Chill Factor

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The Seventh in the Charlie Priest Series - Rated

Stuart Pawson had a career as a mining engineer He followed this with a spell working for the probation service, before he became a full-time writer. He lives in the pleasant waterside village of Fairburn in Yorkshire. The author's writing is gritty and to the point added to which he has a likeable sense of humour that he usually incorporates into his books, all of which I have found enjoyable.

First published in 2001 this is the seventh book in the DI Charlie Priest series. Priest is a no nonsense straight talking Yorkshire copper, whose one failing is that he always seems to attract trouble. It doesn't matter whether it is in his private life or his career, Charlie always has something trying to hold him back in his hectic life.

After reading the comments of the previous reviewer, I can only agree that Stuart Pawson and his gritty character Charlie Priest deserve even more recognition than they are presently getting. The character of DI Priest is a recognizable image of what many people expect, (even though they may never have had any meaningful dealing with the police) a copper to be like. Devoted to his job, dogged determination but with more than a hint of humour when it is appropriate

The synopsis for the book is produced above and needs no addition from me. Anyway, the last thing you need in a crime novel is too much information. Regarding the story in general, I though it was up there with Stuart Pawson's other novels.

Keeps you turning the pages - Rated
A thoroughly enjoyable read. DI Charlie Priest comes alive from the pages by the skillful authorship of Stuart Pawson. Tense, thrilling and humourous. The descriptive settings made this Yorkshireman living in Canada somewhat homesick!

The best yet - Rated
Stuart Pawson keeps on improving. As a relative newcomer to his work I have read most of his books very recently. Why is he not as well known as some of the other detective fiction writers? Charlie Priest is a believable detective and a fallible man. The plot is clearly defined and the culprit identified quite quickly, however, the method was quite ingenious. I look forward to his next book in the new year.

Will possibly launch Pawson into the next league. - Rated
Comparisons with Wingfield's Frostare not hard to make in this latest offering from Stuart Pawson and an otherwise well constructed novel suffers in part from that similarity. Charlie Priest is, like Frost, a renegade cop, single , with an eye for the fairer sex and something of a loner when it comes to investigation. Rise above the comparison however and one glimpses a less well-known author of crime who deserves wider recognition. "Chill Factor" is likely to inspire reading of his earlier novels and may well be the break for which the author has been waiting which will put him on a par with Jardine, Dexter and others on the genre.

The tale centres around the murder of a murderer to which a confession is readily given and which, at first sight, is highly believable. Although almost from page 1 the reader is encouraged to believe Charlie Priest's nonbelief in the confession, it is the manner by which Priest proves, against his colleagues, that he is right and they are wrong which carries the book along at a fair pace. There is plenty of forensic insight, past research and detailed characterisation to keep most readers on edge although a contract taken out on Charlie hatched from a prison cell perhaps stretches one's imagination too far.

Pawson shows an excellent grasp of the way in which the forces of law and order function and the cynical touch where some of them are concerned does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. In the main his attention to detail is excellent though one felt using an angle grinder to strip paintwork from a car bonnet might have destroyed the very evidence it was designed to reveal.

All in all, a jolly good read which bodes well for the future.