Judgement Call

December 16, 2013
British author Oldham’s entertaining 20th Henry Christie novel (after 2013’s Bad Tidings), a prequel set in 1982, finds the 23-year-old Lancashire police constable back in uniform in Rossendale after a too-brief temporary transfer to the Blackburn CID. Henry, who is eager to escape boredom and earn his way back to CID, sees a freed rapist and an ongoing spree of armed bank robberies as the opportunities he needs to make his mark. Instead, a series of missteps leads to a burglar’s escape, leaves Henry’s love life a shambles, and nearly costs him his life. When the bank robbers gun down a constable, Henry resolves to bring her killers to justice, but if misplaced confidence and naïveté don’t doom his career, a shotgun might. Henry’s education is often painful to watch, as enthusiasm proves no match for experience and cold-blooded maneuvering. A number of twists in the plot will catch even longtime series fans by surprise.

January 15, 2014
A young police constable learns what kind of cop, and man, he wants to be. Four years into the police service that began in 1978, Henry Christie longs for something that will help him become a detective. After a promising assignment ends in disaster, he's back in uniform for his solitary patrols of Lancashire's sleepy Rossendale Valley. At 23, Christie is full of grand ideas and gallant impulses, like arresting Vladimir Kaminski, who routinely rapes and beats his girlfriend. After DI Robert Fanshaw-Bayley releases Kaminski, Christie tries to advance himself again. He disobeys orders during a robbery, follows a hunch and a car, and is shot at for his trouble. To teach him his place, Fanshaw-Bayley sends him to Dover with an attractive female police constable to collect a prisoner. After several pints too many, Christie lets his hormones do his thinking and loses the prisoner in the bargain. He has a steady, beautiful, loving girlfriend back home, but he can't stay away from either the pubs or any woman who gives him a wink. Then, a colleague's murder puts everything in a new light, and Christie is appointed to a special squad to solve the case. More violence and a potentially deadly encounter with Kaminski bring Christie face to face with a line he will not cross, whatever the cost to his future. Although fans may welcome the coming-of-age chapter in Christie's life, newcomers may wince as he repeatedly trips over his own feet. Like a stern but loving father, however, Oldham (Bad Tidings, 2013, etc.) finally forces the boy-man protagonist of this prequel to get over himself and grow up.

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February 1, 2014

Go back to 1982, and meet up with PC Henry Christie. He is assigned to a boring station with a narcissistic DI who takes credit for everyone else's work. Henry is discouraged when a domestic rape arrest that he makes is discredited because the victim is considered a trashy sort of gal. Then a sudden rash of robberies liven things up, and Henry is eager to flex his wings. But a shocking shooting death of friend and colleague Jo Wade raises his job to another level; Henry's got vengeance on his mind. Not surprisingly, the rape, robberies, and murder all converge. Henry has the instincts to break this nasty crime ring, but his raw inexperience suggests a rocky resolution to the case. All these seminal events help define the young PC, shaping him into the officer we know today. VERDICT This early career flashback makes for a quick and satisfying read, not unlike the British television series Endeavor, which profiles a young Inspector Morse. Oldham's excellent British procedural series is at case 20 (after Bad Tidings).

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2013
Oldham's latest in his popular Henry Christie series takes readers back to 1982, when Christie joined the police during his callow, shallow twenties. It's hard not to dislike Henry, who's a man-boy behaving badly and sometimes despicably. Henry's been reassigned to the sleepy Rossendale Valley, and he's bored out of his mind. If only a good, meaty case would come along so he could prove what a great cop he is. Naturally, such a case does come alonga series of increasingly brutal robberies. No one has died yet, but Henry's sure that will be next. Meanwhile, Henry must also contend with his cantankerous, complicated, crazy boss, Robert FB Fanshawe-Bailey. Conflict between old-style cop FB and modern man Henry is inevitable, but out of their sparring comes a new level of maturity for Henry, who begins to display some of the principles that stand out in later books. A violent, gripping plot nicely wedded to a fascinating character study.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)