Criminal Records #11 – Tom Leins on Sharp Knives & Loud Guns
In the latest instalment of the Criminal Records series, Tom Leins puts together a playlist to accompany his latest book, Sharp Knives & Loud Guns (All Due Respect, 2021).

GET SOME by Lykke Li
Perhaps unsurprisingly, shotguns play a major part in Sharp Knives & Loud Guns – chiefly in ‘Slug Bait’, the first of the three brutal novelettes that make up my new collection.
Guns aren’t particularly commonplace in my stories (hammer, knives and cricket bats feature far more frequently) but this book features a paranoid, cocaine-fuelled amusement arcade owner and a trigger-happy vice cop, and both men favour loud guns as their weapon of choice.
Simultaneously brooding and propulsive, ‘Get Some’ by ‘Lykke Li would make a great accompaniment to the grisly early scenes at Paignton Cliffs Caravan Park, in which Joe Rey is forced out of hiding and into the company of deranged amusement arcade proprietor Ray Coody. “Like a shotgun/needs an outcome/I’m your prostitute/you gonna get some.”
Cool track, cool video. Get some!
PURE FILTH by Lack of Afro
Every now and then, when I write myself into a narrative cul-de-sac, I dig into my big folder of abandoned stories, pluck out a stray character or sub-plot and insert it into the faltering story. (Never delete anything, kids!) It warps the story out of shape in an intriguing new way, and takes the story in a brand-new direction. Did I do that in the first draft of ‘Slug Bait’? Yes, I did!
In ‘Slug Bait’, the sub-plot and the main plot rub shoulders multiple times before they eventually collide. One of the most eye-popping segues sees Joe Rey watching gay porn in the lounge of a disgraced politician, before participating in a vicious heist. I think ‘Pure Filth’ would work better to accompany the heist scene than the porno scene, but the title means that this funky little track can slot onto the soundtrack to cover both of these disparate scenes. Filthy stuff!
(Lack of Afro is from Devon too, which seals the deal for me!)
DIAMONDS & GUNS by Transplants
I first heard this song nearly 20 years ago (Autumn 2002), when backpacking around California. We spent a week or so in a hostel in LA, and whenever my Walkman ran out of batteries, and I couldn’t listen to my tapes, I’d tune into KROQ, where this song was playlisted. I listened to a lot of KROQ in the evenings, to drown out the sound of the obese Hollywood bottom-feeder in the corner bunk, wanking/grunting under his rancid blanket.
I was already a big Rancid fan (particularly … And Out Come the Wolves – less of a fan of rancid youth hostel blankets…), and this track blew my mind. I’m 42 now, and I still love it – so much so that I named a chapter after it in ‘Smut Loop’, the second novelette in the collection. I love the energy and the casual criminality of the lyrics. Imagine this song being played over Benny Hill-esque scenes of Paignton Noir carnage – cool, right?
Just swap chubby sex pest Benny Hill for a never-more-desperate Joe Rey, and swap the scantily-clad women for thieving rent boys, and you are in my headspace. (And, mark my words, my headspace is a lovely place to spend your free time!)
RAGING IN THE PLAGUE AGE by Les Savy Fav
I rediscovered this genius track during the first lockdown, when I was finishing off Sharp Knives & Loud Guns, and I love its raucous energy. Everything about this song is sublime, and I never get bored of listening to it! (The fact that the song is about a party taking place during a Medieval plague, is weirdly appropriate!)
Anyway, there’s a scene in ‘Sweating Blood’ – the third and final novella in the book – in which Joe Rey visits the scene of a notorious local atrocity that has been turned into a shrine by “the kind of ghoulish pricks that congregate at crime scenes” in search of his latest tormentor. He doesn’t find the individual that he is looking for, but he brutalises everyone and anyone who gets in his way.
Mark my words, the scenes of Joe Rey rolling into sheltered accommodation in full shitkicker mode while this song plays would be tremendous!
DRAG THE HILLS by Ben Weaver
I think the finale of ‘Sweating Blood’ is one of the most intense endings I’ve written to date, and it was pretty draining to write, as I knew I had to get it right. I guess the readers will ultimately judge whether or not I succeeded…
After finishing the book, this song shuffled into rotation on my MP3 player, on one of my looping lockdown walks around suburbia, and it blew me away. After listening to it on repeat, I cursed myself for not having heard it earlier, as the line “I’d rather have scars from the life I’ve lived” sums up Rey’s state of mind at the end of this book.
Sharp Knives & Loud Guns ends with a brief epilogue, and this is definitely the song that I’d like to play over the end credits. What would the authorities find if they were to drag the hills in Paignton? Buy the book and find out!
Bio:
Tom Leins is a crime writer from Paignton, UK. His books include Meat Bubbles & Other Stories, Boneyard Dogs and Ten Pints of Blood (all published by Close to the Bone) and Repetition Kills You and The Good Book: Fairy Tales for Hard Men (both via All Due Respect). His new book, Sharp Knives & Loud Guns, was released by All Due Respect in December 2021. For more details, please visit: https://thingstodoindevonwhenyouredead.wordpress.com/
Are you a crime writer? Would you like to write about the musical influences on your new book? If so, drop me a line via the contact form on the About page!