The Really Dreadful Crime Company — Robert Adams

‘A fast-moving, often funny, often terrifying tale of the world of crime in Hull. Don't give it as a present to your friends in the police.' (David Nobbs, creator of TV's Reginald Perrin). The Really Dreadful Crime Company was born in the bar and café culture of Kingston upon Hull, out of a froth of cappuccino sprinkled with cinnamon and chocolate, in a moment of madness on the sunny pavement outside the Little Coffee Shop on Newland Avenue. The Really Dreadful Crime Company sets out to fill the gaps left by the police and carries out its own unique, if not always strictly legal, methods of crime reduction. Joan Johnson, her husband Harold and best friend Muriel Strong are faced in Hull with an out of control crime scene and a police force that don't want to know, or can't face, the reality. They persuade a bunch of almost ex-criminals and their partners to move from the South of England to Hull and found the Really Dreadful Crime Company, devoted, if not to crime prevention or reduction, at least to bringing about a better class of crime.