Stuart Pawson - Page 1
First British Edition Allison & Busby (2006) |
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Shooting Elvis
’OK, listen up… anybody who’s never done a murder enquiry but would like to, raise your hand.’ Everybody calls me Charlie. I encourage it... were a team and I know that every one of then would risk his or her neck for me, and l for them.
So says DI Charlie Priest as his reliable crew at Heckley Police Headquarters are presented with a bizarre murder that leads to the discovery of low-tech industrial espionage. But is selling your employer’s confidential records enough to warrant this particularly sadistic murder’? Appearances deceive, and it transpires that the victim may have been chosen because of his facial resemblance to a convicted serial killer called the Midnight Strangler.
Priest is content in his work, and his home life shows signs of improving. When his new girlfriend, a former world-class athlete known as La Gazelle, wins her comeback race his happiness overflows. But all is not well in his team of hand-picked detectives, and old enmities begin to surface. The next victim is murdered in even more bizarre circumstances, and Charlie begins to wonder if he himself is a catalyst that motivates the killer.
When his suspicions arc confirmed he realises that he is embroiled in much more than a hunt for a murderer. And that the case has now become personal...
Praise for the Charlie Priest Mysteries
`I didn’t know what treats were out there for me. [Pawson] gets things so right, up and down the scale, from police station repartee to believable sexual tension’ H.R.F.Keating
`Atmospheric, literate, at times grim, occasionally funny, and, as always, a brilliantly taut and riveting read. Very highly recommended’ iloveamystery.com
`This series becomes more enjoyable with each book’ Morning Star
`At last British crime’s best kept secret is out ... if you like Jack Frost, you’ll love DI Charlie Priest ... Cracking!’ ETLife
`A fast-paced, tense thriller, written by a true master’ Good Book Guide
`Perfect for a long winter afternoon with the rain beating down on the windows’ Independent
`...totally engrossing. A classic whodunit with the best bit of misdirection I’ve seen since Agatha Christie. A truly brilliant book’ Sherlock Holmes Magazine
`Enough to satisfy the most ardent lover of crime fiction’ Yorkshire Evening Post
`The best police procedural I have read in a long time. The tone and intricacy of plot remind one of R.D. Wingfield’s Inspector Frost at his best ... its detail and ingenuity should garner a wider audience for Pawson’s exceptional work’ Deadly Pleasures
`Pawson writes with a warmth and a vigour that few can match’ Yorkshire Post
`One of Yorkshire’s best-kept secrets ... The character of Charlie Priest is a winner; a good and intelligent man in a hard world, fighting the villains on his patch with a mixture of common sense, determination and, above all, humour. Add to this Pawson’s skill at sketching in both setting and character with brevity and wit, the appealing nature of D.I. Priest and Pawson’s trademark humour and you have a very enjoyable book. Highly recommended’ Crime Time
`Pawson is very much an author to keep one’s eye on in future’ Birmingham Post
`Highly readable, enlivened by a fine line in throwaway humour’ Sherlock Holmes Magazine
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First British Edition Allison & Busby (2004) |
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Over the Edge
See Review by
Bernard Knight
- Author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series set in Medieval Devon
Joe Crozier, a businessman with a decidedly shady past, is enjoying a pleasant evening of being wined and dined in all the best places. But the congenial atmosphere is shattered when his host yet again tries to persuade him to sell his nightclub, the Painted Pony. Refusing this time. however, costs Joe more than he could ever have imagined... Bound and gagged, he takes a silent and deadly dip in the nearby river.
Meanwhile, Charlie Priest is called to another murder scene - only to find that the victim is an old school friend of his, the famous mountaineer, Tony Krabbe. But what could this amiable lecturer have done to deserve being attacked with his own ice-pick? And could the two cases he linked? As girlfriends from Krabbe’s past return to savage his care- fully built reputation, Charlie’s own love life takes a turn for the worse. Charlie is both desperate to help his girlfriend and to seek out the truth in the murder cases, hut can love and work make comfortable bedfellows... or will Charlie finally he pushed over the edge?
| Paperback - Allison & Busby (2004) |
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First British Edition Allison & Busby (2003) |
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Limestone Cowboy
The sun is shining in Heckley, and DI Charlie Priest is wise-cracking his way through the daily routine. Work is, if not quite relaxed, at least stress-free. The biggest case on the books? A petty thief pinching underwear from the washing-lines of unsuspecting housewives. Charlie’s pretty confident he can handle it. And the detective has another reason to be cheerful - his love life is on the up. Local geology teacher, Rosie Barraclough, has fallen for his charms and romance is the order of the day.
But all good things come to an end and it’s not long before the clouds roll in. Two people nearly die after eating contaminated food from a local supermarket - someone has been tampering with the tins. The media is alerted, a national scare ensues and it’s clear that if Charlie doesn’t act fast he could be dealing with a murder enquiry. As if that wasn’t enough, intelligence soon reaches him that an organised dog-fighting ring has set up operations nearby.
Charlie’s relationship has reached a rocky patch too - Rosie has cooled considerably towards him and it seems she could be hiding something. When Charlie gets to the bottom of her change of heart he is somewhat concerned, but offers his help nonetheless. But, as he’s about to learn, sometimes helping only makes things worse...
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First British Edition Allison & Busby (2002) |
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Laughing Boy
A grey day in Heckley and all is not well. Colinette Jones is the prettiest girl in school: athletic, charming and with everything to live for. What’s more, she’s never late home. So when she fails to show up for her supper, and a body is discovered half a mile from her house, D.I. Charlie Priest knows he’s got to make the house call that every mother dreads.
Elsewhere, another woman breaks with routine in the most horrific of ways -found dead at the side of an unlit lane. Plain Laura Heeley, married to the boy from the next street, two kids within three years and a mundane existence punctuated by episodes of Emmerdale and her twice-weekly visits to the bingo. A single stab wound is the only sign of violence.
What could connect the two women, save their untimely demises? Could there be more to a spate of other similarly motiveless attacks than meets the eye? And what is the link with a tragic sixties rock star? Constricted by the foot and mouth crisis, the town takes on a claustrophobic air and Priest must trap the killer before he strikes again. But where to begin? Perhaps the fresh gales atop Britain’s highest peaks might get the old grey matter working...
| Paperback - Allison & Busby (2002) |
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Chill Factor
When salesman Tony Silkstone confesses to murder the top brass of the Heckley police are keen to convict and close the lurid case. But Detective Inspector Charlie Priest is not convinced that things are as simple as they seem.
A hitman turns up in town, a juvenile car thief wreaks havoc and Charlie complicates matters further when he starts dating one of his colleagues. As links between his case
and another murder emerge, Charlie pursues the trail and finds himself faced with questions about his own friends and his feelings towards them.
About The Author
Stuart Pawson was born in Middleton, South Leeds, in 1940 and attended the local grammar school. However, he considers his real education began when he joined the National Coal Board as an apprentice electrician at Primrose Hill Colliery. He was made redundant thirty-two years later, having achieved the lofty rank of Assistant Electrical Engineer (Coal Face) in a department of two. He is married, with no children, but reluctantly confesses to owning five tortoises.
Unable to find another job, he started to do voluntary work with the probation service, which led to a part-time appointment as a mediator, liasing between offenders and their victims and sometimes arranging face-to-face meetings between them. His first two books were published during this time, and he realised that the two occupations were, for him, incompatible. Talking to victims of serious crimes and then writing about similar of fences to entertain others was a conflict of interests, so he sadly resigned from the probation Service.
Pawson's books are filled with the earthy humour he learned in the mining industry and benefit from his experience of both sides of the legal system. He believes that his engineering background is useful for constructing plots ("I draw the circuits, make the connections, and wait for the sparks to fly.")
Over the years his pastimes have been cross country running, motorcycle scrambling and touring, painting, and fell walking. He has travelled extensively with his wife, Doreen, and they have a special love for the American South West. Pawson has ambitions to set a book in this area, and would also like to write a novel about the miners' strike. He now lives in Fairburn, Yorkshire, and is a member of the Crime Writers' Association.
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
Shooting Elvis
(Allison & Busby,
2006)
Feb 06
(Charlie Priest)
Over the Edge
(Allison & Busby,
2004)
Allison & Busby Pbk Sep 05
(Charlie Priest)
Limestone Cowboy
(Allison & Busby,
2003)
Allison & Busby Pbk Oct 04
(Charlie Priest)
Laughing Boy
(Allison & Busby,
2002)
(Charlie Priest)
Chill Factor
(
2001)
Allison & Busby Nov 01
Allison & Busby Pbk Oct 02
(Charlie Priest)
Some By Fire
(Headline,
1999)
Headline Pbk Oct 99
(Charlie Priest)
Deadly Friends
(Headline,
1998)
Headline Pbk 1998
(Charlie Priest)
Last Reminder
(Headline,
1997)
(Charlie Priest)
The Judas Sheep
(Headline,
1996)
(Charlie Priest)
The Picasso Scam
(Headline,
1995)
Allison & Busby Pbk Oct 04
(Charlie Priest)
The Mushroom Man
(Headline,
1995)
Allison & Busby Pbk Oct 04
(Charlie Priest)
Shooting Elvis
WebPage: 
by Stuart Pawson
