Bravo Jubilee

Handstead New Town Mystery #3

by Charlie Owen

Summer 1977: It's no holiday in the sun in Handstead New Town, a north Manchester overspill. Known to the local cops as Horse's Arse, it's preparing to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee. But with football violence, rampant police hooliganism and an expanding LSD market - there'll be a riot going on...Local gangster, Sercan Ozdemir has under-estimated DCI Harrison, head of the CID. Blood on the floor in an interview room is all in a day's work for him. And Ozdemir knows that if his crime family discover he's been doing his own thing, they'll pull his face off. Meanwhile the uniform cops, Psycho, Pizza, The Brothers, Ally and the others, hurl the rule book out of the window and continue to hold the tide of criminal scum at bay for as long as they can in a town they despise...

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Humor, Police, Mystery

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

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

[Paul]

A very simple story that isn't delivered well. A far less satisfying read than 'Horse's Arse' and 'Foxtrot Oscar' with inaccuracies (e.g. Owen suggest Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough football ground is in Birmingham - someone needs to give him a Geography lesson!)

[Ian Penman]

Book three great read

Continuation of the story of Handstead cops keeks getting better. Can’t wait to start book 4. The characters keep growing well done Charlie Owen. If you like your police stories with a bit of dark humour then these are definitely for you

[Clark Nicol]

The first two books were decent, but this was a transparent plot poorly related. The excesses of the coppers so far are barely credible, but the dog handler addition breaches the bounds of credibility. This series has run its course for me now.

[Steve Dempsey]

A great tongue in cheek novel about the British Bobby. Whilst highlighting excesses and non-PC practises it is done in an amusing manner with humour running throughout the book alongside some compassionate moments

[Peter Stevens]

If you're a fan of the dark and bloody, and you love a good belly laugh, then this is the one for you!

[terence geraghty]

A good 3rd book in the series

I enjoyed the more in depth story line that followed the last book. Another great book in the series. Looking forward to book 4

[Lewis Martin]

4.5 - reading this in 2025 for the first time and it holds up. Highly recommend. Great job Charlie Owen.

[Ann James]

Loving this series - so different to others in the same genre. It has a lot of toilet humour, is non pc (excuse the pun!), racist, sexist.....but you can't help but enjoy being in the company of the officers.

Not as many laugh-out-loud moments compared to the previous books in the series, but you begin to get a deeper insight into the characters. It also neatly ties up the storylines and you begin to wonder: as Horse's A$se has sorted out the bad guys, will it now become a normal, more law-abiding society?

Already begun the next in the series to get the answer to that question. I suspect the answer will be a resounding 'no'.

[Jo]

Pizza, Psycho, The Brothers and co return for their third adventure. Although they sound like a bunch of chav wideboys, they're actually the boys in blue for the shitheap town of Handstead. Turkish gangsters, new drugs, football hooligans and the Queen's Jubilee are the elements that they have to contend with. Humourous and crude but still full of heart.

[Steve]

Anyone curently (or formerly) in the Job should read this. A few thousand km and 30 odd years between me and the mythical Handstead does not make this any less reflective of life on the beat. Fantastic.

[Julie Wan]

Yet another great book from Charlie Owen following the exploits of the cops from Handstead nick. Following on from Foxtrot Oscar our heros find themselves in the middle of the Queens Jubilee celebrations however they have a job to do and again they go after the bad guys and the local scum(less)

[Jim McGrath]

Great fun. Full of lunatics, psychopaths, sex addicts and idiots - and they're just the police. The criminals are worse.

The Handsworth mentioned in these books is set in North Manchester and has no collection with Handsworth, Birmingham where my novels are set. Where my novels are set.

[Sarah Harrison]

The Brothers aren't as tough as they make out, they do have a heart! The question is...Will Sercan Ozdemir be feed to the wild russian boars by his Uncle?. Great 3rd book by Charlie Owen!

[Spurnlad]

Continuing Horse's Arse series - another top read

[Jay Edwards]

52 book club, 2026 challenge
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