Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Dark Side of the Moon
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://leswoodwriting.com/
CITY: Barrhead, Scotland
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: Scottish
https://leswoodwriting.com/about-2/ * http://www.gcu.ac.uk/hls/staff/drleswood/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Scotland; married.
EDUCATION:Glasgow University, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland, human physiology lecturer. Worked formerly as lecturer in physiology at Queen’s College, 1987-1991; senior lecturer in physiology at Queen’s College, 1991-1992; senior lecturer in physiology in the department of biological & biomedical sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University 1992-2008; head of department of biological and biomedical sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University, 2008-2011.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Les Woods is a writer and lecturer. He lectures on human physiology at Glasgow Caledonian University. He has worked at Glasgow Caledonian University as head of the department of biological and biomedical sciences and as senior lecturer in physiology in the department of biological and biomedical sciences. He worked as lecturer and senior lecturer in physiology at Queen’s College in Scotland before the College changed its name to Glasgow Caledonian University.
Woods received his Ph.D in Physiology from Glasgow University. He lives in Barrhead, Scotland with his wife and dog.
Wood’s first novel, Dark Side of the Moon, is a work of crime fiction based in Glasgow, Scotland. The story focuses on a group of low-level criminals set on planning a bigger heist than they have ever attempted. Norman Boddice, the leader of the pack and a veteran criminal, is past his peak and is experiencing a deterioration of his reputation and territory. Despite his eroding reputation, Boddice can still count on a number of criminal cohorts to join him in his schemes.
The job he is planning will take a crew. Boddice wants to steal the Dark Side of the Moon, an extraordinary purple diamond worth around thirty million pounds. The gem will be on display at a store in Glasgow for five weeks as a part of the City of Jewelery festival.
The criminals Boddice gets to reluctantly join him in his improbable heist each have their skills to offer, as well as their weaknesses. The crew includes a collector of drug money, an ex-con hoping to acquire enough money to leave his street life behind, and a pair of tattooing twins who have trouble getting the words right on their tattoo-seeking customers. While Boddice is the brains behind the plan, the other men offer muscles, electronic skills, or knowledge of explosives. At various times, the reader gets to hear the story through the eyes of each of the participating cons.
Don Crinklaw in Booklist wrote: “The thieves are a collection of maladroits, and the dialogue zings, but there’s also something much darker lurking below the immensely readable surface of this powerhouse of a novel.” The book has components of both playfulness and danger, with humorous one-liners followed by scenes of violence. These moments of action include the death of an infant and the murder of a man with the use of paint as the slaying weapon. Crinklaw described the book as a “magnificent piece of writing purely on its own.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 15, 2017, Don Crinklaw, review of Dark Side of the Moon, p. 32.
Publishers Weekly, February 27, 2017, review of Dark Side of the Moon, p. 79.*
Dr Les Wood
Senior Lecturer in Physiology
+44 141 881 8518
L.Wood2@gcu.ac.uk
I graduated in Physiology from Glasgow University in 1981 and subsequently undertook a PhD in Physiology at Glasgow working with Bill Ferrell on pressure-volume relationships in joints and their effects on the discharge of articular mechanoreceptors. A post-doctoral position at Glasgow followed, working with Bill Ferrell and Ron Baxendale on the reflex effects of joint afferent stimulation on motor units and muscle contraction. In 1987 I took up an appointment as Lecturer in Physiology at Queen’s College, Glasgow becoming Senior Lecturer in 1991 and joined the Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences as Senior Lecturer in Physiology when GCU was formed in 1992. I took over from Iain Wilkie as Head of Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences in 2008 until 2011 when the Department of Life Sciences was formed.
Les Wood lives in Barrhead, near Glasgow, with Marie, his better half, and Skye the staffy. In his day job he lectures in Human Physiology at Glasgow Caledonian University. By night he is a crime fighter writer…
Dark Side of the Moon
Publishers Weekly.
264.9 (Feb. 27, 2017): p79.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Dark Side of the Moon
Les Wood. Freight (IPG, dist.), $14.95 trade paper (316p) ISBN 978-1-911332-00-8
Scottish author Wood's outstanding first novel focuses on a bumbling group of petty Glasgow criminals, who
undertake the improbable theft of the Dark Side of the Moon, a rare purple diamond worth perhaps 30 million [pounds
sterling]. The brains of the group is Norman Boddice, a man whose territory and reputation are eroding but who can
count on a number of lackeys dependent on his goodwill. Each of them gets to tell part of the story. Davie Prentice is
one of Boddice's leg breakers, Gordon Kyle the other; Alistair Boag is a hanger-on who has some skill with electronics
and explosives; identical twins Campbell and John Wilson are tattoo artists. Reluctantly, they all buy into Boddice's
grandiose plans for a spectacular theft from the store Trusdale and Needham, where the diamond will be on display for
five weeks as part of the City of Jewellery festival. The entertaining journey includes some wonderfully funny
interludes, some cruelty that rebounds unexpectedly, and clever surprises. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Dark Side of the Moon." Publishers Weekly, 27 Feb. 2017, p. 79. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485671178&it=r&asid=8967f86dd3f9ada8e6d213260cfa6b92.
Accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485671178
10/15/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508111363353 2/2
Dark Side of the Moon
Don Crinklaw
Booklist.
113.12 (Feb. 15, 2017): p32.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Dark Side of the Moon. By Les Wood. Apr. 2017. 316p. IPG/Freight, paper, $14.95 (9781911332008); e-book
(9781911332015).
This splendid offering is tagged "a caper novel," but watch out. Anyone expecting a romp, like Donald E. Westlake's
Dortmunder novels, is in for a surprise. The thieves are a collection of maladroits, and the dialogue zings, as in
Westlake and numerous other caper crafters, but there's also something much darker lurking below the immensely
readable surface of this powerhouse of a novel. Glasgow crime boss Boddice is out to steal a diamond from its display,
where it sits "like a drop of blood on a dagger point." His crew includes a weary collector of drug money from
"assorted schemie-scum"; an ex-con hoping to steal enough to escape his life on the streets; and twins who own a
tattoo parlor but have trouble getting the words right in their creations ("Sex Stud" becomes "Sex Dud" on a client's
groin). Slapstick aside, things can turn vicious in a moment. An infant dies, or a man is.killed with paint in a scene one
would like to turn away from but can't. The revelations in the twisty finale are backdropped by a conflagration that is a
magnificent piece of writing purely on its own. In all, a fiercely beautiful novel.--Don Crinklaw
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Crinklaw, Don. "Dark Side of the Moon." Booklist, 15 Feb. 2017, p. 32. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485442510&it=r&asid=ed18f2bc93cf68178acec1d942e25a12.
Accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485442510