Nine O'Clock Bus To Brompton

The county Mounties #1

by Kevin Fitzpatrick

The quiet village of Brompton is shaken when the body of former sex worker Suzanne Hoskins is discovered in Bluebell Wood. To add to the mystery, her husband Steven has disappeared.

PC Don Barton's life seems to be going nowhere. Moved from the coveted motorcycle section to a rural beat as a result of misconduct, he is morosely standing by as his career passes before him.

Soon, his quiet life as a village bobby is shattered, as he enters a world of pornography, S&M, drug dealing and terrorism. But can Don find the killer before more lives are lost, and redeem himself?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Amazon, Mystery Thriller

266 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 19, 2020

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently haven't been feeling well due to the flu season, so I decided to read an easy book after finishing my last one. During the last 'Stuff your Kindle day', I downloaded this murder mystery book which is only 266 pages. I am a fan of this genre, so I thought it was worth a try.

To my surprise, I found the book to be really engaging. Although the first two chapters were set in the past, which I usually don't prefer, I didn't mind it as the book was fast-paced. Moreover, these chapters became more relevant to the story as it progressed towards the end. I was so engrossed in the plot that I couldn't put it down.

I would give the book a 4.5-star rating, but the only thing that could have been better was the main character. I wanted to like him more, but unfortunately, I couldn't. Although I added the second book to my reading list, I am dying to download it and read it anytime soon. Maybe I'll save it for a time when I don't feel like reading anything too heavy.

Overall, I found the book enjoyable and would definitely recommend it.

[Barbara Deeprose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Good Read

PC Don Barton is not particularly happy with his lot. After a brief affair, which almost ruined his marriage he is now just a village policeman so when the body of a woman is found on his patch he throws himself into finding out what happened but nearly gets himself in trouble as well. I didn't find PC Barton particularly a nice person, he seems to have learned nothing from his affair, and thinks he is too good for his role in the police force but I still enjoyed the book, I thought it was a good read.

[Mendhak · Rating 1 out of 5]

At one point in the story, Don's wife Rosemary packs up and leaves him, scribbling a 'how could you' type message on a mirror in lipstick. When this happened, I had thought that the story, which until then was dully blundering along, was about to pick up a notch, this 'extra' layer of mystery on top of the ongoing murder investigation was unexpected.

Later, we learn that Rosemary had packed up and left because of some dumbass assumption she made on seeing someone Don had once had an affair with... that was; actually it wasn't even explained well at all. It turns out the drama was added for the sake of it. One of my least favourite tropes in all media is situations which could have been resolved if two people talked to each other. In this case it was vital that they did not talk to each other, or the pointless drama would never have occurred.

I should have stopped reading there, but since I enjoy punishing myself so much, I carried on.

It seems Don has learned nothing at all as he encounters other women. But perhaps Don isn't to blame entirely, he's just a fictional character. I noticed that the author insists on describing all the women in this story in a creepy level of detail.

Genuinely, I don't care if the book was _set_ in the 60s, the book was _written_ in the 2000s, and this kind of treatment shouldn't be a feature.

The one saving grace might have been the lawyer encountered towards the last part of the book, a clever one who runs circles around everyone; sadly this lawyer is a 'she' and given the same diminishing, reductive treatment.

[Hitesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story was fairly good. However a few negatives.

The whole 60/70s cop setting threw me a bit and early on the author seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time describing the radios/ cars/ motorcycles, almost as a form of personal reminiscing rather than anything which really added to the story.

The main character just seemed to be quite 'flaccid'. He seemed to lack any character.

The author's treatment and descriptions of women in the book felt slightly 'weird'. He seemed to describe every woman's attractiveness level in a huge amount of detail (with less detail on the male characters). This may attributable to the whole 'different era' thing /"that's how we used to judge women then" theme, but it felt uncomfortable in places.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent debut novel by an ex-policeman who really knows his stuff. This police novel has sex, car chases, believable characters and even Irish terrorists.
I read it with enjoyment and am already looking forward to the next in the series.

[Cidney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don Barton is a young police constable in Brompton in central London, and he finds a distressed woman in the street who tells him that her husband has hit her, he calls it in and follows her to a really lovely big old terraced house and inside there is her husband who denies doing anything. The woman also decides not to press charges. Don leaves. A few days later a woman's body is discovered in a field, he is sent to look and discovers that it is the woman he dealt with previously.

Quite unexpectedly the book goes down the route of sado-masochism, nudity, child pornography and goodness knows what else, all this in the 1960s! Well this is no Heartbeat (a gentle police series set in a rural area in the 1960s in england). All this mayhem centres around Steven, the wife beater who has now scuttled off to hide away in Ireland, and his dead wife Suzanne. The book lurches into Steven joining the IRA against his better nature, but just before his wife died she had sacked one of her assistants Irene who set Steven up to meet some IRA men and recruited him, not that he wanted to but his wife is dead and he is the main suspect so that seems a better option than being imprisoned for murder. The story has a lot of strange elements all joining together in the end and the ending wasn't very pleasant, but if you do go joining terrorist groups...

The only thing that I couldn't get my head around is that it says The County Mounties book 1 on the cover which led me to think Mounties? This is set in Canada then. But it isn't, it seems to be set in London, england? Not what I was expecting and the significance of the 9pm bus to Brompton is completely lost on me now!

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

📚 Nine O’Clock Bus to Brompton
✍️Kevin Fitzpatrick
2⭐️

NOBTB is a police procedural set in the 1960s and 70s in the murky world of pornography mixed with the IRA, which was an interesting and intriguing combination, unfortunately the IRA element was mentioned at only the start and end of the book, which was disappointing. The amount of detail that the author managed to convey within the prologue and the first chapter alone was impressive. However I do feel the need to mention that there are some uncomfortable scenes, as within the opening scene prostitutes were dressed in the uniform of shall we say, a political police force from Germany and were pretending to beat a naked man. I wasn’t sure about the title of the series “the County Mounties” as we don’t call our police Mounties in England, this is more of a Canadian thing - if you have any thoughts about this, please let me know.
There were some minor editing issues such as Suzanne was called Mistress Stern but sometimes Madam Stern which did show a lack of continuity and editing. Additionally there were numerous instances of the word “the” being left out of sentences, for example “…he was in the back of Jaguar…”. Plot wise I felt that protagonist Don was useless, and a bit of a drip - frustratingly so. I hoped this would allow for character development as the plot progressed, but for me, it didn’t. There was also a lot of unnecessary detail about Don and his wife, which I felt didn’t add anything to the plot or characters.

[Courtney-Louise✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 star rating for me just purely for the fact it took ages for me to get into. I just hit a point where I didn't feel motivated to pick the book up. However, upon finishing the book I did discover that this was Fitzpatrick's first novel so can probably give a bit of credit where it is due.
I do, although, love a thriller book and this was just that. I didn't fully get engrossed until around 30-40% of the way through the book where it started to pick up and I was more inclined to pick up my Kindle to read. The whole idea of the book was different though, trying to find out who was behind the murder of Suzanne Hoskins, a local sex worker. The Churcher brothers are first believed to be behind it but when their mother comes to see Don Barton with a satchel of belongings she found in a barn, it's revealed that actually they were completely innocent and did not murder this woman even after one sadly died in a burning vehicle after a crash and the other was sentenced to 3 years in prison. However, the real perpetrator gets their comeuppance at the end, albeit in a brutal way to the point they lose their life, but comeuppance all the same.

[Amberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started and finished date – 29.11.25 to 01.12.25.
My rating – Three Stars.
This book was okay, and I enjoyed parts of book, but I didn't love it also I think people who like the lucky ones by Mark Edwards or the murders at fleat house by Lucinda Riley may like is book. The cover of the book was okay, and I think the colour palette at was used on the cover of book was fine. The writing was okay, and the writing took some time to get used to it also the ending of book was fine.

I think the setting of the book was okay, but it was bit blend, and the atmosphere was fine. I think both mystery and suspense were okay, but it needed to be flash out. I didn't like the author of descriptions of women in the book, and I didn't like the British slang. I found the paced in the book was well structured and steady paced. The characters were both messy and unlikeable also the characters were hard to connect to them.

[Lise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Demoted from a desirable position in the Traffic squad, PC Dan Barton finds his beat in the rural patch of Brompton much more lively than he had expected.

While the story felt authentic to the period and real in terms of the era's attitudes, I had a difficult time liking the main character. After being caught having a fling with a female PC, he lost his favoured post on the force and nearly destroyed his marriage, and yet he still sized up random women in terms of potential relationships. I wavered between three and four stars as my rating as the police procedural portion was well done and kept me in suspense.

[Pedro Bedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in the 60s/70s era when men were men and sheep were nervous, everybody smoked and cars all ran on petrol. Don is disappointed with his lot having been moved from bike cop to village plod for being unfaithful and disreputable behaviour. When an ex London dom madam is murdered on his patch he is helping detectives to solve the case. I'm a bit dubious about some of the material, the forensic guy says the murdered woman had sex with two contributors but DNA was not available till the 80s and they are not above fitting somebody up to get a collar even though he is only down for manslaughter and locked up for 3 out in 1. The story is entertaining and there is plenty of action.

[Bridgewes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that comes close, but misses the mark. A young police officer in Great Britain finds a dead body and investigates. The women is involved in the sex business, but her death appears not to be related to that. The story is somewhat difficult to follow because of the British slang. The story is not fast paced and is slow to develop the story. The main character is flawed but still likable.

[IRENE ASPINALL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not what the title suggests

An interesting storyline with a few twists and turns
.A good start to a series of books I believe. Written in the 1970 era gives a good basis for others stories to evole. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to a friend to read.

[Mohammed Malik · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable read

Not the normal type of genre I read but fancied a change. Nothing too gory and nothing to take your breath away. A simple old fashioned police procedural that managed to bring back the nostalgia of the 60'a. Very impressed.

[Kieran Leahy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah it was alright

[Linda Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story but of a long ending

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a first time book I thought it was well done and I look forward to the second book.

[Jackie Simons]

Read 7/25

[John M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nine o’clock bus to Brompton

After a few confusing chapters everything fell into place. This was a really good read and I would recommend it to readers.

[Shirley Broomhall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Brompton, Kevin Fitzpatrick is skilled in his description of criminal activities and villains.

[Fiona Hewlett-parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay, set in the 70’s a police procedural. There was a bit too much detail on the cars, gadgets and motorbikes for me. As someone else commented this seemed like an author’s personal reminiscences rather than adding anything to the story.