Henry Christie series E-books

GREAT NEWS! Very pleased to announce that books 5-8 in the Henry Christie series - that is, 'Backlash', 'Substantial Threat', 'Dead Heat' and 'Big City Jacks' - are to be published as eBooks in the new year. 'Backlash' and 'Substantial Threat' in January 2013, 'Dead Heat' and 'Big City Jacks' in February. More information as I get it, including links, blurbs,reviews, etc ... and even though I say it myself (as I often do) these books are all terrific reads and I'm hugely proud of them and glad to see them available to readers again. That of course means that the first eight books in the series will soon be available and can be read consecutively. The newer ones are, of course, published as e-books soon after they are published as print books and the latest one - Fighting for the Dead - will appear as an e-book in December 2012.

This is the Kirkus review of INSTINCT (reviewed on May 1, 2012) - now available as an e-book from various platforms, including Amazon. Follow the link at the side of the page to take you to Amazon.

A terrorist hunt collides with a homicidal rapist’s spree.
Blackpool Detective Supt. Henry Christie is surveying the crime scene of a raped and murdered teenager when he witnesses the duly warranted shooting of a suspected terrorist sought by MI5, MI6, SIS, Special Branch, Counter Terrorism and his old pal Karl Donaldson, a supersleuth doing undercover work as a legate at the American embassy. While the agencies bicker over which has jurisdiction, another suspected terrorist is collared with bombs strapped to his chest and a detonator in his hand. Does that account for everyone? Donaldson thinks he winged another perp, slowing but not stopping his getaway. Blood droplets and airport security identify him as Jamil Akram, who runs terrorist camps in Yemen, instructs aspiring suicide bombers, and plans events for maximum public outrage and fear. Jamil hustles himself to Gambia, where Boone, a semi-retired smuggler, eventually realizes that the man he’s agreed to pick up is worth a lot more than the sum he agreed on. His blackmail buys him a gruesome, watery grave, the brutalization of his girlfriend Michelle and a spot of vengeance engineered by his drinking buddy Steve Flynn, an ex-cop in Christie’s squad who now takes on fishing charters. Meanwhile, Christie learns that one of the four different sperm deposits in his teenage victim matches Jamil’s DNA. As Christie, Donaldson and Flynn (Facing Justice, 2011, etc.) share information, skullduggery most British comes into play, with more deaths and a cover-up in the offing.
Nobody makes coincidences seem as likely or as deadly as Oldham, who tempers all this mayhem with a new romantic entanglement for recent widower Christie, but also staves off his retirement with the adrenaline rush of the chase.

---

My first ever published piece of fiction, a short story that won first prize in a Police Review short story competition in 1983. First prize was £150 (I think) and a trip to London to meet and have lunch with Dick Francis and Peter Walker (author of the 'Constable' books that became the basis of the TV series, Heartbeat) Great prize!

HOME AND FAMILY.

The house was on one of those new estates that are being erected everywhere. It was semi-detached and made of red brick, quite tastefully designed within certain economic limits, and the garden had a turfed front lawn which the builder had the audacity to call landscaping. He’d done this at no extra cost.

In all it was good, clean and pleasant, but had no character yet. I supposed that would probably come in a few years time when the meagre saplings had been given time to grow and the plot had been adapted to the individual ideas of the home owner.

Theirs was number four and had been half of the first pair of houses to be constructed, so the road to it had been made up.

Further on, the inhabitants of the newest houses were obliged to run their cars over potholes that must have wrought terrible damage to their shock absorbers. I didn’t envy them at all.

However, they weren’t my problem, so they didn’t matter.

I parked outside and paused for a few seconds to take in everything before venturing to the front door.

The woodwork – the window frames, weather boarding, eaves and front door – was all done in brilliant glossy white which contrasted strongly with the blood red Accrington brick.

The front lawn, turfed and landscaped, had been trimmed already and a flower bed planted all around with pansies and such like. The centre of the lawn had been cut out, the rich black soil turned over but nothing had been planted yet. It would probably have roses there eventually, I thought.

The garage formed part of the house. It’s door was painted white also. On the driveway was a three year old Mini, its metal work gleaming and polished. It could have been brand new.

Reluctantly I released the catch on my seat belt and let it run back on the inertia reel. Then I took my clipboard off the passenger seat, opened the door and got out.

As I walked up the short driveway I brushed some crumbs off my uniform and adjusted my clip-on tie.

I remember thinking I should look as tidy as possible, but even as it went through my mind I countered it. How absurd! If there was one thing that didn’t matter it was my appearance.

The husband answered the door and managed to smile at me. He was a good looking boy, clean shaven, with fair skin and a good head of black hair. He wasn’t much older than twenty.

I learned he was an apprentice draughtsman or architect or something like that. His eyes were a piercing blue, a sort of film star blue.

When you see eyes like those on screen you think, ‘they can’t be real.’ But then you meet someone, like this boy, and they are real.

He was wearing a pale blue sweater – one of those with a leaping panther motif – a floppy collared shirt, jeans and a pair of old fashioned zip-up slippers, which seemed almost ludicrous in relation to the rest of the outfit.

Had it been another time, another place, another incident, I would have remarked on them, made a joke perhaps, but not now.

Why did this have to happen to the best people, I thought.

He led me through into the living room and I felt cold as I glanced quickly round. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t fair. Where was justice?

Sitting on one of the chairs was the wife, hunched over, her head in her hands, long silky hair cascading down, over and through her slim fingers. She looked lost and when she sat up and faced me, I knew she was.

She had a beautiful oval face, clear skin, uncluttered by any blemish – or she would have had, had it not been wrecked by grief and torn apart by misery.

She had put make-up on earlier, that was obvious, because now the mascara had run with tears, leaving black, ugly streaks down her cheeks.

Lipstick was smeared around her mouth. She must have known how bad she looked but couldn’t have cared. I didn’t care either and thought again, acidly, ‘the best people...’

I think she nearly said something and I would have liked to hear her voice – I knew it normally would have been bright and chirpy – but in the end she said nothing, shook her head and gazed blindly ahead, choking back sobs, almost hiccupping with the effort, but remaining silent.

I think I looked at her for almost a full minute, the husband standing just behind me. I was mesmerised, absolutely entranced by beauty engulfed in despair.

The husband coughed and I came to. He led me upstairs. Pointing to one of the bedrooms, he said, ‘I don’t want to go in.’ I nodded, understanding.

Nor did I.

I pushed the door open.

She lay there in the cot barely weeks old, unmoving. A face as beautifully formed as her mother’s, but still. Features all in perfect miniature, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, but still.

I swallowed gently and pulled the sheet over her head.

I didn’t bother calling the body removers. There was no point. I carried her out in the cot and drove to the mortuary with her in the back seat of the panda.

THE END

Scene of the Crime

The blog of author J. Sydney Jones, focusing on mysteries and thrillers with spirit of place - many thanks to Syd for posting this interview with me! (the inconsistency in the text is down to me, not Syd, by the way)

“Murder Was a Frequent Visitor to Blackpool”: The DCI Henry Christie Novels of Nick Oldham

May 30, 2012 by Scene of the Crime

Nick Oldham follows the old dictum of writing what you know. He spent thirty years in various positions in the Lancashire Constabulary before retiring in 2005 to write full time. He has written eighteen well regarded police procedurals in the DCI Henry Christie series, novels set mostly in Blackpool, England. “A flawed and very human hero, inside-the-cop-shop politics, heart-pounding suspense, and gritty realism are trademarks of Oldham’s excellent Henry Christie series” noted Booklist of these works. “Gritty and precise” is how the London Times described the series, while Kirkus Reviews dubbed these works “splendid British procedural[s] with complex plotting.”
Oldham’s series begins with the 1996 title, A Time for Justice, and continues through Fighting for the Dead, which will be out at the end of the year. Also published in the U.S. in 2012, Instinct offers “unexpected twists, a multifaceted plot, multiple subplots, and even a bit of romance,” according to Booklist.
Nick, it is indeed a pleasure to have you with us finally at Scene of the Crime. 

You know the drill–let’s start things off with a description of your own crime scene.

Most of my crime novels are set in the famous seaside resort of Blackpool, on the Lancashire coast in the northwest of England. I don’t actually live there – maybe 12 miles away now – but I came to know the place when I was a police officer in Lancashire, which I was for thirty years. Although I was never posted there, I spent quite a lot of time there for various reasons, such as to police political conferences and regularly, during my time on the Support Unit, to police the resort for public order/crime problems – of which there are many.

Even before I started writing – although the idea of being a writer was with me probably since I was a teenager – I thought that using Blackpool would be a good setting for thrillers and my time as a cop only served to confirm this. I still visit the resort regularly.


What things about Blackpool make it unique and a good physical setting in your books?

Blackpool is a great setting for crime thrillers. It is a people magnet, drawing well over ten million tourists in each year (and that figure used to be 18 million) and has a very transient population, with a surge in the summer months – obviously – and a lull in winter. There is a 200 metre-wide seafront strip called the Golden Mile, running north to south in which most of this population finds itself and in which most of the action in Blackpool happens. It is a place teeming with amusement arcades, cafes, and tourist attractions, iffy clubs and pubs and includes three piers – and of course Blackpool Tower, Britain’s answer to the Eiffel Tower, though not as romantic. The resort is very adept at separating visitors from their hard earned cash, although as the economy suffers, so does Blackpool and as a result becomes seedier and seedier in many places.

Inland, there are also some pockets of deprivation and some of the council estates are amongst the poorest in the country, often sitting adjacent to a middle class wealth -  and there is a lot of that in Blackpool too. I love the contrast which can be used to create friction in fiction (sorry).

Because of this drifting population, much of the crime committed within the resort – such as murder and serious assaults – are very difficult to solve for the police as they are often committed by people who are only in town for a short time. It is also a lure for people on the run, from vulnerable youngsters to criminals who are hiding out and want to do so in an anonymous setting. The younger ones are ripe for being abused by older people, sadly.

It does have its moments as a murder capital and the offence is one that happens regularly on the streets and in the boarding houses. I recall working there one year in the mid-1980’s when there were 14 murders there in the first six months, though this is a record I don’t think it has achieved since.


Did you consciously set out to use Blackpool as a “character” in your books, or did this grow naturally out of the initial story or stories?

Yes, I consciously set out to use Blackpool as a background character in my books from the first and in so doing, it became a living, breathing thing, puffing away against the fictional characters in the books. Sometimes it’s like a demon, sometime like a reassuring friend, but always something – or someone – to be a bit wary of, because it can change faster than the tide, suck you in and spit you out.


How do you incorporate location in your fiction?
I think the action in my books unfolds naturally against the location, and although I’m not a slave to geography I also quite like to be accurate in some respects – such as for car chases and foot pursuits because I like to think that if a reader was interested enough, they could actually get out a street map and follow the action, which again adds to authenticity.


How does your protagonist, DCI Henry Christie, interact with his surroundings?
Although not born and bred in Blackpool, Christie is a Lancashire lad and has worked on the streets of the resort for the bulk of his service. He knows it intimately, he knows its denizens intimately and he gets a real buzz from working there. He feels as though he was put on this earth to investigate murder, and fight for the dead, and Blackpool provides him with many opportunities for this.


Has there been any local reaction to your works?
Local reaction to the books is very positive and I do very well in the libraries on the coast and my ‘chats’ are usually well attended. In fact I once did a triple header with two other writers at Blackpool’s main library (they shall remain nameless but were far better known than me) but at the end of the talk there was a queue of about a dozen people for my books to be signed and not a one for the other writers – am I OK to report this gloat?

I’ve recently had a three-quarter page article published in the Blackpool Gazette, the main evening newspaper on the Fylde coast and am hoping for some coverage in the book pages of the two big glossy magazines that cover Lancashire.

They’ve yet to be published in Cantonese!


Have you ever made any goofs in depicting your location or time period? Please share–the more humorous the better (we all have).

Whilst I have never regretted the fact that I use real locations for my books, which I think give them a gritty authenticity, I have to admit that I am not a slave to geography and will gladly move buildings to suit the story. I don’t mind relocating a petrol station, say, to enable a car chase to become more exciting. I don’t think I’ve made any particular goofs unknowingly but there are probably continuity errors in the books themselves, now at number 18 in the series. Again, I’m not a great slave to detail and if I think it’s right, I’ll write it, even if something doesn’t match up from a previous book.

The hardest thing to do is keep up to date with all the changes in police procedure and law, but I try.


Of the Christie novels, do you have a favorite book or scene that focuses on the place? Could you quote a short passage or give an example of how the location figures in your novels?

This passage is from my second novel, Nightmare City, which sums up what I’ve been saying about the resort. It’s at the start of a chapter early in the book when Henry is on his way to deal with the murder of a prostitute found on the beach and is mulling over what the resort means to him as a detective.

“There is one thing about Blackpool, Henry Christie thought whilst driving south down the sea-front. It is never a dull place.
“Completely unique. The world’s busiest, brashest, trashiest resort, attracting floods of tourists every year. It is a finely tuned machine, expertly geared to separating them from their hard-earned dough.
“Even in the low season when all the residents – police included – can take midweek breathers, the weekends draw in thousands of day-trippers, eager to enjoy themselves and throw their money away.
“The public face of Blackpool is that of a happy-go-lucky place where everything is perfect: funfairs, candyfloss, the Tower, the Illuminations and children’s laughter.
“Henry Christie rarely saw this side of Blackpool.
“He dealt with the flipside which most people never experience but which, as a cop, he could not avoid. There was the massive and continually expanding drug culture and the criminal manifestations behind it – burglary, theft, violent robberies and overdoses; each weekend the influx of visitors who attended the nightclubs left a legacy of serious assaults by itinerant, untraceable offenders; there was the growing problem of child sex and pornography; and the explosion of a huge gay culture had brought its own problems to Blackpool, related more to the prejudice of others, resulting in many gays being the subject of beatings or even rape by heterosexual males.
“Then, of course, there was murder.
Murder was a frequent visitor to Blackpool.”
Who are your favorite writers, and do you feel that other writers influenced you in your use of the spirit of place in your novels?

The great influences for me are Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins and Wilbur Smith – with a lot of Ian Fleming in there, too. I still re-read their books regularly. I do like American writers and have just discovered CJ Box, and enjoy his use of the wide, wild spaces in America – which become characters in their own right -  and love his protagonist Joe Pickett, kind of laconic, even a bit slow-witted on the surface, but underneath he’s as sharp as a knife used to skin bears.

I have also just rediscovered Carl Hiassen, one of the funniest writers going.

All the above evoke a spirit of place, whether it be war torn Africa or whacky Florida and show, to me, just how important location is to the overall feeling of a book.
 

If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?

I enjoy living in Lancashire, a wonderful county with a varied and exciting history and geography and to be honest I don’t feel the pull to live anywhere else. That said, I enjoy the sun on my back – not a daily occurrence in the north of England – and like spending time abroad. I am particularly fond of the Canary Islands, Gran Canaria in particular, and would like to spend extended periods of time there – a month now and again, maybe – rather than live there full time. The Canaries are so varied, each one totally different than its neighbor, but Gran Canaria has it all – wonderful beaches and a magnificent hinterland, full of breath-taking scenery. So I’d go there, if anywhere. Love the paella, too
.

What’s next for you?

Having just submitted my 18^th Henry Christie novel – Fighting for the Dead – I’m having a few days off, then am going to begin the 19^th, which is the last book I'm contracted to which is the last book I’m contracted to deliver. Beyond that, I would like to carry on writing the novels and I’m keen to take Henry on, maybe beyond the police (he can retire any time now) and also explore his earlier years in the job when he was a uniformed constable on the crime car in East Lancashire. Lots of ideas, not enough time – usual story!

Nick, thanks for taking the time to talk with us at Scene of the Crime.
For more information on Nick Oldham, visit his homepage. http://nickoldham.net/

• J. Sydney Jones

  
  J. Sydney Jones is the author of the acclaimed "Viennese Mystery" series, set in Vienna 1900. Novels include THE EMPTY MIRROR, REQUIEM IN VIENNA, and THE SILENCE.
  “What Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did for Victorian London and Caleb Carr did for old New York, J. Sydney Jones does for historic Vienna.”
  -Karen Harper, New York Times bestselling author
  Visit him at his Web site: www.jsydneyjones.com
  

• The Silence

  

• Requiem in Vienna

  

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• Honors/Awards

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A Time For Justice - a few thoughts on my first novel

In a galaxy far, far away ... some thoughts on 'A Time For Justice', my very first Henry Christie novel.
It was written when mobile phones were very rare, when cops perched on desks with phones to their ears, waiting for faxes to arrive and when laptops were still something you got in sleazy clubs. Re-reading it in order to get it into some sort of shape for an e-book, I was pleased at how good it was, with various storylines interweaving, lots of sex, violence and swearing ... mmm ... and a lot of action and some great set pieces.
It does have its flaws, yes, but overall I am still very proud of it and it does stand the test of time, and going back to see how cops operated without mobiles stuck to their ears was quite enlightening - and a hell of a lot of fun!

The Rolling Stones - Thick 'n'Thin, Thru 'n' Thru

Rather like Henry Christie, the main character in my series of 18 crime novels, I am a thru and thru, died in the wool, Rolling Stones fan.
My association with them began circa 1965 - I was nine at the time - and I still remember the grainy TV images of the check-shirted Jagger miming badly to 'Get Off Of My Cloud' on Top of the Pops. Truly mesmerising, even then.
That said, although their music was fairly regularly heard in the household, it wasn't really until that fateful day in April 1971 when I tuned into TOTP to watch a pink suited Jagger, leering knowingly at the camera, strutting and punching out the lyrics to 'Brown Sugar' (it's about what?) that I was really hooked and began to 'get them'.
I saved for and began to acquire their back catalogue - from the first unnamed album all the way through to Sticky Fingers, listening, exploring and finally beginning to understand them.
But it was the early summer of 1972 that things changed completely with the issue of Exile on Main Street, which became the soundtrack of my then adolescent life  - and, in some respects, still is.
My first big romance broke up to the strains of 'Rocks Off'. I played weekly poker sessions with school friends once a week to 'Rip This Joint' and - obviously - 'Tumbling Dice', a song that, to me, remains their most sublime ever, with Jagger's muddied vocals, Keith's incredible descending riff, Charlie's amazing drumming, all backed up by the stories of the ramshackle, drug-addled way in which the album was recorded in tax exile in the South of France. It all added to the mix and myth of the band.
And from then on, their music continued to be the backing track to my life - sustaining me through happy and sad times. They have always been there and this has been supplemented by catching them live wherever possible.
The first time I saw them was at Belle Vue, Manchester, UK in September 73, when they were just at the far edge of that incredible creative period of 68-72.I went there thinking I would sit and watch them, consider the music thoughtfully. No chance! The last time was in Sheffield, UK in 2006 where I thought they played better than ever. I was still amazed at how these spindly troubadours could grind a steel town to a complete halt. They were incredible.
So - what about their 50th anniversary celebrations?
Will they? Won't they?
Who knows, except them?
One thing I do know is that, as they've been a part of my life for 50 years, I'll be sad but not devastated if they don't tour or release a new album because I know that, whatever, they've been my constant companions for all my adult life and their huge body of work will always be there for me to plunder (I regularly find and rediscover forgotten gems) and together with all the memories, I'll be there for them whatever they choose to do, thick 'n' thin, thru 'n' thru, because they were there for me, even though they didn't know it.

The first four Henry Christie novels

With the e-publication of The Last Big Job, this now means that the first four Henry Christie novels (the other three being A Time For Justice, Nightmare City and One Dead Witness) are now available from Amazon - at an amazing price of 99p each - which I'm really pleased about because they've been pretty hard to track down for a while. Check out the new cover for The Last Big Job - and the lion's eyes in the clouds! Brill!

As promised, a list of the Henry Christie books in order, plus a blurb for each.

A Time for Justice - Jimmy Hinksman does not think twice when he embarks on a mission to bomb two businessmen in a busy motorway, but the bomb causes carnage which sets every police force in the country after him. (e-book available)

Nightmare City - One particular weekend generates a crime wave, including the murder of a prostitute, the wounding of a policewoman, a crazy car chase and the shooting of a gorilla. What Henry doesn't realise is that these incidents are linked.(e-book available)

One Dead Witness - A homicidal child-molester has broken out of jail and is heading for Blackpool to get even with one of Henry's colleagues, DC Danielle Furness, the police officer who had the child-molester jailed. (e-book available)

The Last Big Job - When three police cars are blown up, and elsewhere a building society heist goes terribly wrong, Henry investigates a case which will have devastating consequences for the whole force.(e-book available)

Backlash - It is party conference week and Blackpool is throbbing with politicians, media, demonstrators, hangers-on and spin doctors. The last thing Henry needs on top of that is a murder.

Substantial Threat - When the brother of the country's most notorious gangster is killed, Henry gets sucked into the world of ultra-organised crime which knows no international or moral boundaries.

Dead Heat - One of his daughter's horse-riding friends asks Henry to investigate the mutilation of some very expensive bloodstock owned by her family. He agrees, but knows he is going against his better judgement.

Big City Jacks - When a murdered Manchester drug dealer is found to be a CID informant working for a small nucleus of corrupt detectives, Henry is plunged into a complex investigation which has far-reaching consequences for the police service.

Psycho Alley - A series of increasingly violent assaults is shrouding the happy-go-lucky resort of Blackpool in a veil of terror, and Henry finds himself pitted against a devious killer from his past, and his own inner demons.

Critical Threat - Henry investigates the brutal killing of an ex-cop turned sleazy private eye and faces his toughest challenge as he tried to head off a ruthless assassin who has never missed a target.

Screen of Deceit - When 14-year old Mark Carter's sister Beth dies from a massive drugs overdose he agrees to become an informer for Henry, plunging them both into the world of teenage street gangs, brutal murder, drug turf wars and betrayal.

Crunch Time - Henry goes undercover to ingratiate himself with violent criminal Ryan Ingram. So the last thing Henry needs is the appearance of a man bearing a fatal grudge that will jeopardise not only himself, but also his family.

The Nothing Job - Whilst tracking down three dangerous criminals, Henry is asked to close down another investigations into a fatal police shooting. However he soon uncovers a number of worrying connections between the two cases.

Seizure - When disgraced ex-cop Steve Flynn's son Jake is kidnapped by a dangerous criminal associate, Henry must team up with Flynn not only to save Jake's life, but also to recover a million pounds in missing drug money.(e-book available)

Hidden Witness – Henry's investigation into the brutal execution of a seemingly innocent old man on a Blackpool side street uncovers links to organised crime and the realisation that there is much more to the old man's murder than simple underworld retribution. (e-book available)

Facing Justice - Dealing with a murder, a shooting, big-time gangsters with deadly scores to settle, police corruption, a sick friend, awful weather conditions, an amorous landlady and a wild cat that may be loose on the moors is not the sort of short winter break that Henry had envisaged. (e-book available)

Instinct – Grieving after a huge personal tragedy, Henry is trying to pull his life back together. He's thinking about retirement, but all thoughts of a peaceful dotage are shattered when the phone rings in the early hours and he is called out to investigate the brutal rape and murder of a teenage girl.

An introduction to the Henry Christie crime novels of Nick Oldham

I've written seventeen police-based crime novels featuring Henry Christie

The novels have been affectionately described at ‘Blackburn Noir’.  I'm a former Lancashire police officer with thirty years of operational policing,  and the books are are dark, police-based crime stories set in the bleak north-west of England.  At the heart of these novels is Henry Christie.

‘A main character who's both intelligent and appealing’ Emily Melton, Booklist

Henry Christie is the type of tough, caring, no-nonsense copper most of us instinctively imagine an effective policeman should be.  Married with two fast-growing daughters, he’s a working-class northerner through-and-through.  Amongst his troops he commands respect, because they know that when things begin to kick off, he’ll be leading from the front.  He likes to ruffle feathers and has little time for politically-correct edicts from above, or for fast-tracked management-speak bosses who can’t pull their operational weight.

Christie is a perfect balance of brains and brawn.  His cunning detective’s mind is easily the equal of a Morse or a Frost, but it’s backed-up, when needed, by the ‘kick-the-door-down’ attitude of a Jack Regan.  Yet, he’s human and he sometimes makes mistakes - occasionally big ones - and nobody could criticise him more harshly than himself.  Underneath the tough exterior he’s a deeply sensitive individual.  He’s haunted by the nervous breakdown he once suffered after a harrowing incident in which he risked his life pulling school children from a minibus submerged in freezing river.  Even now, it’s a constant struggle to prevent the bleak realities of the job from becoming become too much for him.  However, the job is his life, and he does it to the best of his ability.

Blackpool is the setting for most of the stories.  It’s an unusual but appropriately symbolic backdrop which highlights the underlying themes of the novels; a glitzy tourist veneer masking an underbelly of vice and corruption.  The novels themselves are fast-moving and densely-plotted police procedurals and cover a range of themes and topics.

A list of all the books - in order - together with brief outlines will be posted shortly.