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Losing Control: Terror in Teesside
What connects Teesside, England and Bhopal, India? A dead body? An outsourced IT desk? A tragic anniversary? Can DI Julie Cadell find the link before cyber-vengeance brings terror to Teesside? From the author of Phosphate Rocks – A Death in Ten Objects, a brand-new police procedural with a technological core.
A dead body washes up in Hartlepool. The autopsy reveals he was murdered. Police officers trace the scene of crime to the south bank of the River Tees where night watchman, Alf, keeps watch over a scrapyard. A woman comes forward to identify the victim, claiming to be his sister. The murder weapon is found in the possession of a colleague who reported him missing. It seems that the case can be closed.
But DI Julie Cadell is not so sure.
A dead body washes up in Hartlepool. The autopsy reveals he was murdered. Police officers trace the scene of crime to the south bank of the River Tees where night watchman, Alf, keeps watch over a scrapyard. A woman comes forward to identify the victim, claiming to be his sister. The murder weapon is found in the possession of a colleague who reported him missing. It seems that the case can be closed.
But DI Julie Cadell is not so sure.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2024
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22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 23, 2026
An enjoyable modern police procedural/ thriller with an added technology dimension set around the chemical plants on Teeside in the UK and surrounding North Yorkshire countryside. Definitely could see this as a TV mini series, maybe starring Suranne Jones as our female lead detective, DI Julie Cadell, who of course has issues from the past and faces challenges with her unreconstructed work colleagues.
The book was fun and I felt the story was credible, including the technical elements. The pace built up to more of an action thriller towards the end. I raced through the book in four days. I think you will enjoy this book if you’re a fan of the genre without needing to be a technical expert. There were some unresolved loose ends possibly due to the acceleration or maybe as hooks for the future!
This book was basically written for me! I started working at ICI Chemicals on Teeside, whose former plants form a backdrop the novel, around the same time as author Fiona Erskine. My first job was as a control engineer- like many of the book’s characters. Many years ago so also a little nostalgic for me. I’m familiar with all the geography around Teeside and North Yorkshire. Later in my career I worked with the Hartlepool nuclear power station that features, and also was involved both in outsourcing and the nuances of differences between IT and Operational Technology. Both the author and I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge at the same time!
Despite the connections I actually learnt about the author, and the book through an article in my professional engineering magazine!
I knew some details about Bhopal from a professional viewpoint but was not aware of the shocking lack of compensation.
I will certainly be recommending the book to all my friends and former colleagues and looking out for the next in the series.
The book was fun and I felt the story was credible, including the technical elements. The pace built up to more of an action thriller towards the end. I raced through the book in four days. I think you will enjoy this book if you’re a fan of the genre without needing to be a technical expert. There were some unresolved loose ends possibly due to the acceleration or maybe as hooks for the future!
This book was basically written for me! I started working at ICI Chemicals on Teeside, whose former plants form a backdrop the novel, around the same time as author Fiona Erskine. My first job was as a control engineer- like many of the book’s characters. Many years ago so also a little nostalgic for me. I’m familiar with all the geography around Teeside and North Yorkshire. Later in my career I worked with the Hartlepool nuclear power station that features, and also was involved both in outsourcing and the nuances of differences between IT and Operational Technology. Both the author and I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge at the same time!
Despite the connections I actually learnt about the author, and the book through an article in my professional engineering magazine!
I knew some details about Bhopal from a professional viewpoint but was not aware of the shocking lack of compensation.
I will certainly be recommending the book to all my friends and former colleagues and looking out for the next in the series.
January 13, 2025
The start of a sensational new series from the author of the chemical detective. I loved everything about this book, the fact it’s based partly on a real world disaster that the world should know more about. The new characters are fascinating and draw you in and make you want to keep reading to see what happens to them and the plot itself is outstanding. Set in teeside an area I don’t know well but feel like was a strong part of the novel, this is a book you won’t be able to put down. Definitely in book of the year material for me 5*
December 3, 2024
This was a great read. DI Julie Cadell is a detective who follows the rules until she doesn’t. She’s one of those book cops you’d like to meet and you feel you could count on to be on your side if you needed her.
Fiona Erskine’s writing is always full of real women who are kick ass tough, but still have moments of vulnerability. Julie is a great character that you want to know more about and I can’t wait to read more stories about her and her adventures.
It’s also good to have a book with a backstory. This doesn’t tell you what you should do, but it does inform and make you stop and think about how things are often forgotten because they happen to ‘other people’ in ‘other places’. They shouldn’t be.
The story is well written and the book moves at a steady pace, but also manages to slot in side stories and parts of Julie’s life without feeling rushed and hurried. I highly recommend this pacy police procedural and thriller that really makes you want to read more.
With thanks to Fiona Erskine for the advanced reading copy of this book.
Fiona Erskine’s writing is always full of real women who are kick ass tough, but still have moments of vulnerability. Julie is a great character that you want to know more about and I can’t wait to read more stories about her and her adventures.
It’s also good to have a book with a backstory. This doesn’t tell you what you should do, but it does inform and make you stop and think about how things are often forgotten because they happen to ‘other people’ in ‘other places’. They shouldn’t be.
The story is well written and the book moves at a steady pace, but also manages to slot in side stories and parts of Julie’s life without feeling rushed and hurried. I highly recommend this pacy police procedural and thriller that really makes you want to read more.
With thanks to Fiona Erskine for the advanced reading copy of this book.
December 7, 2024
What a truly brilliant book! I love a good detective novel which this is with a great and believable protagonist in the character of DI Julie Cadell.
But this book is so much more than just a detective novel. It is a campaign for justice for the forgotten people of Bhopal. To draw attention to the 40th anniversary of the biggest industrial accident in history, Erskine took the courageous authorial decision to write her book a year in the future. And not only did this literary decision allow that focus on the Bhopal disaster, it meant that I could read it more or less in real time. And if you get to read it quickly, you could have a similar reading experience.
Hope that the next DI Cadell book is on its way!
But this book is so much more than just a detective novel. It is a campaign for justice for the forgotten people of Bhopal. To draw attention to the 40th anniversary of the biggest industrial accident in history, Erskine took the courageous authorial decision to write her book a year in the future. And not only did this literary decision allow that focus on the Bhopal disaster, it meant that I could read it more or less in real time. And if you get to read it quickly, you could have a similar reading experience.
Hope that the next DI Cadell book is on its way!
January 8, 2025
This was a terrific blend of a police procedural with a techno-thriller. Murders and disappearances on Teesside and elsewhere build up to a major threat to a chemical works which would have catastrophic results. The information included on the Bhopal disaster is harrowing - this should never be forgotten.
February 23, 2025
As a safety engineer, I love the way that Fiona builds a fictional police drama story inspired by real world safety events. The concepts in the police work are credible and use much broader forensic science than your average police procedural. The technical details of the criminal plot are explained in a way that gives great insight into Fiona’s area of expertise and are a delight for the science/engineering nerd, like myself, but I don’t imagine that they detract for those readers that don’t care to understand at that level. Absolutely intriguing read and well done for bringing light to the still unresolved issues around one of the world’s worst chemical plant accidents.
December 16, 2024
Great book
June 18, 2025
A great combination of a gripping novel set in “real time” in real locations with great attention to the accuracy of observation! I shall be reading the entire series!
February 4, 2025
Fantastic book, being from the local area I thoroughly enjoyed the references to known places. Great characters and storyline, would highly recommend!
May 26, 2025
As a process safety engineer who spent many years working on Teesside, and with in-depth knowledge of the Bhopal tragedy, I might be a bit biased, but I really enjoyed this book, with it's complex plot, fast-moving pace and dramatic ending, although a few ends are left untied to enable the next in the series; absolutely loved the car registration MIC 610E...brilliant!!!
February 1, 2025
Loved this. Great plot, character development, and pace. Strong female characters. Short punchy chapters make this a page turner. I really like the afterwords. Looking forward to Julie Cadell's next investigation.
November 3, 2024
Oh god I loved this. I love everything fiona writes, was really fun & fast. And about my hometown made it even fun.
August 31, 2025
Losing Control is the perfect title for this work as it forms a literary leitmotif throughout. DI Julie Cadell has returned to work following divorce, just to keep financially afloat. She is living in the family home, but her ex-husband Matt is pressurising her to sell, which she plans to do when son Arni leaves for university. Arni is seventeen and going through a difficult phase whereas her daughter Flora has already flown the nest and is only in touch when she needs something. She also still grieves for her late son Jamie.
Work isn’t faring much better for Julie as her subordinate DS Wharton is undermining her, when he is not ignoring her, appearing to be in cahoots with Superintendent Chalmers. Then her best friend is seemingly trying to matchmake her with an officer in another force. Julie might feel she has no control over her life, but things are going to get worse. The loss of control that eventually confronts her could prove to be deadly for many. No pressure then Julie.
The plot is the search for a murderer, which eventually morphs into something entirely different. Chalmers wants to wrap the case up quickly, but the haste unsettles Julie, it’s all too convenient and doesn’t provide a credible motive. This element of the story is a steady, confidently written police procedural with convincing science during the postmortem and mapping the movement of bodies in water.
Our dogged detective doesn’t give up and the story then is revealed as a cyber thriller with ecological consequences and a touch of terrorism. The author’s background brings enormous credibility to the writing, keeping things within the boundaries of what is possible, such that it is scarily realistic. What is possible now is truly terrifying. Here the pace picks up considerably injecting excitement whilst capturing the urgency and anxiety of an alert in industrial control centre. That salvation ultimately comes down to the most banal of IT mantas is wonderful, its perfection, though getting there is quite a journey. Here we have the combination of technical knowledge and personal experience guiding first rate thriller writing, with the result being a perfect balance of the three. This is something that so few can achieve.
It's not all science and action though, there are lovely human touches throughout. When the reader first meets Arni he is surly and as northerners might say ‘in need of a good slap.’ He is troubled though, which explains his behaviour and I gradually warmed to him as his problems unfolded and were dealt with in a compassionate way. Then there is Alf the nightwatchman at a scrapyard, a minor character but one important to solving the case. He is a widow who has made a little shrine, of pretty objects he finds, to his wife and talks to her every night. A touching portrayal of love and loss that we can all relate to.
The control freak Brian was my favourite of the supporting characters. First impressions are of a geek from casting central, in poor shape with an unsuitable diet, unlucky with women and computer game and Dungeons and Dragons obsessed to the point of absorption to another world. Then there are the conspiracy theories he will talk about, one of which got him the sack. An easy target yes, but here given much more depth. He realises he cannot continue as he is, so he starts to write a computer game, he investigates the reason he was stood up for a job interview and realises that he misses his ex-girlfriend much more than he realised. He also is much smarter than most people give him credit for. A small part but his story arc is a joy.
The timing of this novel is critical because it ties in with a real-life disaster that occurred forty years ago. The dangers remain as relevant today as they were forty years ago and if you are uninformed about the event, I would recommend reading up about it.
A wonderfully entertaining blend of action and science.
Work isn’t faring much better for Julie as her subordinate DS Wharton is undermining her, when he is not ignoring her, appearing to be in cahoots with Superintendent Chalmers. Then her best friend is seemingly trying to matchmake her with an officer in another force. Julie might feel she has no control over her life, but things are going to get worse. The loss of control that eventually confronts her could prove to be deadly for many. No pressure then Julie.
The plot is the search for a murderer, which eventually morphs into something entirely different. Chalmers wants to wrap the case up quickly, but the haste unsettles Julie, it’s all too convenient and doesn’t provide a credible motive. This element of the story is a steady, confidently written police procedural with convincing science during the postmortem and mapping the movement of bodies in water.
Our dogged detective doesn’t give up and the story then is revealed as a cyber thriller with ecological consequences and a touch of terrorism. The author’s background brings enormous credibility to the writing, keeping things within the boundaries of what is possible, such that it is scarily realistic. What is possible now is truly terrifying. Here the pace picks up considerably injecting excitement whilst capturing the urgency and anxiety of an alert in industrial control centre. That salvation ultimately comes down to the most banal of IT mantas is wonderful, its perfection, though getting there is quite a journey. Here we have the combination of technical knowledge and personal experience guiding first rate thriller writing, with the result being a perfect balance of the three. This is something that so few can achieve.
It's not all science and action though, there are lovely human touches throughout. When the reader first meets Arni he is surly and as northerners might say ‘in need of a good slap.’ He is troubled though, which explains his behaviour and I gradually warmed to him as his problems unfolded and were dealt with in a compassionate way. Then there is Alf the nightwatchman at a scrapyard, a minor character but one important to solving the case. He is a widow who has made a little shrine, of pretty objects he finds, to his wife and talks to her every night. A touching portrayal of love and loss that we can all relate to.
The control freak Brian was my favourite of the supporting characters. First impressions are of a geek from casting central, in poor shape with an unsuitable diet, unlucky with women and computer game and Dungeons and Dragons obsessed to the point of absorption to another world. Then there are the conspiracy theories he will talk about, one of which got him the sack. An easy target yes, but here given much more depth. He realises he cannot continue as he is, so he starts to write a computer game, he investigates the reason he was stood up for a job interview and realises that he misses his ex-girlfriend much more than he realised. He also is much smarter than most people give him credit for. A small part but his story arc is a joy.
The timing of this novel is critical because it ties in with a real-life disaster that occurred forty years ago. The dangers remain as relevant today as they were forty years ago and if you are uninformed about the event, I would recommend reading up about it.
A wonderfully entertaining blend of action and science.
January 30, 2025
I am very familiar with Fionas work, for me this is her best to date, a slick, accomplished, intelligently plotted novel full of real heart, an emotionally charged read.
Book one in a new series, It has all the hallmarks of a Police procedural combined with the feel of a gripping cyber thriller
The subject matter for the plot (because like some of the characters) is not one that I can remember much about and yet the scale of it staggers belief, the author has ingeniously plotted a novel around this in a slick and taut fashion, I was never quite sure which direction the story would go which just heightend my reading experience as there were no pre conceived ideas
The author nails the characters, pitch perfect for the area, strongly written, I found myself painting a picture of each in minds eye
The way that DI Julie Cadell is written shows a strong, determined woman who is coping (just) with the demands of the job, a mortgage she can barely pay, and the fact that she is a single mother with a moody teenage son who has his own issues, but through all this she strives forward determined to find the balance between the job and her family life
I loved the sense of place and location, you get a real feeling for Teeside and the surrounding area, the geography and topography written with real feeling and descriptive tones from someone clearly familiar with the area. There is a stark bleakness in places to landscape, however, you get a strong overriding sense of belonging
It is also a read with more than a human touch it is packed with heartfelt emotion which at times gets under your skin
By the end of the book I was racing through the pages as the tension levels reached overload, the ending as dramatic as it is suspense fuelled. The story is wonderfully constructed with a strongly written narrative, having a natural flow and pace to it
It was an interesting ending as it left some unanswered questions surrounding the Police which could be explored more in future books. It also explores big business, corruption and the lengths that will taken to keep the truth under wraps. A compelling and engaging story, the quality of the writing had me hooked from the opening pages, there is also plenty of backstory with the addition of Julies family life
Overall I can’t recommend this book highly enough, Fiona Erskine is an author who deserves to widely read, the real deal in crime fiction
Book one in a new series, It has all the hallmarks of a Police procedural combined with the feel of a gripping cyber thriller
The subject matter for the plot (because like some of the characters) is not one that I can remember much about and yet the scale of it staggers belief, the author has ingeniously plotted a novel around this in a slick and taut fashion, I was never quite sure which direction the story would go which just heightend my reading experience as there were no pre conceived ideas
The author nails the characters, pitch perfect for the area, strongly written, I found myself painting a picture of each in minds eye
The way that DI Julie Cadell is written shows a strong, determined woman who is coping (just) with the demands of the job, a mortgage she can barely pay, and the fact that she is a single mother with a moody teenage son who has his own issues, but through all this she strives forward determined to find the balance between the job and her family life
I loved the sense of place and location, you get a real feeling for Teeside and the surrounding area, the geography and topography written with real feeling and descriptive tones from someone clearly familiar with the area. There is a stark bleakness in places to landscape, however, you get a strong overriding sense of belonging
It is also a read with more than a human touch it is packed with heartfelt emotion which at times gets under your skin
By the end of the book I was racing through the pages as the tension levels reached overload, the ending as dramatic as it is suspense fuelled. The story is wonderfully constructed with a strongly written narrative, having a natural flow and pace to it
It was an interesting ending as it left some unanswered questions surrounding the Police which could be explored more in future books. It also explores big business, corruption and the lengths that will taken to keep the truth under wraps. A compelling and engaging story, the quality of the writing had me hooked from the opening pages, there is also plenty of backstory with the addition of Julies family life
Overall I can’t recommend this book highly enough, Fiona Erskine is an author who deserves to widely read, the real deal in crime fiction
December 8, 2024
Discover the locations in the novel here
Fiona Erskine really is an author that I think should get greater recognition. She writes strong women and those working in the toughest industries in the world - engineering, oil etc. Having worked as an engineer for years, she writes about what she knows so the detail and things you learn from this is just outstanding!
The incident in Bhopal India which is what this book focuses on is just awful to read about but Fiona does it in a way that makes it accessible and relevant. I found myself reading more about this after the book.
A police procedural at its heart but with themes and locations unique to Fiona. Gripping stuff!
November 20, 2024
An exciting thriller absolute page turner, I couldn't put it down! DI Julie Cadell is a brilliant character and a force to be reckoned with despite those who work against her. The tragedy of Bhopal is woven into the narrative serving to remind us of the horrors that still continue. Long may DI Cadell continue, I can't wait for her next case!
June 25, 2025
Interesting
Uh
A brillng story that relates to the dangers of excessive integration. Suspicious deaths lead to a conspiracy to cause havoc which is thwarted at the final moment. Details of Teesside are to the interest and intrigue.
Uh
A brillng story that relates to the dangers of excessive integration. Suspicious deaths lead to a conspiracy to cause havoc which is thwarted at the final moment. Details of Teesside are to the interest and intrigue.
February 22, 2026
Just great! A real page turner with good pacing and intrigue and surprises! And of course the chemical plant drama of it all was so fun (& stressful haha).
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews