Natalie Marlow is a historical crime novelist with a fascination for the people and landscapes of the Midlands. Born into a family of storytellers, she takes inspiration from the colourful stories her grandparents told. Her debut novel, Needless Alley, starring private detective William Garrett, received glowing reviews from press and readers alike. Natalie holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and is currently working on the next book in the William Garrett series.
A fine writer with a great sense of period and place who creates an atmosphere of mounting menace and dread. A more than promising debut * The Times * Transplanting the hardboiled Hollywood noir of the 1940s to the backstreets of 1933 Birmingham, [Needless Alley] has all the seamy glitter and cynical grime of the genre * Daily Mail * Marlow has a nicely theatrical way with a scene, and her witty prose has texture and heft. The city is atmospherically rendered, the narrative has an almost hallucinatory quality and Garrett is an engaging leading man. Needless Alley is an exceptionally well-written first novel that whets the appetite for many sequels * Irish Times * Marlow's very engaging protagonist may herald the birth of a new genre: Midlands Noir * Financial Times * Needless Alley not only evokes 1930s Birmingham in all its dark glory - it introduces characters that are impossible to forget. Read it -- Alan Parks, author of BLOODY JANUARY Crafted with all the style and elegance of classic hardboiled fiction, lovingly splashed in the grubbiness and grime of interwar Birmingham's cuts, alleys and back streets. A smart, ripping yarn, whose compelling hero is movingly supported by a cast of lived in characters, and put through the wringer by some shocking and moving revelations. Sensational start to a new series -- Dominic Nolan, author of VINE STREET A terrific debut. It's not often that historical fiction gets this down and dirty, but Natalie Marlow has delivered dark and twisted in spades. I urge you to take a stroll down Needless Alley, but you might want to watch your back as you do . . . -- Trevor Wood, author of DEAD END STREET