Foxtrot Oscar

Handstead New Town Mystery #2

by Charlie Owen

As an unrelenting heatwave beats down, the residents of Horse's Arse end in blood, (a lot of) sweat, and tears.

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Police, Humor, Procedural, Mystery, Detective

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Charlie Owen enjoyed a thirty-year career in the police service, serving with two forces in the Home Counties and London, reaching the rank of Inspector. He recently commenced a second career in the security services department of an investment bank. Charlie Owen is married with six children.

Series:
* Handstead New Town Mystery

Reviews

[Peat]

The two best things about this book are

a) Its a lorra lorra fun
b) Its a mostly sober unjudgemental look at the way things once were through the eyes of a copper

I don't think it would work without both. You read it for the farce, but the humanity of it holds it together.

Anyway, this is the tale of a group of cops in an absolute shithole of a town back in the 70s, doing a job that pretty much everyone hates them for doing, and the ridiculous things they do and the thin and wavering line separating them from those they police. There might be some tall tales but there's no shiny polish on what goes on inside their minds - you'll find more polish on a tree. That bit is all real.

So if you like cop stories, if you like funny, if you like books that feel real... check it out.

[Derek Holmes]

I loved the first in this series, "Horse's Arse". That had me laughing out loud. This raised the odd smile, but whereas the first one had a good story, this felt very much like a string of semi amusing police related anecdotes clumsily stuck onto a passable story. It's fun, but don't go out of your way to read it.

[Jo]

I've found myself really warming to the officers of Handstead nick, aka Horse's Arse. Despite the fact there's often a thin line between the boys in blue and the local scrotes, the officers are strangely endearing.

[Astragen]

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.


As in the first book ("Horse's Arse"), it gripped me from page one. The characters, the plot-lines and the especially the dialogue were so vivid:

Taken from Pages 21, 25:

'Your worships, the police consider the prisoner is likely to abscond prior to trial as he has no local ties, is of no fixed abode and is a foreign national'.
'A foreign national? From where??'
'He's German, your worships.'
'GERMAN??' shouted Mortimer, who despised the sausage-eating bastards even more than he did the French, before quickly noticing his colleagues' looks of concern and repeating more quietly, 'German?'
[...]
'Where's the interpreter?' asked Mortimer testily, keen to get Herman the German banged up quickly.
'Inspector, where's the interpreter? queried the clerk.
'John, where's the interpreter?' hissed the court inspector to DC Benson, sitting behind him in the body of the court.
'Fuck' replied Benson, acknowledging that he'd completely forgotten to book one.
'You twat,' growled the inspector before getting to his feet and addressing the bench.



The rest of this enlightened dialogue can be found elsewhere.

[Ian Penman]

Great follow up

Can’t wait to start the 3rd book again great characters both good and bad. Realistic but with a fun outlook. This is a must series for anyone who loves to read the funnier side of what police work can be

[terence geraghty]

Laugh out loud funny

Absolutely hilarious, if you enjoyed the first book.. You will love this one. Eye watering comedy from a fantastic author.

[Dan Brown]

Too many characters. Not enough plot. Some fun vignettes about 70s police. Didn't finish it.

[Chris Oakland]

This book is gritty and so so funny. A great story which had me laughing out loud at times, brilliantly depicts policing in the 70s.
First class

[Darin Dance]

Full marks! The sequel equally as good as the first, now for book 3!

[ria]

I can't believe the book just ended like that, I was so immensely drawn in the story it felt like I was an officer there as well. Greatly well written and I wish I could find the other parts of this book (since I only found it at a thrift store). I wish it was longer. My favorite characters were Psycho, H, Jim, Benson, and Clarke.

[Zoe Carney]

There are some great moments in this book - fun characters, amusing scenes - but overall it just didn't work for me. The story felt disjointed, the denouement didn't really go anywhere, and the characters felt more sketch show than anything else. Not a book I'd recommend.

[Martyn Morgan]

Really enjoyed it, the characters are so real. I'm sure there must be a lot of truth in this book and series. I can only hope the police are not like this in the UK today, but I'm honestly not sure...

[Cheryl]

Again a extremely funny book,and so believable.

[Sarah Harrison]

Another great book from Charlie Owen, full of humour, funny stories and interesting characters!

[Julie Wan]

Excellent follow on from Horses Arse revisiting Hanstead nick and the characters off the park royal estate.

[Paul]

Too many asides and not enough of a plot line, Owen's 2nd instalment isn't a patch on 'Horse's Arse'. Sadly only 1 laugh-out-loud moment as well. Disappointing.

[Spurnlad]

Continuing from Horse's Arse - great fun reading.