Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm

This bleak, sparse crime novella is a very quick read and can almost be devoured at a sitting. Set in a remote 1950s Yorkshire town (it was published on January 1, 1960), it is an uncompromising slice of rural noir. This is the first in a series featuring Sergeant Cluff, a large, untidy and informal......more

This slim novel kicks off a smashing 11-book series featuring detective Sergeant Caleb Cluff, an irascible Yorkshire bachelor with a giant chip on his shoulder. But even the petty, envious Inspector Mole has to admit that no one knows the village of Gunnarshaw and its environs like native son Cluff.......more

The descriptions of women often felt very misogynist - there's only a few but each one really emphasises talk about her breasts, how "shapely" she is, and appearance is used as a way to describe their moral character, too (although even the "good" ones don't really get off unscathed). It's not pleas......more

This is a village crime story from the 1960s - before the evidence-based police procedurals came to dominate the scene. The police officer we follow is a solitary type, with no bad habits we know of, nobody to speak to but his faithful dog. When he comes across a murder / suicide / accident case, he......more