‘City on Fire; by Graham Bartlett

Published by Allison & Busby,
21 March 2024.
ISBN: 978-0-7490-3051-3 (HB)

If you are a police procedural fan, then don’t miss this one. No one does it better than Grahame Bartlett.

Bartlett himself is a former murder detective from Brighton, where his books are set, so we can be assured the bones of the book are one hundred percent factually perfect.

This is the third book in his series, featuring Detective Chief Superintendent Jo Howe. Jo has lost her sister to a drug overdose and is on a mission to clean the town up from drugs. Hence Operation Eradicate is formed. Its mission is to get the addicts into rehab and the dealers into jail.

Enter Sir Ben Campbell, the owner of a large pharmaceutical company, who provides illegal aid to addicts with substitute drugs and makes a fortune from doing so. This man will stop at nothing to keep his illegitimate company running, and now Chief Detective Jo Howe is in his way. Campbell has connections in the media, the police, the government, and organised crime, and now he needs Jo Howe out of his way.

We get to know Jo better in this book. She is thrown into turmoil with many family problems, threats and attempts to hurt her husband and children, and her need to protect the officers that surround her. The other side of this criminal catching woman is shown in this story: the mother, wife, friend and her inner strength. There is much against keeping this operation up and running and there are times when we feel she cannot get there. But the death of her sister is always there in the back of her mind, and her understanding of the many other mothers and friends and relatives who have lost loved ones to drugs.

The story is powerful. It is also brutal, but then drug crime certainly is. There are tough moments, but this book is unputdownable. And in the back of our minds, we are aware we are reading the truth of what is happening in the reality of the ongoing drug problem sweeping our country. A great story and a page turning one. Bartlett has earned his place among our top crime writers. Be prepared to sit up all night reading it. I did.
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Reviewer: Linda Regan

Graham Bartlett was a police officer for thirty years, mainly policed the city of Brighton and Hove. He rose to become a Chief Superintendent and its police commander. He started writing when he left the police in 2013 and, almost by accident, became a police procedural and crime advisor, helping scores of authors and TV writers to achieve authenticity in their drama. Graham runs online crime writing workshops and courses with the Professional Writing Academy and deliver inputs to Masters programmes at the University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia as well as at the Crime Writing Certificate programme at West Dean College. He lives in Sussex with his wife Julie. His debut crime novel, Bad for Good was published 23 June 2022.

Linda Regan is the author of nine crime novels. She is also an actor. She holds a Masters degree in critical writing and journalism, and writes a regular column, including book reviews, for three magazines. She also presents the book-club spot on BBC Radio Kent. She is an avid reader and welcomes the chance to read new writers. 

  To read a review of Linda's most recent book
 The Burning Question
click on the title. 
www.lindareganonline.co.uk