Some By Fire by Stuart Pawson is the 6th book in the Charlie Priest series of police procedurals. The book opens by taking us back twenty years when Priest was a newly promoted sergeant on the Leeds police force when he was called to the scene of a tragic yet deliberately set fire that claimed seven lives. Now Priest is a DI and when new evidence is brought to light Charlie is pleased to re-open the investigation. Along with this cold case, he and his crew are hunting some vicious burglars who target senior citizens.

With the new evidence and a combination of luck and good detective work, both investigations are soon closing in on the guilty parties. Of course, this is also when the villains can be the most dangerous and Charlie and his team must be on their toes in order to tie up all the pieces and see justice served.

I am a big fan of this series, and have become quite invested in the character of DI Charlie Priest. He is a sensitive, serious copper who hides his softer side behind banter and quips. He encourages his team members and readily shares the spotlight with them. I am already looking forward to the next Charlie Priest procedural. ( )

Another engaging crime novel from Stuart Pawson, once again featuring the wise-cracking and artistic Detective Inspector Charlie Priest.
This one starts in Leeds in the mid 1970s when an impoverished Chemistry student from the University places an advert in a local paper seeking any paying work. Naively he accepts a commission to help in an insurance scam by setting fire to an unoccupied house for the sum of £200. What he doesn't know is that, far from being unoccupied, the house is action a women's refuge, and as a result of his experimental arson eight people, including three young children, are burned to death. It transpires that the house was actually owned by a local MP, who had nothing to do with the arson attack, though he resigns in shame when it emerges that the house had never been properly inspected to ensure that fire and other regulations were being met.
The first two police officers on the scene are uniformed constable Dave Sparkington and newly-promoted sergeant Charlie Priest, but tragically neither of them can help save any of the victims.
Twenty years later Priest is now a Detective Inspector in Heckley, and Dave Sparkington is a DC on his team. There has been a spate of vicious burglaries in the area, and the CID team is stretched to the limit. However, DI Priest finds the time to meet the ex-MP who comes to him seeking his help to re-open the twenty year old case of arson.
Pawson is always very hot on police procedure, and he also always manages to imbue his characters with comprehensive emotional credibility. I have now read five or six novels in this sequence, and am eagerly looking forward to tackling the rest of them. ( )