’Broken Bodies’ by June Hampson
Published by Orion 4 April 2007.
June Hampson has written yet another of her winning formulas in this next in her successful series about criminal activities in the 60’s, and featuring the tiny and tough cockney blonde, Daisy Lane as her heroine. Daisy returns to Gosport after a spell in Greece to get over the death of her husband Kenny and the murder of her lover, Eddie, also the father of her baby son. Eddie was murdered by the notorious criminal Roy Kemp, and tiny Daisy has a plan to even things out. She has worked out a scam that will be sure to bring Kemp and his criminal enterprises to its knees. She calls in help from an old friend from her market days in Gosport, Brian, and that opens a brand new chapter of surprises. Meanwhile prostitutes are being brutally attacked and murdered in Gosport, and similar killings are happening in London, and then the bodies of two badly abused boys are found, dumped not far away from one of the murdered women, leaving us to wonder if there is a sadistic link in the killings. Roy Kemp owns the local brothel, although has nothing to do with its running.
Daisy isn’t short of admirers, her friend Brian, who she has called on to help her with her scam to nail Roy Kemp seems suitably keen, as does the local sergeant, Vinnie Endersby, from Gosport CID, who is working on the murdered prostitute case, but Daisy is busy socializing with Roy Kemp and a few prize boxers. Romance rears its head once again for Daisy in Hampson’s unputdownable story- but when it does, it comes as a surprise.
Hampson is a great story teller, and a strong, powerful and gritty writer. Everything you need in good thriller. But she has a distinctive style. Personally I love Martina Cole’s work, and would put Hampson in the same bracket. Cole writes about modern Essex criminals and Hampson about the 60’s South Coast crime and up as far as London, featuring villains such as the Crays and the Richardsons. The 60’s era in itself was a memorable period, we all know the catchphrase ‘The swinging sixties,’ and are mindful of those carefree days of free love and a different kind of crime, that in itself adds to the interest of the story. I personally, sometimes, wish I was just a little older to have experienced those days. The descriptive and colourfully observant eye of Hampson, with the fashion of the era, the characters and the places helps the story explode with colour and atmosphere. Hampson is great at characters too, especially the women. I loved Daisy’s cockney friend Vera who gave up the game to open a massage parlour, and has a secret love of hats, and cats, also Roy Kemp’s mother is beautifully drawn and feels like the mother we’d all like to have. Even the cats in the story were hard to leave behind. Hampson is a natural writer, a great storyteller, and a real page-turner and someone who should be at the top of the fiction charts. Next one eagerly awaited.
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Linda Regan