Stephen Larkin is working as an agency journalist in his native Newcastle. To stop himself getting bored, he jumps at the chance of tracking down a child abuser who has friends in high places.
'Shaking down the politician hadn't given him the righteous kick he thought it would. Coming home to an empty house, he had opened the bottle, flirted with it, kissed it, made love to it, cried into it and, eventually, killed it.'
Stephen Larkin is back in his native Newcastle and working as an agency journalist. To stop himself getting bored, he's fighting greed and corruption in his inimitable way by blackmailing the powers that be into keeping their campaign promises. It doesn't help fill the empty spaces in his life, though. He needs a purpose - which is why he jumps at the chance to track down a child abuser with friends in high places. A cynic like Larkin is automatically suspicious of people like Alan Swanson. A charismatic local chancer and self-styled Minister for Youth, Swanson is the man behind the "Rebirth of the Region" project. But is his interest in kids a chance for a photo-opportunity or something more sinister? Larkin thinks that, as a reporter, he knows all there is to know about the evil that men do. But nothing has prepared him for this... Tough, gutsy, brutal, LITTLE TRIGGERS is a tale of modern city crime
Martyn Waites was born and raised in Newcastle Upon Tyne. He first worked as an actor and has appeared in numerous theatre and TV productions. His first novel, Mary's Prayer, featuring investigative journalist Stephen Larkin, was published in 1997. He has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger for thriller of the year, the Dagger in Library and the short story Dagger, and his novel The White Room was Guardian Book of the Year. Writing as Tania Carver, he created the Phil Brennan/Marina Esposito series, the first of which, The Surrogate, was shortlisted for the Theakstons Award for crime novel of the year. He has held two writing residencies in YOIs and prisons, twice been the RLF Literary Fellow at Essex university, held classes in creative writing for excluded teenagers and taught an MA in crime fiction. He can be found at www.martynwaites.com or www.taniacarver.com.