Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday

***Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday*** will be a fast-pace crime thriller novel that will be published by Darryl M. Finch-Ellis, as his third novel after *Dark Blaze*.

Finch-Ellis has already laid down some of the groundwork for the novel and is scheduled to began writing the novel in October, 2020, after the release of *Dark Blaze*. Darryl had completed *Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday* in early December, with the release date being the 4th of January, 2021.

*Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday* centres around three Mancunian brothers, Douglas, Edwin and Benjamin Maxim, in the modern day who rob a train travelling from Glasgow to Nottingham. Afterwards, they have a limited time to escape the country with thousands of pounds and the police on their tails.

Darryl has made it explicitly clear that the Maxim Brothers are not protagonists and are in fact raging criminals, regarding the novel as an anti-glorification of criminals message, as he believes too many criminals and people of low values and morals are put up on pedestals and even martyred in the name of political agendas and street justice.

Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday is 228 pages long.

## **Setting:**

*Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday* will be set in modern day Great Britain, beginning in Waverely Station, Glasgow, then heading southward from there on. The setting may even expand to France and Spain, if the brother's plans succeed.

## **Plot Summary:**

***Warning this section contains spoilers of the novel ahead***,

### **Monday:**

The Maxim Brothers stalk a Scottish mobster and board the same train as him. They proceed to rob the train and steal over £1,000,000 and various expensive jewellery from the passengers. Douglas orchestrates a kidnapping of an employee named Naomi Winters as a keep-safe, whilst Benjamin gets offended by passengers and proceeds to shoot and kill three of them.

The Maxims continue southward with Naomi as their hostage. Edwin suggests they rob from country pubs as they would pay with cash more so than card. To Edwin's annoyance, Douglas and Benjamin go through with a pub robbery. Before this, Benjamin begins to hear things said from Naomi that are rather raunchy and out of place.

Edwin is left babysitting Naomi, who attempts to escape, he beats her up for her failed efforts. Douglas and Benjamin, meanwhile, successfully rob the pub, with Ben shooting one of the patrons.

In a hotel room they had booked where Edwin and Naomi had been, during the night time after the successful heist, they are interrupted by another booker at the hotel, who Ben proceeds to stab to death.

Ben, Ed and Naomi flee to their car, whilst Doug sets the room on fire. The hotel explodes and the Maxims flee into the night.

### **Tuesday:**

The quartet find a second place to stay. Edwin informs his brothers that one more pub heist is required before they can continue onwards down to the Eurotunnel.

Douglas desires to do the job with Benjamin, however, Edwin moans that he thought of the idea and so he should be the one to do at least the last one they plan to commit to. Doug relents and allows this, yet does not like the prospect of Ben being on his own with their female hostage.

The robbery gets underway and seems to be going well, until Ed's inexperience costs him his life, as the owner of the pub shoots and kills him. Doug shoots the manager dead in retaliation and flees with a bag full of money and items they had stolen.

Within the hotel room, Ben hears things from Naomi which she rebukes. He tries to force himself on her and attempts to rape her. Naomi fights back, which leads to Benjamin brutally murdering her with a meat cleaver.

Douglas comes back to the horrific scene and instead of telling his youngest brother of Ed's fate, he instead tells him that they have to leave immediately and alludes that their middle brother has been captured by police and not murdered. Ben buys into Doug's lie.

### **Wednesday:**

Douglas and Benjamin attempt to come up with a way to get a hostage and make it successfully through the Eurotunnel. The murder of Naomi grates heavily on Doug and he spares no verbal wrath towards his brother.

They stop to get petrol at a petrol station. By this time the news has identified Benjamin Maxim, and so Doug tells his younger brother to stay in the car as he collects items for them both and buy petrol.

Ben disobeys his brother's orders and enters the petrol station. The two argue briefly before a verbal altercation with the cashier and Ben breaks out. Benjamin racially abuses the Middle-Eastern worker before he pulls out his pistol and proceeds to rob the petrol station. After the robbery Doug confiscates Ben's sidearm.

The brothers are forced to stay at a lake, posing as campers because Douglas states that it is too risky for them to stay in any sort of accommodation.

During the night they both drink a toast to Edwin, Ben still believing he is imprisoned and not dead.

### **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.

## **Background:**

Darryl M. Finch-Ellis began writing notes for this novel in 2017 when he was coming up with ideas for novels after he was finished with *Cataclysm*.

Finch-Ellis has desired to make a no-apologises crime thriller based in the United Kingdom since his days in high-school but it was not until 2017 when he began writing notes for this novel. He has always wanted to write a story involving a train robbery and deemed *Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday* as the perfect narrative for this angle.

## **Characters:**

The main cast are listed blow:

* **Douglas "Doug" Maxim**
* **Edwin "Ed" Maxim**
* **Benjamin "Ben" Maxim**
* **Colin Muir**
* **Roxanne "Roxy" Muir**
* **Mark Muir**

Murder Victims:

* **Abel Ruth -** homosexual man on the train from Edinburgh to London, shot and killed by Benjamin.
* **Earl Placard -** Scottish mobster on the train from Edinburgh to London, the Maxim Brothers' target for armed robbery, shot and killed by Benjamin.
* **Arthur Smith -** retired coalminer, protested the Maxims' robbery of his local pub, killed by Benjamin.
* **Tim Wilson -** inspects the Maxims' hotel room after hearing Naomi being hurt by Ben, stabbed to death by Benjamin.
* **Tom Fuller -** defends his pub from the Maxims and kills Edwin with a repeater rifle, shot and killed by Douglas.
* **Naomi Winters -** initial hostage of the Maxims, Ben attempts to rape her when they are alone but fights back, hacked to death by Benjamin.
* **Ullah Saeed -** petrol station employee, argues with Ben after racial comments, shot and killed by Benjamin.
* **Henri Bleu -** asks Ben for a light so he can have a cigarette, Maxim takes offence to this and perceived notions of undone banter, beaten to death by Benjamin.
* **Jean Moreau -** hotel maintenance worker, irritates Ben as he is walking along the balcony walkway of his floor, beaten to death by Benjamin.
* **Mark Muir -** calls the police to come to the hotel where they are being kept hostage, raises his gun to Doug, shot and killed by Douglas.
* **Benjamin Maxim -** attempts to rape Roxanne and then murder Doug, fratricide in self-defence by Douglas.
* **Eric Caron -** checks on Mark's corpse, shot and killed by Douglas.
* **Martin Boucher -** refilling his petrol at a petrol station nearby where Doug crashes Eric Caron's car, shot and killed by Douglas.
* **Undisclosed Names of French Police Officers...**

Minor Characters:

* **Elise Muir** - dead wife of Colin, and the mother of Roxanne and Mark, was killed by cancer.
* **Jimmy Saturn -** Douglas Maxim's contact and personal friend, aiding the brothers during their extraction to Brazil via Gibraltar.

## **Trivia:**

***Warning this section contains spoilers of the novel ahead***,

* The "*Monday*" and "*Sunday*" portions of the title are confirmation that the novel will take place over a single week.
* The "*Bloody*" and "*Guts*" portions of the title allude to the violence that will be in the novel.
* The brothers' last name, Maxim, comes from the Maxim Machine Gun.
* The brothers are Mancunians, just like Darryl M. Finch-Ellis.
* The main inspirations for this novel were Tarantino films and the real life crimes of Ronnie Biggs, who is mentioned within the novel as a codename for one of the brothers during their train heist on Monday.
* The soundtrack is an homage to Finch-Ellis' grandfather's favourite music - rock 'n' roll. This dedication for his grandfather, Colin Varley, is to commemorate his memory after his death to lung cancer on the 2nd of June, 2020.
* Contrary to how it seems, Colin Muir is not named after Colin Varley, it is a complete coincidence.
* The whole point of the novel is to de-glorify criminals. Darryl has stated it is a anti-glorification of criminals novel, akin to how novels revolving around war are still anti-war.
* Finch-Ellis refused to have any songs after 1980 for the soundtrack, and so the latest song on the soundtrack was released in 1979.
* The P.N.C. Records for the Maxim Brothers are only available in the paperback editions of the novel and were omitted from the kindle / e-book version by Finch-Ellis himself due to formatting issues.
* The Maxim Brothers were partially based off individuals Darryl had met during his time growing up and living in the rough council estate of Wythenshawe in Manchester.
* Finch-Ellis stated that as he took a different approach to writing this novel, he found it most difficult to exclude chapter breaks - something he believes makes reading any works a whole lot easier. He has, however, said that due to the pacing of the novel that chapter breaks were not really required anyway.
* Jimmy Saturn's surname is named after *Perry Saturn* a professional wrestler from the *Attitude Era*.
* The names of the French victims are not mentioned in the novel and are exclusive to this page.

## **The Soundtrack:**

The novel contains songs that are either played on a car stereo or on a C.D. player, below is a list of all the songs within *Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday* in chronological order:

* ***T. Rex – 20th Century Boy** – released in 1973, written by Marc Bolan.*
* ***The Allman Brothers – Ramblin’ Man** – released in 1973, written by Dickey Betts.*
* ***The Hollies – We’re Through** – released in 1964, written by Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks & Graham Nash (L. Ransford).*
* ***Led Zeppelin – Communication Breakdown** – released in 1969, written by John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant.*
* ***The Romantics – What I Like About You** – released in 1979, written by Wally Palmar, Mike Skill & Jimmy Marinos.*
* ***AC/DC – If You Want Blood** – released in 1978, written by Bon Scott, Angus Young & Malcolm Young.*
* ***The Kinks – Picture Book** – released in 1969, written by Ray Davies.*
* ***Harry Nilsson –* Everybody’s Talkin’** – released in 1969, written by Fred Neil.

* ***Eddie Money – Two Tickets To Paradise** – released in 1977, written by Eddie Money.*
* ***The Hollies – Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress** – released in 1972, written by Allan Clarke, Roger Cook & Roger Greenaway.*
* ***Neil Diamond – Sweet Caroline** – released in 1969, written by Neil Diamond.*
* ***Steppenwolf – Born To Be Wild** – released in 1968, written by Mars Bonfire.*
* ***Creedence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son** – released in 1969, written by John Fogerty.*
* ***The Rolling Stones – Paint It Black** – released in 1966, written by Mick Jagger & Keith Richards.*
* ***Creedence Clearwater Revival – Green River** – released in 1969, written by John Fogerty.*
* ***The Police – Roxanne** – released in 1978, written by Sting.*
* ***The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil** – released in 1968, written by Mick Jagger & Keith Richards.*
* ***Elton John – Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting** – released in 1973, written by Elton John & Bernie Taupin.*
* ***Gilbert O’Sullivan – Alone Again** – released in 1972, written by Gilbert O’Sullivan.*
* ***Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody** – released in 1975, written by Freddie Mercury.*

You can listen to the entire playlist, created on Finch-Ellis' YouTube Channel **HERE**

## **Release:**

The release of the novel on the 04/01/2021 had an issue due to K.D.P. having a technical problem with the paperback editions not being available to sell (being sold by a third party for £12.82 instead of its actual price of £8.99). After Darryl M. Finch-Ellis was made aware of this by buyers, he contacted K.D.P. and the issue was resolved in a few hours and now the paperback is available to purchase immediately at its original price.

### **Critical Response:**

Although the novel is very hard hitting and does not shy away from sensitive subjects which those of a fragile predisposition may find offensive or unreadable, Finch-Ellis has only received praise online on social media for his depiction for these criminals and the gritty realism of their personas.

## **Buying** & **Additional Links:**

Darryl M. Finch-Ellis has additional social media accounts you can visit, the links are listed below:

* Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday Paperback (U.K.)
* Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday Paperback (U.S.)
* Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday Kindle / E-Book (U.K.)
* Bloody Monday To Guts Sunday Kindle / E-Book (U.S.)

* Darryl's Official Website

* Darryl's Official Facebook Page

* Darryl's Official Twitter Page

* Darryl's Official YouTube Account

* Darryl's Official Instagram Account

* Darryl's Official Soundcloud Account

* Darryl's Official Patreon Account