Willie the Actor
By David Barry
ISBN: 9781837911196
Glancing quickly over the bar, he saw the bartender lying face down in a pool of blood, senselessly gunned down simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Glancing quickly over the bar, he saw the bartender lying face down in a pool of blood, senselessly gunned down simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. New York City in the prohibition era, and Bill Sutton’s wife thinks he earns an honest crust as a rent collector. Instead, he leads an extraordinary double-life as ‘Willie the Actor’, a notorious bank robber. Based on a true story, the novel’s protagonist is a gentle gunman who never once fires a shot.But it was believed he was jinxed and almost everyone he works with comes to a violent end.
About the Author
David Barry is the pseudonym of Meurig Jones, and he was born in Bangor, North Wales. He attended Corona Academy Stage School in Chiswick, London, from the age of 12. As a child actor he worked with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in “Titus Andronicus”, touring Europe in 1957. Also, as a teenager, filmed with Tyrone Power, and worked on stage with Paul Scofield. In his early 20s he played Frankie Abbott in “Please, Sir!” and “Fenn Street Gang”, at which time he wrote his first broadcast script. He also wrote “Keep It in The Family” for Thames TV (3 episodes). His novels include “Each Man Kills”, “Willie the Actor”, “The Ice Cream Time Machine”, “Careless Talk”, “More Careless Talk”, “Muscle”, “A Deadly Diversion” and Walking Shadows”. He has also published a book of short stories “Tales from Soho”.
His favourite authors are Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck and many thriller writers, including Michael Connelly, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Raymond Chandler, James Lee Burke.