Graham Bartlett's debut novel 'Bad for good'

 This was, without doubt, a unsettling read. Not least because of the plot, which was tense and throat-achingly painful, but also because the whole way through I kept remembering that 'Write what you know' mantra. The knowledge that, as a police officer serving for more than thirty years, Graham Bartlett, had more than likely come across examples of all the horrendous behaviours (not all involving physical damage) his several compelling and well-drawn characters either suffer from or display, fails to match my impression of a thoroughly decent and apparently undamaged man that comes over in his excellent (and invaluable) crime writing workshops, as well as in the one-to-one conversations I've had, when asking for help with my writing. And write he certainly can. 'Force of hate' already on my wishlist.