, is a familiar character, although he only actually appeared in two Sherlock stories (and countless later pastiches by other pens, notably by John Gardner).

 

Maxim is seeking a broad mix of stories in which Moriarty can alternately appear in his guise as a master criminal, or even as a fallible human being (he’s retaining the option to write the ‘Moriarty In Love’ story himself), but more importantly he is hoping the stories he’s sent will be entertaining, ingenious and witty as well as gripping.

If the project is of interest, do let Maxim know well in advance that you are hoping to do a story so he can plan the project and keep a slot open for you.

This call for submissions is not just going out to crime and mystery writers, but also to authors in other fields in order  to have sufficient diversity and ‘voices’.

If you have any queries beforehand do get in touch with him at maxim.jakubowski@gmail.com

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Maxim Jakubowski worked for many years in book publishing as an editor (including titles by William Golding, Peter Ackroyd, Oliver Stone, Michael Moorcock, Peter Ustinov, Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Paul Ableman, Sophie Grigson, Marc Behm, Cornell Woolrich, etc…) and launched the Murder One Bookshop, which he owned and ran for over 20 years. He now writes, edits and translates full-time in London. He was born in London and educated in France, and his books have been translated into many languages. From an early age, he was always fascinated by popular culture and his writing and editing has criss-crossed all areas, from science fiction & fantasy to thrillers and, inevitably, erotica.

The above gleaned from Maxim's website –

http://maximjakubowski.co.uk/