Brit Grit Alley features news and updates on what's happening down British crime fiction's booze and blood soaked alleyways.
Geeeeeezah! This week down Brit Grit Alley, we have a guest column from the dark lord of crime fiction, Richard Godwin. Richard Godwin is the author of crime novels Mr. Glamour and Apostle Rising and is
a widely published crime and horror writer. Mr. Glamour, his second novel, was published in paperback in April 2012. It is available online at Amazon and at all good
retailers. Mr.Glamour is Hannibal Lecter in Gucci. The novel is about a
glamorous world obsessed with designer labels with a predator in its midst and
has received great reviews. Apostle Rising, in which a serial killer
crucifies politicians, is available :
It sold foreign rights throughout Europe. It is also
available in e-book with some juicy extras, an excerpt from Mr.
Glamour and four deliciously dark noir stories, like the finest handmade
chocolates. You can find out more about Richard Godwin here.
Take it away Richard:
FINANCE AND CRIMINAL PROFIT by Richard Godwin.
It is often said that ‘crime doesn’t pay.’ The
statement is an example of the isolated comment that has no real point of
reference in a wider reality. No, crime doesn’t pay if you are a mule or a
getaway driver, a burglar or an embezzler caught with your hand in the till.
But the guys at the top rarely get caught.
Examining the legal structure that surrounds the
prosecution of the men running crime syndicates bears fruit. It is not illegal
under EU law to be a Mafia boss. The accused has to be found guilty of a crime
and running the Mafia is not in itself a crime under EU law. This has caused a
major lawyer recently to suggest treating crime syndicates as an institution
not a set of individuals, and trying them as such, since many crime syndicates
are worth more than the average EU state.
A high level of organisation ensures profit. The UK
financial institution is propped up by laundered money. When Bill Clinton froze
Colombian cartel money London became the focal point for Colombian money
laundering. The Russian Mafia weren’t far behind. One major financial advisor
recently suggested that if the dirty money was pulled out of the city a major
financial crisis would occur within twenty-four hours.
The problem with the old adage is it doesn’t
understand modern organised crime. And that is the key word. Criminal
syndicates are highly organised. When the CIA was trying to get informants to
name those high up in the Colombian cartels they discovered an office set up by
the cartels dedicated to hacking and bugging the CIA so that they could get to
their informants first.
We live in an age of surveillance. Some of the
smartest exploiters of it are on the wrong side of the law. Lawful institutions
may need to recruit them. At that point any home spun morality goes out of the
window together with the idea that if you pay your taxes you are working within
a democracy.
My first novel Apostle Rising is about a serial
killer who is crucifying politicians, and who keeps raising the stakes and
slipping through the hands of the police. Wait for the sequel, out later this
year. Mr. Glamour, my second novel explores surveillance. It also deals with
the modern obsession with designer brands.
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