Colin Muir

***Colin Muir***is one of the three secondary characters within *Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday.*Within the story he is a recently widowed father who wants to bring his family closer together with a trip to Paris, France, a place close to their hearts due to it being the children's mother's favourite holiday destination.

## **Pre-Book History:**

*Colin Muir* was born in Canterbury, Kent into a military family and naturally joined the British Army when he was old enough to enlist.

Whilst in the army he saw action which turned him towards religion, he also climbed up the chain of command and made it to the rank of leftenant.

Sometime whilst in serving, he met Elise. The two soon married and moved to Elise's hometown of Swindon, where Colin eventually retired from the military and focused on raising a family, having a daughter, Roxanne, and a son, Mark.

Shortly before the beginning of *Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday* Elise was diagnosed with cancer and died from it, leaving Colin a widow.

To bring his family closer together and celebrate Elise's life, Colin decided to take his children to Paris, France, to have a family bonding holiday, with Paris being Elise's favourite holiday destination when she was alive.

## **Appearance & Personality:**

### **Physical Appearance:**

* **Eye Colour -**Blue.
* **Hair Colour -**Grey.
* **Hair Style -**Short.
* **Facial Hair -**Clean shaven.
* **Skin Colour -**White.
* **Height -**5'10" (178cm).
* **Weight -**9st (126lbs).
* **Accent -**Kentish accent.
* **Age (End Of Novel) -**62-years-old.
* **Other Features -**Hunches due to back pains from old age.

### **Attire & Arsenal:**

Colin Muir tends to wear plain, average clothing, nothing too flashy except a silver watch on his left wrist.

Although he is trained in weaponry from his time serving in the military, he does not have any weaponry in the novel, until he picks up and uses one of the Maxim's Browning 9mm pistols.

### **Personality:**

Colin is a very relaxed individual, he is calm under pressure and wants to be the best Christian he can. He plays a careful game of power with Douglas and recruits his children to aid him in outsmarting the Maxim Brothers. He is incredibly patient and is able to sway their captors - Benjamin more so than Douglas.

It seems that Colin has some form of respect for Douglas, whether that be personal or for Doug's ability to rationalise situations.

Muir is able to hone in on weaknesses and exploit them with precision. He does this when manipulating Ben towards the end of the novel.

## **Biography:**

### **Thursday:**

Douglas robs a second car and continues to be annoyed by Ben. During their drive, Doug becomes more stressed, attempting to think of a solution to their Eurotunnel problem. Eventually, they go on the motorway, which Douglas explains is almost suicidal as they are Britain's Most Wanted on road full of cameras and law enforcement.

An idea hits Doug, he then tells Ben that they should find a caravan park and take somebody with a passport as a hostage, hide in the caravan as they get into the Euro Train and then they would be home free. Benjamin is all aboard for this plan and the duo go into the next caravan park they see.

Douglas goes into the check-in office and looks around, the Muir Family (Colin, Roxanne and Mark) enter and tell the clerk that they are having issues with their electricity source at their bay. The Muirs talk of their upcoming holiday to Paris and Doug targets them as their next hostages. Roxanne notices the Mancunian and gives him a flirtatious look.

Doug returns to Ben and finds him staring with fervour towards teenage girls playing in a nearby park. He scolds his brother for this and then informs him of his plan. The plan is to pose as workers or neighbours and get Colin out of the caravan so they can take him hostage, and by proxy his two children. Doug makes a point that if Ben touches or goes anywhere near Roxy, there will be trouble.

The Maxims proceed with their plan. They manage to convince Colin to re-check his power source after Benjamin yanked the plug out and from there held him at gunpoint.

They enter the Muirs' R.V. and inform them of what is going to happen in regards to getting them successfully though the Eurotunnel and onto mainland Europe. The brothers agree to take turns to watch their hostages as they sleep.

### **Friday:**

The group make it to the Eurotunnel, with Douglas sat in the front watching Colin and Benjamin in the back watching the Muir children. As the inspection comes and requirement for passports, the Maxims hide in the bathroom with Roxanne, who they force to strip down to her underwear and pretend to take a shower. There is a tense scene where Mark desires to give up their captors, however, Colin talks him out of it of fear of repercussions after the Maxims vowed they would go on a killing spree if found out.

Police climb aboard with a sniffer dog and demand to be let into the bathroom, already wet from the shower being on, Roxanne, with a gun up against her back, comes to the door with a towel wrapped around her to prove she is alone and her face matches her passport I.D. photo.

The policemen apologise and then allow the Muirs to carry onto the Euro Train. The Maxims come out of their hiding place and celebrate as they arrive in France.

Douglas demands they stick to the coast and make their way through to Spain via Bordeaux. He speaks with his contact, Jimmy, on the phone to see what the next steps should be.

Colin convinces Doug that they should stay in a caravan park he is familiar with. During the night time, Douglas banters with Benjamin and the younger brother takes it seriously and leaves, frustrated that he cannot best his brother verbally and the fact he hears more and more flirtatious things coming out of Roxanne's mouth, which everybody with them denies.

During his walk outside to clear his head, Ben has a smoke and is joined by a Frenchman. As the Frenchman talks in his native language, Benjamin believes the man is insulting him and proceeds to burn his face, then beat him to death in the car park.

Ben returns to the caravan and due to his mental state, Douglas takes the lion's share of the watch, out of fear that his younger brother may attempt to sexually assault Roxanne. During this time, Doug had been taking cocaine to help him stay awake and cope with the situation he's in. The cocaine is the only thing that helps him stay awake and watch his brother's movements.

### **Saturday:**

The following morning the group are back on track. Colin thanks Douglas, knowing why he stayed awake for most the night, to which Doug feigns ignorance. As a token of gratitude, Douglas suggests that his hostages be treated to a nice meal before they separate the following day, as they had calculated it that the Maxims would arrive in Jaca by Sunday and be collected by Jimmy's associates to complete the rest of their journey to Gibraltar before taking a flight to Brazil.

The Muirs graciously agree, however, Ben is not happy about this. They stop at an Italian restaurant in Southern France. The meal seemingly goes well, however, Benjamin nearly caused a fight between the Maxims and Muirs as he had his hand on Roxanne's lap and began to track further up her leg, until he stopped when called out and said he had no idea what he was doing and apologised.

After the meal, Colin, privy to Douglas' cocaine habit and Benjamin's inability to remain sane whilst one cocaine, orchestrates it so that Mark pickpocketed Doug and handed the cocaine sachet over to him so that he could give it to Ben later in the night.

The group stop for the night in a hotel. As with the previous night, Ben becomes frustrated with Doug over banter and Roxy and decides to take a walk. During his walk he kills a hotel maintenance worker who had been using a hammer, sighting him as giving him a headache; as he's killing the worker he visions himself killing his brother.

Benjamin returns to the hotel room and joins in on the group playing cards and then Monopoly. Colin says he needs to go toilet, where Douglas threatens that if he isn't back from the toilet in two minutes, he would kill Roxanne. Colin says he needs a *number two*and insists on Ben watching him instead so there was no unnecessary timer.

Doug laughs and hurls homophobic remarks towards his brother and Muir father, however, when Colin calls him out on not trusting his brother, Ben takes the initiative and goes with the old man to the toilet to guard him.

Within the toilet, Colin is able to manipulate an already frustrated Benjamin into expressing his annoyance at his older brother, and to take cocaine; this is aided by Douglas continually shouting homophobic slurs at them from the dining-room.

Fuelled on drugs, Ben returns to the table and after noticing Roxy flirt with his brother, he becomes insane and the Maxims fight each other. During the chaos, Colin steals one of their sidearms, Roxanne grabs a knife and Mark runs out the room to the nearest payphone to call the police, taking the second pistol.

Douglas manages to overpower his brother, he is shot by Colin but fights through the pain and chokes the old man to a presumed death. Benjamin grabs and wrestles with Roxanne. It seems the two brothers are on the same page once more, as Ben nods towards Doug when he tells his younger brother that he's going to find and sort out Mark.

Doug confronts Mark and doesn't want to kill him, yet Mark aims his pistol giving Douglas no choice but to shoot and kill him first. Before dying, Muir informed his captor that the police had been called, this prompts him to make haste back for his hotel room.

Re-entering the room, he finds his crazed sibling attempting to rape a bloodied and beaten Roxy. Doug stops this and scolds Ben for this, and as the two seem to reconcile once more, Benjamin attempts to kill his brother. Douglas manages to reverse this and in an act of desperate self-defence, he murders his kin.

Maxim breaks down and gives up, yet when Roxanne thanks him and tells him that Colin is still alive, Doug regains the motivation to grab their swag within a briefcase and make a run for it.

### **Sunday:**

In the early hours of Sunday morning, Douglas kills a Frenchman and steals his car. The police soon arrive on the scene and discover the murdered hotel worker and speak with Roxanne.

Soon enough, the police chase is on. Doug manages to evade the police until he crashes into a lamppost. Upon regaining consciousness, he shoots another Frenchman and steals their car after a brief shootout with the police.

He follows the road signs for the Franco-Spanish Border, and eventually manages to avert the French police cars with more shooting and high level driving. With only a police helicopter to contend with, Douglas calls Jimmy to ask for his help. Initially Jimmy does not answer his phone, however, he calls Doug back as he is driving in the opposite lane. Answering the phone, with the stereo blaring, it is hard for Douglas to understand what Jimmy is saying, and so as he overtakes a car and goes to turn the music down, an oncoming truck smashes into Doug's car.

Douglas is killed instantly from the crash, the novel ends with Jimmy asking for Doug on the phone, then hanging up. The end has a collection of newspaper headings from the following day that covers the events that had unfolded during the previous week where the Maxims had ran rampant. These newspapers are parodies of real newspapers.

## **Trivia:**

* Although the novel's music is dedicated to Colin Varley, Darryl's grandfather, Colin Muir is not named after his grandfather and the two sharing the same forename is entirely coincidental.
* Colin Muir shared the same rank in the army as Carl McIntyre from Darryl's 2nd novel, *Dark Blaze*.
* Colin was based physically on the actor *Harvey Keitel*.
* Muir is a reborn Christian of the Church of England.
* His middle name is named after *Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington*.