Deadly Focus
RC Bridgestock
Caffeine Nights Publishing, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-907565-08-3
eBook, 232 pages
Police Procedural

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Consequences
RC Bridgestock
Final Draft/Manuscript
83,737 words
To be published March 2012 by
Caffeine Nights Publishing
ISBN 978-1-907565-16-8
eBook 978-1-907565-17-5

The Authors
“In the last three years of his police career Bob Bridgestock took charge of 26 murders, (including the largest multiple murder investigation carried out by West Yorkshire Police in 30 years), 23 major incidents, over 50 suspicious deaths and numerous sexual assaults. He was also a trained hostage negotiator dealing with suicide interventions, kidnap and extortion. He taught future CID officers at every rank from all over the world at the internationally acclaimed West Yorkshire Police force training school in Wakefield and was involved in a protracted high profile investigation of police corruption in another police force. For his work he received over 25 commendations from high court judges and chief constables. His wife and co-author, Carole, had a long career with the Police as a member of the support staff in Administration. They now live on the Isle of Wight.”

Together, Bob and Carole have become the author RC Bridgestock.

The Novels
Deadly Focus, as a story, is just that: small children have caught the attention and have become the focus of a deadly monster who revels in heaping horror upon horror on the victims and, afterwards, on the parents of the unfortunate children.

Deadly Focus is an English police procedural designed to be as realistic as possible. It introduces the lead character in what promises to be a series of at least 6 books (according to offers received by the authors). Jack Dylan is a career policeman, a 35 year-old Detective Inspector, who does his job very well, expects the same from those who work for him and plainly has no time for fools. In the early stages of a romance with Jen, who works in administration, Jack is unaware that she is already questioning the burden which must be carried by the woman/wife of someone like Jack.

In Consequences, the title again summarizes the entire novel. Our now familiar Detective Inspector makes a decision at the beginning of the novel that later leaves him with nightmares. Never has he considered the consequences of saving the life of the wrong person. Similarly, a woman places her trust in a crooked cop, a decision which costs her a fortune and then her life. As in Deadly Focus, the remainder of the story focuses on the things we readers never get to see. No Hollywood here, just methodical police procedure that churns and chews up everything in its path until the extracted information can be pieced together in a team effort that results in both the capture of a child killer and an explanation of events that caused the horrific death of the woman previously mentioned. The reader is also given a clear picture of how none of us can ever be certain as to the consequences of our choices/actions–as many of the significant characters in the story face serious and often unexpected results due to their daily choices.

The Review
I enjoyed Deadly Focus, and the title is bang on. Two young children are brutally murdered, their bodies despoiled and their parents terrorized. Why have the two families become the Deadly Focus of an obvious psychopath? And who might this serial killer be? Strongly written scenes and these two questions virtually guaranteed my initial attention. This is important, as the rest of the novel is “police procedural,” with the co-authors doing their absolute best to show the inner workings of the sharp end of the British police service. The novelty of this approach kept me riveted through the capture of the killer and on to the interviewing process that eventually brings about a confession.

The relationship between the hero, Jack Dylan, and his girlfriend, Jen, is not so enjoyable. I found the thoughts and dialogue pertaining to this relationship to be syrupy and unrealistic. Jen obviously exists just to demonstrate the demands and sacrifices of Jack Dylan’s job. I never managed to connect to her as a “real person.” I think the book would have been much more powerful with Jen as a multifaceted character the reader could connect with. If you want an example, Jen’s shocking, out-of-the-blue (to Dylan) statement at the end of the first novel is powerful stuff–and it only happens because her character is finally given a chance to come to life in the last few chapters..

Consequences is also a terrific title choice. In the second novel of this fledgling series, Detective Inspector Jack Dylan makes the choice to save a “jumper,” never giving a thought to the consequences of that choice. A blackmailed woman turns to a flawed policeman for help, the consequences of that choice leading to betrayal and a creepy death. There’s no mystery this time: RC Bridgestock’s latest Jack Dylan novel reveals all the players at the outset. This choice is risky, as it kills or greatly subdues the element of suspense. However, the same choice strongly focuses our attention on the police work (procedure) that follows. The entire book is dedicated to piecing together the puzzle we already have before us, and it allows us to watch the inner workings of a police force as very few books ever do.

But all is not perfect in either of these complicated “police procedurals.” RC Bridgestock uses a lot of contractions like HOLMES, FLO, DC, CCTV, SOCO and a dozen others. If I’m supposed to be a fly on the wall, it would be natural for these abbreviations to go unexplained. But I’m not; I’m a reader who trusts the author to keep me informed. And RC Bridgestock does not take the time or make the effort to ensure the reader–of either novel in this series–understands the terminology.

Revisiting Dylan’s relationship with Jen just reminds me that character development is an issue for me. I find his expectations one-sided and unrealistic. Sure, Dylan’s behaviour makes it easy to understand Jen’s motivations, but the couple still seems unbelievable. Jen remains the perfect woman who anticipates Dylan’s every need and has “Tea” ready no matter when he makes it home at night. It doesn’t help that the hard-edged detective from Deadly Focus fails to show up in Consequences.

Summary
To summarize my thoughts regarding Deadly Focus and Consequences: overall, I found the editing to be of high quality (although the manuscript still needs some work), the stories unique, both setting and pace worked with the novels not against them, and other than the relationship between Jen and Jack, characters were strongly written and worked well within the constraints of the novels. Deadly Focus is, in my mind, the better book. If you’re writing a detail-oriented book like these two police procedurals, you can’t count on all readers to be fascinated by the look into a ‘real police operation.’ You need a mystery, a “who dunnit” to keep the reader focused on what’s happening, as well as wondering how the hero is going to solve the mystery.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye, 2011