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.