Henry Milner
James Morton – Author:
"A well plotted and thoroughly entertaining tale of lust, murder, bribery, loyalty, betrayal and revenge. Everything you’d expect to find in a classy crime novel."
Judge Rob Rinder:
“Drawing on a lifetime defending crime, Milner writes with elegant, compelling clarity; a novel that’s simply a joy to read.”
Wensley Clarkson – Author:
“An intoxicating yet deadly journey through the upper echelons of London’s Underworld, with the most colourful gangsters and eccentrics you’ll ever meet. Milner’s characters are unique and he clearly knows them all inside out.”
Donal MacIntyre – TV presenter and Investigative Reporter:
“Only someone with a lifetime dealing of working with on the coal face of the law could have produced a Grisham type blockbuster such as this; and readers familiar with Milner's work will recognise the detail and charm of his delivery and revel in the sweet taste of the additional ten short stories. You are in for a treat!
Another page burner from a man who truly has performed (doubtless) expensive miracles for hopeless defendants."
Martin Brunt – Sky TV crime correspondent and Author:
A cracking-paced crime caper of betrayal and revenge, sprinkled with sparkling dialogue from mostly dodgy characters you really shouldn’t like. But you will warm to the rogues and their dark humour, so cleverly drawn are they from the author’s real world of true crime.
For decades, Henry Milner has been the man to see for Britain’s most notorious villains who find themselves on an otherwise one-way prison van ride to an Old Bailey courtroom. And it shows in his fiction.
This second Milner novel (see Murder At The Bailey) again features as protagonist arch-criminal Big Jake Davenport; here lured out of recent retirement to deploy his specialist skills for a desperate millionaire in deep trouble.
Along the way are sex, dubious dealings and the author’s trademark musical references, set against his vivid insight of what goes on behind the closed doors of the criminal justice system.
Of course, not everything goes to plan and there are plenty of plot twists that lead to a thrilling finale. I‘m sure - and hope - we haven’t heard the last of Big Jake.
Frances Gibb – Former Legal Editor, The Times:
Henry Milner has produced another delight of a romp through the underworld, complete with an endearing rogues’ gallery and cast of hypocritical judges and old-style clubbable barristers. MIRACLES COST EXTRA comes in the same fast-paced style as MURDER AT THE BAILEY: highly readable, plot-driven and with neat twists. Milner is a natural, talented and funny writer: he draws on 40 years of experience of defending big-league criminals to evoke the atmosphere of an earlier era when life for top-shot lawyers and Mr Bigs alike revolved around expensive long lunches at favoured haunts in the West End and precincts of the Old Bailey.
The Mr Big here is Jack Davenport, a bank robber who upgraded to a professional fence and money launderer before “promoting himself to the rank of entrepreneur” - accompanied by his sidekicks Halfpint and Ernie. Davenport is ‘hired’ to effect an audacious break-out of a man in custody for murdering his wife after he caught her in flagrante with the local restaurateur. In this world, the reader is on the side of the scoundrels and there is honour, and ultimately justice, among the thieves themselves.
The novel also includes ten short stories, colourful real-life episodes culled from Milner’s wealth of anecdotes; they span the eccentric to the poignant, the human stories behind the criminals or their briefs. Few lawyers can turn the raw material of their working lives into reads that are entertaining and affectionate; Milner’s are both.