Boom Time: True Crime in WW2 London by Mark Ellis

The accepted story of the Home Front during the Second World War is one of cooperation and teamwork as people across Britain linked arms to provide support for the war effort. Right? Wrong. Crime rates actually increased during the war years.Think foreign gangs roaming through London is a recent phenomenon? Think again as Maltese and Italians cornered the organised crime world. And what about the Black Market? Well, business was booming. As gangster Mad ‘Frankie’ Fraser later said, ‘I’ll never forgive Hitler for surrendering, we were making so much money!’And what about the Americans? Healthy appetites, charm and good looks were not the only thing they brought with them. Also racial segregation and a veritable army of criminals.Bestselling crime novelist Mark Ellis, author of the DCI Frank Merlin series, is interviewed about the criminal underworld during World War Two.Boom Time, a short book to open the eyes of anyone interested in the reality of the Second World War Homefront in the capital.Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur. He is the creator of DCI Frank Merlin, an Anglo-Spanish police detective operating in World War 2 London.Praise for the DCI Frank Merlin Series by Mark Ellis: ‘A real page-turner…juicy enough to devour in one sitting, you’ll immediately want to order the next in the series.’ DAILY MAIL’This is to my shame the first Mark Ellis book I’ve read. If the others evoke a vanished London so impressively, are graced with such complex plots and deep characterisation, and, above all, are written so well I shall have to read them all.’ THE TIMES’Masterly . . . compelling . . . one of the most attractive characters to emerge in recent detective-thriller fiction’ ANDREW ROBERTS, SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR’Against the backdrop of Blitz-hit London, this stylish thriller sees Scotland Yard’s Frank Merlin investigate a tangled conspiracy’ SUNDAY MIRROR’A richly atmospheric, authentic, and suspenseful detective series’ JOSEPH FINDER, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR’Unputdownable’ ROBERT LYMAN’An intriguing, masterly juggling of an intricate plot and an enviable command of detail.’ JOHN LAWTON’Extraordinarily atmospheric and compelling…a wonderfully intelligent and complex story’ CHRIS LLOYD, HWA Gold Crown Award winner