For reasons… I’ve been playing around with character cameos for Instagram… Which admittedly is partly procrastination. As I am making them anyway, I’ve decided you, dear readers, may enjoy seeing them, with a little background on the characters featured.

The world of Hannibal Smyth has an ever growing array of characters, some more influential than others and some whom’s influence on Hannibal’s life is yet to be felt in full. the latter is true of today’s pair. Karma was first alluded to in ‘From Russia With Tassels’ in one of Hannibal’s many digressions from the story he was supposed to be telling. It was a brief mention, no more than a couple of lines, but the Soho dancing girl with the exotic name, exotic looks and a Croydon accent managed to create an impression and was the spark that led to ‘The Elves and the Boot-maker’ which strangely became Hannibal’s own creation myth. Because just like every superhero has a creation myth, ever disreputable, philandering, braggadocios, lying, scoundrel needs one too.

While ‘The Elves’ Gentleman’s Club, and the grand traditions of young bucks going to ‘get their boots polished’ or ‘getting their brogues waxed’ was created with Karma in mind, the proprietor of ‘The Elves’, Frankie Burns an East End thug with a passion for musical theater was created almost by accident, as I needed a reason the young Harry Smith was not sent packing by a bouncer for ‘tourism’. Thus he became an even younger Harry’s childhood friend and a whole backs story developed in a few lines. The bouncer became ‘Fabulous Frankie’, and instigated much of what was to lead Hannibal to the cells of the New Bailey a few years later at the start of ‘A Spider in the Eye’.

Both Frankie and Karma are featured in the short Early years stories ‘The Elves and the Boot-maker’ and ‘When Irish eyes are Scowling’, written for the Harvey Duckman series, they will also be among the stories featured in my own forth coming anthology ‘Cheesecake, Avarice & Boots’, yet hey Both entered Hannibal’s world almost by accident, seemingly no more than passing thoughts in stories Hannibal was telling me. Once both existed they took on a life of there own and were suddenly very much always there to start with.While they fit in to the main story arch in holes that I’d never realised were waiting for them, somewhere around book four they will start to play an increasingly important part in the novels. So they’re either happy accidents or always existed somewhere in the narrative, just waiting for old Hannibal to tell me about them… 

Or perhaps it was just karma…