STUART Pawson swapped the pit for the pen (well a PC anyway) and has not looked back.

Leeds-born Pawson, who lives at Fairburn, between Selby and Pontefract, worked as an electrical engineer down the mines before being made redundant. He then joined the probation service, working as a mediator between offenders and their victims, sometimes arranging face-to-face meetings.

After five years, he decided to write about his experiences, and Detective Inspector Charlie Priest was born.

Chill Factor is the seventh novel to feature the maverick detective, who is based in the fictional Yorkshire town of Heckley, somewhere between Huddersfield and Halifax.

Priest and his team are called to investigate a bizarre double murder. Wealthy salesman Tony Silkstone confesses to murdering his friend, who he claims had earlier killed his wife when a sex game went wrong.

The DNA evidence support's Silkstone's confession and the top brass at Heckley want to clear up the case as quickly as possible, but Priest, who has a reputation for always getting his man, is not that convinced that it's as cut and dried as it seems.

As well as the killings, Priest has also to deal with a juvenile car thief, a professional hit man who has arrived on his patch and his growing affection for Detective Constable Annette Brown, who has to choose between Priest and her lover, a widowed school teacher from York.

Chill Factor is a well written, pacy and with a strong plot and an even stronger main character. Priest gives Inspector Morse a run for his money.