by Daisy White
Kark: die
Keep it under your hat: keep it a secret
Keep mum about it: keep it a secret
Keep your hair on: don’t get so excited
Kneecapping: punish by shooting in the kneecap
Knee-trembler: sex standing up
Knighted: given a British honour
Knock his block off: punch him hard, block = head
Lad: young man
Lass: young woman
Late birds: people who stay up late
Lecky: electricity
Lift: elevator
Lippy: lipstick — can also mean loquacious
Little hussy: girl of loose morals
Load of tripe: lot of nonsense
Loft: attic
Lonnnie Donegan: father of British skiffle music
Loo: toilet (also bog, khasi)
Lorry: a truck
LSE: London School of Economics
Mac: raincoat
Magistrate: a civil officer who administers the law
Mantelpiece: shelf above a fireplace
Mare: derogatory term for woman, or can mean having a bad day (nightmare)
Marmite or Bovril: meat-based sandwich spreads
Mates: friends
Met: the Metropolitan Police, police department serving London
Mickey Finn: a drugged drink which makes the drinker unconscious
Milkman: person who delivers milk to the house
Missus: wife
MIT: Major Investigation Team
Mobile phone: cell phone
Mobile: cell phone
Mosquito: British airplane used in Second World War
Mothercare: shop selling stuff for babies and expectant mothers
MP: Member of Parliament, politician representing an area
Mumsnet: website where parents discuss stuff
Naff: lame, not good
Nail varnish: nail polish
Narky: bad-tempered
Net curtains: a type of semi-transparent curtain
News of the World: British tabloid newspaper
NHS: National Health Service, public health service of UK
Nick: police station (as verb: to arrest)
Nimby: Not in my backyard. People who object to developments/buildings, etc. use this word.
No-go area: dangerous place
No-mark: loser
North London / South London: separated by the River Thames
Nowt: nothing
NQT: newly qualified teacher
Nursery: a place which grows plants, shrubs and trees for sale (often wholesale)
Nutter: insane person
OAP: old age pensioner, senior citizen
Off his chump: slang for being mad, crazy
Off-licence: shop selling alcohol
Ofsted: UK government’s inspector of schools
On the game: prostitute
Ovaltine: malted milk beverage – served hot
Overall: a one-piece garment worn to protect clothes
Owt: anything
Oxbridge: Oxford and Cambridge universities
Oz: Australia
Palais: dance hall
Pathé News and Pearl and Dean: adverts before the movie starts
Pay-as-you-go: a cell phone you pay for calls in advance
PC: police constable
Pear-shaped: go wrong
Petrol: gasoline
Pin money: small amount of earnings
Pinny: pinafore
Piss off: as exclamation, go away (rude). Also can mean annoy.
Pissed off: annoyed
Pissing around: messing about, not telling the whole truth
Pissing down: raining
Planning Department: the local authority department which issues licences to build and develop property
Plantagenet: English royal dynasty, on throne from 1154-1485
Plaster: Band-Aid
Playing cards close to her chest: being coy with the truth
Pleb: ordinary person (often insulting)
Plimsolls: gym shoes
Plods: derogatory name for police
Police Gazette: newspaper produced to publish notices of wanted criminals
Poncy: pretentious
Poofter: offensive slang for a gay person
Portakabin: portable building used as temporary office etc.
Post: mail
Pounding the beat: working as a uniformed officer on the streets
Premier League: top English soccer division
Prick: slang for penis
Prom: a classical music concert where some of the audience stands
Puds: puddings/desserts
Pull the wool over their eyes: fool people
Pulling my leg: having a joke at my expense, teasing
Punter: someone who gambles in a betting shop
Pushchair: stroller
Q cars: A car that has a high performance engine and an unassuming exterior
Querent: person for whom the tarot card reading is done
Quite sweet on you: likes you romantically
Rag: newspaper
Ram-raiding: robbery where a vehicle is rammed through a shop window
Randy: horny
RC: Roman Catholic
Red Brick University: university founded in 19th and 20th centuries
Reggie and Ronnie: the Kray twins, gangsters
Register office: a government building where you get married or register births
Right state: messy
Ring: telephone (verb)
Roadworks: repairs done to roads
Roedean: upmarket girls’ boarding school
Roundabout: traffic circle
Rounders: baseball’s ancestor
Row: argue/argument
Rozzers: policemen
Rubbish: trash
Ructions: disagreements
Rum bunch: odd
S.P.: starting price i.e. the truth about what is being said
Scally: scallywag
School Friend: comic aimed at teenage girls
Scroat: low life
Semi: semi-detached house, house with another house joined to it on one side only
Set of pipes on her: a good singer
Settee: sofa
Shandy: beer and lemonade drink
Shedload: a large amount
Shout the odds: talk in a loud bossy way
Sick: vomit
SIO: senior investigating officer
Sixth form college: school for high school students in final two years.
Skiffle: 1950s style of popular music
Skip: a dumpster
Slacks: UK trousers/ US pants
Slapper: slag
Sling your hook: go away
Snapshot: photograph (also snap, shot, print, photo)
SOCO: scenes-of-crime officer, police officer who gathers forensic evidence
Sod: an annoying person
Solicitor: lawyer
Sort: to do or make
Stick of rock: a cylinder of candy often sold at the seaside
Sticking plaster: Band-Aid
Stinks like a haddock left out too long in the sun: doesn’t sound correct
Stitching me up: framing me
Stunner: beautiful woman
Sun cream: sun lotion
Super: superintendent (police rank)
Sweet: candy
Sweeting: endearment, like sweetheart
Swot: a nerd, a geek, someone keen on their studies
Tabloid: newspaper
Takeaway: takeout food
Tannoy: PA system
Tart: sex worker
Tea: afternoon meal of cakes, small sandwiches, tea etc.
Tea: dinner (Northern English)
Teddy boys: thugs and young tearaways
Ten bob: ten shillings: pre-decimal money — half of £1 = ten-shilling note
Tenner: ten pounds
The Boat Race: famous rowing race between Oxford and Cambridge
universities
The tube or underground: subway
This Is Your Wife: parody of TV show This Is Your Life
Ticking off: reprimand
Till: cash register
Tipsy: a bit drunk
Tizer: fizzy pop/soda
Tod: on one’s own
To-do: a commotion
Toerag: a bad person
Toff: upper-class person
Tommy Steele: 1950s-60s pop star
Ton: a hundred pounds
Torch: flashlight
Totty: attractive woman
Tower block: tall building containing apartments (usually social housing)
Travel card: transport ticket
Travellers: gypsies or other nomadic people
Triskele: Celtic symbol of three spirals
Trousers: pants
Tutor: university teacher
Tweedledum and Tweedledee: characters in an English nursery rhyme
UHT: ultra-heat treated milk for long life
UKIP: political party wanting UK to leave European Union
Undertaker: mortician
Up the duff: pregnant
Upmarket: affluent or fancy
Victor Sylvester: popular ballroom dancer and band-leader in the 1950s
Waccy baccy: marijuana
Wash: the washing machine
Water board: company supplying water to an area
Wedding breakfast: meal eaten just after the wedding (doesn’t have to be in morning)
Wee: little (Scottish)
Wheelie bin: a large refuse bin on wheels
White van man: typical working-class man who drives a small truck
WI: Women’s Institute, social club for women
Willies: (can mean plural of penis), to have the willies means to be frightened
Winkle-picker: pointy shoe or boot
Wolseley: model of saloon car used by the police
Yobs: thugs and young tearaways
CHARACTER LIST
Ruby Baker – nineteen-year-old apprentice hairdresser with a taste for solving crimes. Runs Ruby Baker’s Investigation Bureau from the back room of the hairdressing salon.
Mary – Ruby’s best friend. A single mum struggling to adjust to her circumstances and cope with her baby.
Kenny and James – young reporters set on finding the next big story.
Pearl – Ruby’s cousin, a nursing student who likes to party.
Victoria – Pearl’s best friend, also a nurse.
Beverly Collins – recently released from Holloway Prison. On a mission to find the daughter she was accused of killing ten years ago.
Johnny – flamboyant, upper class entrepreneur. Owns the hairdressing salon where Ruby and Mary work. Tougher than he appears.
FREE KINDLE BOOKS
Please join our mailing list for free Kindle crime thriller, detective, mystery, romance books and new releases, as well as news on the next book by Daisy White!
http://www.joffebooks.com/contact/
Thank you for reading this book. If you enjoyed it please leave feedback on Amazon, and if there is anything we missed or you have a question about then please get in touch. The author and publishing team appreciate your feedback and time reading this book.
Our email is [email protected]
More about the author: www.daisywhiteauthor.co.uk
http://joffebooks.com
Follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/joffebooks
We hate typos but sometimes they slip through. Please send any errors you find to [email protected]
We’ll get them fixed ASAP. We’re very grateful to eagle-eyed readers who take the time to contact us.
A SELECTION OF OUR OTHER TITLES YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY
DEAD WRONG:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/WRONG-gripping-detective-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B010Y7641M/
http://www.amazon.com/WRONG-gripping-detective-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B010Y7641M/
First a shooting, then a grisly discovery on the common . . .
Police partners, D.I. Calladine and D.S. Ruth Bayliss race against time to track down a killer before the whole area erupts in violence. Their boss thinks it’s all down to drug lord Ray Fallon, but Calladine’s instincts say something far nastier is happening on the Hobfield housing estate.
Can this duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies and before the press publicize the gruesome crimes? Detectives Calladine and Bayliss are led on a trail which gets dangerously close to home. In a thrilling finale they race against time to rescue someone very close to Calladine’s heart.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SECRET-gripping-detective-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B00XYMC5GI/
http://www.amazon.com/SECRET-gripping-detective-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B00XYMC5GI/
Shocking family secrets come to light when a young woman is murdered
Amy Hill, a nineteen-year-old student, is strangled and her body dumped on open ground in the city. New police partners D.I. Jim Neal and D.S. Ava Merry are called in to investigate this brutal crime. The last person to see Amy alive was Simon, the son of a family friend, but before he can be properly questioned, he disappears.
Detectives Neal and Merry are led on a trail of shocking family secrets and crimes. Can this duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies? Stopping this tragic cycle of violence will put D.S. Merry’s life at risk in a thrilling and heart-stopping finale.
If you like Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott, Ruth Rendell, or Mark Billingham you will be gripped by this exciting new crime fiction writer.
DEAD SECRET is the first in a new series of detective thrillers featuring D.S. Ava Merry and D.I. Jim Neal. Ava Merry is a young policewoman, recently promoted to detective sergeant. She is a fitness fanatic with a taste for dangerous relationships. Jim Neal is a single dad who juggles his devotion to his job with caring for his son.
Set in the fictional Northern city of Stromford, this detective mystery will have you gripped from start to shocking conclusion.
CRIME ON THE FENS
https://www.amazon.co.uk/CRIME-gripping-detective-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B01H98SG5G/
https://www.amazon.com/CRIME-gripping-detective-thriller-suspense-ebook/dp/B01H98SG5G/
A NEW CRIME THRILLER WITH A COMPELLING DETECTIVE WHO WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO AVENGE HER DAUGHTER