Short Stories to Entertain

    It is quite a long walk to Wood Green Tube Station from where Larry lives but that is what people who live in London do , isn’t it? they walk, up to a point, then they get a cab or a bus or a Boris Bike. For Larry , the thirty minutes did not seem too bad today mainly because it was dry. When it was wet the walk could be purgatory even with an umbrella. The driving rain, if it is driving, soaks his trousers and the drips from the umbrella get down his neck as he moves it to avoid poking people if the street is busy. But it is all worth the effort if you are going on a first date and are excited, nervous even.

The only reason I found out we were all going to die was because I fell in love pretty much as soon as I saw the mid-length bright red skirt and long blonde hair swirl across the restaurant. Then meander lithely around picking up cartons, bags and boxes and spray the red surfaces of the chrome tables. Within moments the place was pristine and ready for the next influx of diners who, as I watched, were already pouring through the doors to queue at the ordering screens and flick through menu options.   The place displayed an ambience of desirability. The lighting exactly right. Long tubes strategically placed within the high ceilings gave perfect illumination during long dark winter evenings. Big windows but positioned so there was no blinding light during hot summer days. Plenty of tables but spaced generously giving a sense of openness. Background music played but it was what I would describe as happy sounds, almost beguiling. 

  LIQUORICE STREET - A thrilling crime drama of theft, kidnap and murder is published. Buy -  https://www.amazon.co.uk/ Old Man is a barber but he has a secret with a dubious and very lucrative sideline. His past, though, is about to catch up with him. His son, Crispin, knows all about crime. It’s what he does. One problem: he’s about to get mixed up in murders and kidnapping not of his making. A body is found washed up on the river bank. DI Dave Simmons investigates and discovers a trail of events and murders that he struggles to connect. Crime boss Ron Draper is on the hunt for something - and those involved with it - and isn’t fussy how he achieves his goals. The results give Dave plenty to look at but nothing much to discover. Dave has history with both Old Man and Crispy, which adds to the difficulty of an already complicated case. How do a watch collector, a pair of twins and a thrill seeking city banker fit into the scenario? Struggling to make any progress Dave has to ...

  Stanley is standing next to the horse holding the reins in his right hand with all the horse’s luggage and feed piled nearby. His wife Clare is standing next to him although by no means still as she is clearly agitated. Mr Wagstaff’s brother is leaving, travelling slowly down the road in his four by four pulling his old, dilapidated horse box, his right arm extended out of the window attempting a goodbye gesture that lacks sincerity. Clare is wearing a dubious expression, the sort full of a thousand apposite questions which she is striving to arrange in a coherent order before enunciating the most important. She opened her mouth intending to speak, a frozen moment when just her jaw moved. She then turned and moved towards the open front door, slowly at first and then with increasing velocity until inside. Then she slammed the door shut. Not much had been said except, “ W hat’s that?” to which Stanley had replied, “I think it’s a horse, at least that’s how it was given to me. A...

My dad was a fella with an Einstein brain from a not so well-off family. The way his brain worked was a wonder. It took him a while to gather his thoughts which kind of suggested he was indecisive which was not the case. When it came to it, he made a choice and stuck right on with it. At fourteen he left school and worked as an apprentice bookbinder of all things. At fifteen he had enough to pay for night school. Electronics was the thing he thought. At sixteen his brother joined him. At eighteen they both qualified. At nineteen in 1940 he was in the RAF mending radios on bombers. His brother mended radios in tanks in the desert and Italy. In 1946 he got married on a whim to a nurse who nursed him. Nothing so romantic as a war wound. An in-growing toena il. In 1950 he was developing radar and early computers. His brother fixed TVs in South Africa after emigrating.     What is all this about you might ask. A life history. In a way for sure but mostly it is about taking the p...

  Raphael Ravenscroft suddenly fires up and fills the speakers of the bedside digital clock. That riff. And what a riff. That infectious sound, a creation of pure genius by the coming together of one of the greatest saxophone players of the modern age and the burgeoning talent of ex busker and Stealers Wheel frontman Gerry Rafferty. Eight in the morning and time to get up. Tommy Tucker, as is his usual practice, wakes but does not turn off the alarm. He always, most definitely always , listens to the entire track. Baker Street containing the best example of passionate saxophone playing. Ever.

  JUST WHO IS ELLIOT SHALLOT has been published -  A con man scams a lady but who scams the con man and who will end up dead.  CLICK TO BUY: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ VISIT MY WEBSITE: https://www.martindixonshortstories.com/ for details of this, other books and future publications. The First Chapter Can Be Read On My Website SHORT BLURB: Matt is a con man. And he’s a good one. But this time he’s picked the wrong mark. Maria’s mum has just handed over a priceless heirloom and the consequences are devastating. Now Maria needs to find Matt and recover the necklace before the head of the Family takes control. Although willing to allow Maria time, Family Boss Gianni has a backup plan. And from his villa on the shores of Lake Como, he’s putting it into action. When Matt is shot, he convinces Elliot to help him but has he made another mistake.

 DOUBLE SWITCH (How to get rich with a shotgun and a flamingo) is finally published. Click on: https://www.amazon.co.uk/DOUBLE-SWITCH  for details. Read below the short blurb and the first chapter. Stanley Holden’s all screwed up. His wife has died in a car crash. But things are about to change. Doris is screwed up. Her husband walked out leaving her with a young daughter but she still finds the time to talk Stanley out of his depression. Stanley wants to retire and has an exit strategy. Rob a jewellery shop. Rob a bank. Make a heap of cash. Simple. But he has a problem. For the perfect crime he needs a man with a shotgun and a flamingo. Benny Morgan has a sawn-off. A small-time crook hitting soft targets with a life dredging the bottom of the pile. He wants out. Enter his saviour, Stanley Holden. Detective Inspector Dave Simmons is tracking Benny and his cousin but is getting nowhere fast. After a hold-up that Stanley witnesses, Dave latches onto him and is convinced he’s ...

Walter Bobkin was an enigma, he disliked the name Walter so much he referred to himself as Bob. Just simply Bob. Bob Bobkin . That is unless he were to seek employment in which case he was determined to use Walter as he felt, even with his minimal qualifications, he would secure a much more professional position with such a title which is of course an incredibly snobbish attitude to have in this modern world. But then Bob is a snob, a person who lives in a superficial world on the periphery of reality. He is a man of independent means derived from his father's hard and industrious life so, barring investment disasters, it was unlikely that he would ever need to work anyway. A confirmed bachelor who had never really been interested in women, very set in his ways and a routine that was cast in stone. He was maybe about fifty, a tall man, perhaps as lofty as six foot four, but straight sided and spindly. He certainly did not have the physique or stature of a prize fighter, somethin...

Click on THE LINK below to read the first chapters of six Crime and Mystery Novels already published or shortly to be published. Included with the chapters are details of release dates or sites where the books can be purchased.  CLICK ON THIS LINK  https://www.martindixonshortstories.com/