Stuart Pawson (1940–2016)

I loved the first two Charlie Priest police procedurals by Stuart Pawson so much that it came as a shock to realize how long it had been since I'd read them. I quickly picked up this third book in the series to rectify the matter. The Judas Sheep brought me right back into the story of one of my favorite coppers.

Stuart Pawson knows how to create multi-layered mysteries with excellent pacing, and his writing style draws me right into the story, but-- as is the case with any character-driven show more reader-- it's Charlie Priest himself who's the shining beacon in this series. He's a good investigator with an excellent team around him, and they are all familiar with his little quirks. (Like to be called by your title? You can count on Charlie to make a point of calling you by name. Several times.) His irreverent sense of humor is a thing of beauty, and I adore Charlie's similes.

In The Judas Sheep, it's good to see Charlie taking his health scare seriously. Of course, it helps that there's a new woman in his life, so learning that there are actually perks to not living for his job comes as a pleasant surprise to him. But if there's one sure thing about Charlie, it's that he's passionate about justice, and he wants justice not only for the dead but for the living, too. Most police in search of results would not treat a dead woman's sister the way Charlie does, and I love the character all the more for it.

If you enjoy police procedurals with engrossing mysteries, a sense of humor, and a wonderful main character, you can't go wrong with Stuart Pawson's Charlie Priest series. If you want to give the series a try-- and I hope you will-- start at the beginning with The Picasso Scam. You're in for some fun. show less

The Mushroom Man by Stuart Pawson is the second in the Charlie Priest series set in Yorkshire and I enjoyed this one every bit as much as the first one. DI Charlie Priest is working a couple of trying cases, both involving children. Meanwhile a serial killer, dubbed the Mushroom Man, is targeting men of the cloth, and although this isn’t a case that Charlie and his crew have been directly working on, some dark events eventually pull Charlie into the hunt.

This is an excellent police show more procedural series with the author taking great care in showing the day to day focus of the team as they work through the clues. As these cases involve children which can be extremely difficult to read about, I was glad that the author chose to highlight the investigation not the crime. Charlie Priest is a great character, he has both a good working relationship with his team and shares a friendship with most of them as well, his immediate supervisor is both a friend and a professional. The storyline was interesting and at times quite intense. I appreciated the short breaks that Charlie took from solving crime to work on his growing relationship with the beautiful widow Annabelle Wilberforce.

I owe my grandson a big thank you for pulling The Mushroom Man down from my shelves for me to read this year which obliged me to also read the first book. This is a great series and now that I have the first two under my belt, I look forward to continuing on. show less

Staurt Pawson's series of crime novels featuring Detective Inspector Charlie Priest has described a sine-like path, notching up notable highs yet also occasionally plumbing some fairly lamentable depths. 'Over the Edge' is, however, a welcome return to mid-season form, and Pawson seems to be back to his impressive best.

The plot encompasses several well-developed themes which Pawson manages deftly, maintaining the tension without ever compromising the story's plausibility. He manages to cover show more a lot of ground, too: gang warfare, sex-trafficking, illegal car-racing, mountaineering rivalries and, for the first time in any novel that I have read, shahtoosh smuggling, and all of this takes place in West Yorkshire.

Charlie Priest is a very believable detective, being both empathetic and slightly flawed, and his team at Heckley CID are all equally realistic. They also seem to tell each other even feebler and less tasteful jokes than my colleagues in Finchley Tax Office used to stoop to, which is saying quite something. show less

A welcome return to top form here for Stuart Pawson. After the previous novel in this series I had wondered whether it was about time for his Detective Inpsector Priest to think about retiring. However, here Pawson is back at his impressive best.
The plot has several well-developed themes which Pawson controls deftly, keeping the tension without ever compromising the story's plausibility. And he covers a lot of ground - gang warfare, sex-trafficking, illegal car racing, shahtoosh smuggling show more and mountaineering rivalries.
It helps that Charlie Priest is an immensely believable detective - empathetic and flawed - and his team at Heckley CID are equally realistic. show less