by Andy Maslen
Portakabins – brand name for portable or mobile buildings
posh – upscale (in case of newspapers, “serious” broadsheets as opposed to tabloids)
ructions – trouble, complaints, shit hitting fan
SC&O – Specialist Crime & Operations, unit within the Metropolitan Police Service responsible for dealing with all serious crime in London
SC&O19 – specialist firearms command
screw – prison officer
SIO – senior investigating officer
Special Brew – super-strength lager (9% alcohol by volume) brewed by Carlsberg, AKA “tramp juice”
tags – simple graffiti, usually a set of initials or a nickname
toe-rag – despicable or worthless person
topped – killed
tweaking – obsessive repetition of simple act like scratching face, common to methamphetamine addicts
UDT – unarmed defence (or defensive) tactics
villains – criminals
witness nobbling – threatening or blackmailing witnesses of crimes into not testifying
WPC – woman police constable
Stella Cole will return in Hit Back Harder.
Andy Maslen
Andy Maslen was born in Nottingham, in the UK, home of legendary bowman Robin Hood. Andy once won a medal for archery, although he has never been locked up by the sheriff.
He has worked in a record shop, as a barman, as a door-to-door DIY products salesman and a cook in an Italian restaurant. He eventually landed a job in marketing, writing mailshots to sell business management reports. He spent ten years in the corporate world before launching a business writing agency, Sunfish, where he writes for clients including The Economist, Christie’s and World Vision.
As well as the Stella Cole and Gabriel Wolfe thrillers, Andy has published five works of non-fiction, on copywriting and freelancing, with Marshall Cavendish and Kogan Page. They are all available online and in bookshops.
He lives in Wiltshire with his wife, two sons and a whippet named Merlin.
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