Condemned - RC Bridgestock

 

New book in the DI Charley Mann series by respected Yorkshire based duo Bob and Carol Bridgestock

RC Bridgestock is the pseudonym or pen name for the combination of married couple Robert and Carol Bridgestock who together have nearly 50 years of experience working in the West Yorkshire Police service.

They first made their name as consultants on the popular television series Happy Valley which was broadcast on the BBC and starred Sarah Lancashire. From there they have written several standalone books such as the thrilling Reprobates and yet in 2020 they gained creditable traction with the publication of Payback, the first to feature feisty female DI Charley Mann - a woman whose ferocious appetitie for justice is a match for any person in the police force.

Payback was a thrilling read which featured Mann returning to her home near Huddersfield, this reverse fish out of water narrative with Charley returning home after a long stint in the Metropolitan force was both refreshing and gripped the ready from the first page.

In Condemned we find Charley again having to cope with a very cold case as it is January and a body has been found on a building site set for demolition. The forensics find two bodies, apart from each other one fresher than the other but the case throws in questions of legacy and land ownership in these still remote parts of our green and pleasant land.

Charley must contend against many hard-nosed egotistical males from the land developer where the bodies are found, to a young police officer who has a gambling problem affecting his work. These are expected in the still male dominated industry, yet it is the relationship with an elderly women that holds the key to the proceedings of the case and the spectre of ancestral family trees.

The air of suffocating oppression in the Yorkshire dales along with the incoming threat of Covid-19 that underlies the narrative is well done by the writing partnership. Personally though it does not reach the heights of the first novel - a common problem in new series as contemporaries Marion Todd and MJ Lee can attest to - yet those writers grew with each book in the series.

The wealth of experience at the disposal of Bridgestock is unparalleled yet in this instance the narrative did not hold the attention of this writer, yet it remains a solid piece of work in the crime genre. This reader looks forward to the next in the series.

CONDEMNED is out now from Canelo Press 

Payback - RC Bridgestock

New series of books by RC Bridgestock kicks off with PAYBACK

The writing partnership of husband and wife team, Robert and Carol Bridgestock, who together have a combined 50 years of police experience. They have garnered attention for the DI Dylan series which has eight books in its series; Payback is a new release with a female Detective Inspector at the helm, her name is Charley Mann.

We meet Charley returning to Yorkshire after some years serving the Met Police in London; she is back in the countryside as the youngest DI and catching up with all her old friends who never left and look unchanged from years passed.

When a brutal murder needs investigating, Charley is in charge and the interest of her ex-boyfriend, Ray, a local journalist who is taking far too much interest in the case.

This is a great introduction to a new series by Bridgestock; a say a good introduction as this reader found the plotting a little bit by the numbers however, there is a great jumping off point for the series. Mann is a character who you like spending time with and the team she works with are full of distinctive characteristics which will be more drawn out the more the series goes on.

The writer utilise their experience working on the force to great effect, and having been raised and work in the Yorkshire Police force for so long, this reader could not ignore the cloud of guilt that hangs over that area ever since the Yorkshire Ripper - how that casts a long shadow over the region, how it could have been avoided, lives saved and the shame is a heavy coat worn by all people in that area.

This is transplanted into the character of Charley who having returned to Yorkshire, thinks of it as a failure to return home, yet she must realise this will be the making of her.  The writers cleverly pose societal problems to Mann - from the burden of paperwork, to the constraints of funding and resources.

For fans of procedural crime fiction this will be a welcome addition to the library, and as a first time reader of this writer one this reader will keep an eye out for more in the future.

Payback is out now from Dome Press.

My thanks to them for the review opportunity.