Shortlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger 2009.
Judges’ comments: ‘Bad Catholics centres on the almost schizophrenic morality of a Catholic ex cop, Jimmy Costello, who returns to his former patch where he works at a shelter for the homeless. When one of the workers there is murdered, he investigates the crime. He is as ruthless and vicious as the hard men and yet has a strong sense of justice as he goes about atoning for his past. Minor characters like Sister Philomena and Mr Amhurst add a very moving element to the tale as well as a pure integrity which inspires Costello to help them.’
Jimmy Costello thought of himself as a good Catholic, a good father and a good copper - he wasn't. He was a corrupt and violent London CID Sergeant who, when his wife died suddenly of cancer, put a top villain in a wheelchair, got himself the quickest retirement on record and then disappeared. But where has he been for all these years and why has he suddenly returned? Meet Jimmy Costello and find out how very easy it is to become - Bad Catholics.
From Bible commentaries to the world’s first and only collection of beer poetry, James Green has been writing full-time since 1997. After leaving school when he was 16, Green became a miner for about a year. It scared the living daylights out of him and he vowed to never again do anything so dangerous or dirty. He spent the next 30 years with his wife Pat raising their three children and being ‘the most ordinary people in the world’. Green’s life took a turn for the extraordinary when he quit teaching, moved to Northumberland, and took up writing ‘to keep the wolf from the door’.
