Gil North – författare

After battling for justice, at great personal risk, in his first recorded case, Sergeant Caleb Cluff made a swift return to duty in this book. The story opens one wet and windy night, with the discovery of a young woman's corpse, lying face down on the cobblestones of a passageway in the Yorkshire town of Gunnarshaw. The deceased is Jane Trundle, an attractive girl who worked as an assistant in a chemist's shop. She yearned for the good life, and Cluff finds more money in her handbag than she would have earned in wages.There are echoes of Sherlock Holmes ('You know my methods, Watson') in the title, and in an exchange in the first chapter between Cluff and Superintendent Patterson, but Cluff is very much his own man. Little that goes on in and around the mean streets of Gunnarshaw escapes him. He is scornful of detectives who rely solely on supposed facts: 'More than facts were in question here, the intangible, invisible passions of human beings.' Understanding those passions leads him gradually towards the truth about Jane's murder.

"The Maigret of the Dales"Detective-Sergeant Cluff is at home in the bleak, moorland market town of 1960s Gunnarshaw. A gruff and gloomy loner, he has spent a lifetime observing local folk - and knows their lives inside out. They know him, too - a bulky, macintoshed figure who watches from the shadows of Gunnarshaw's ginnels as they go about their daily business, his dog Clive always at his side.But it's not just criminals Cluff has to watch out for. Never satisfied with easy answers to cases, Cluff is a maverick and no flatterer to authority - much to the bemusement of Detective-Constable Barker, but much more so to the despair of thehapless Inspector Mole, who tries at every opportunity to outwit or contain Cluff's singular methods of detection.But beneath Cluff's dour exterior beats the heart of a truly compassionate man who possesses a deep understanding of human nature, in all its sordid and depraved details - details which frequently push Cluff to bend the rules in his pursuit of moral justice.Sergeant Cluff Laughs LastDetective-Sergeant Cluff, from the shadows of a ginnel, watches a young woman weeping in Gunnarshaw's busy high street - and wonders why. But when a dead body is discovered in a forest plantation, Cluff calls on his extensive knowledge of Gunnarshaw folk, as well as his instinctive perception of human nature, to uncover a trail of fateful and unrequited love.As the investigation progresses, nothing is as it seems, and as Cluff knows only too well from a lifetime of detective work, when it comes to crimes of passion, there are never any easy answers. Inspector Mole, on the other hand, is certain he has the case all wrapped up - and is determined to prove Cluff wrong.

“The Maigret of the Dales”‘Gil North’s atmospheric writing shows the influence of Simenon, and Gunnarshaw’s finest, Sergeant Caleb Cluff, is a memorable detective – the Maigret of the Dales’ Martin Edwards, CWA Diamond Dagger winner 2020 and author of Mortmain Hall.Detective-Sergeant Cluff is at home in the bleak, moorland market town of 1960s Gunnarshaw. A gruff and gloomy loner, he has spent a lifetime observing local folk – and knows their lives inside out. They know him, too – a bulky, macintoshed figure who watches from the shadows of Gunnarshaw’s ginnels as they go about their daily business, his dog Clive always at his side.But it’s not just criminals Cluff has to watch out for. Never satisfied with easy answers to cases, Cluff is a maverick and no flatterer to authority – much to the bemusement of Detective-Constable Barker, but much more so to the despair of thehapless Inspector Mole, who tries at every opportunity to outwit or contain Cluff’s singular methods of detection.But beneath Cluff’s dour exterior beats the heart of a truly compassionate man who possesses a deep understanding of human nature, in all its sordid and depraved details – details which frequently push Cluff to bend the rules in his pursuit of moraljustice.The Blindness of Sergeant Cluff:Gunnarshaw is under siege. A peeping Tom prowls the streets and back yards, peering through windows, the police seemingly helpless to catch him. Then, a body is discovered in the garden of the local school’s head teacher, much to the dismay of his well-heeled neighbours.But Detective-Sergeant Cluff’s investigation drags him away from the rugged moorland market town of Gunnarshaw and his cosy cottage, to the run-down back streets of Liverpool, where ponces and prostitutes ply their trade.For once, however, Cluff’s judgement of Gunnarshaw folk, his once faultless perception of human nature, not to mention his compassion, are severely put to the test. And at what cost? Justice? What’s more, Inspector Mole is determined to trip him up. Is Cluff past his best?

"The Maigret of the Dales"Detective-Sergeant Cluff is at home in the bleak, moorland market town of 1960s Gunnarshaw. A gruff and gloomy loner, he has spent a lifetime observing local folk - and knows their lives inside out. They know him, too - a bulky, macintoshed figure who watches from the shadows of Gunnarshaw's ginnels as they go about their daily business, his dog Clive always at his side.But it's not just criminals Cluff has to watch out for. Never satisfied with easy answers to cases, Cluff is a maverick and no flatterer to authority - much to the bemusement of Detective-Constable Barker, but much more so to the despair of thehapless Inspector Mole, who tries at every opportunity to outwit or contain Cluff's singular methods of detection.But beneath Cluff's dour exterior beats the heart of a truly compassionate man who possesses a deep understanding of human nature, in all its sordid and depraved details - details which frequently push Cluff to bend the rules in his pursuit of moral justice.More Deaths For Sergeant CluffWhen the police are called to a crime scene at a Gunnarshaw grocer's shop, it looks to be a straightforward case of burglary - but not to Detective-Sergeant Cluff, whose subsequent investigations, following a boy's brutal discovery of a dismembered body on the moors, force him to confront the most gruesome murder he has ever faced. Cluff calls on his intimate knowledge of the folk of Gunnarshaw to push forward his investigation, but when events escalate and lives are under imminent threat, he must abandon his unorthodox methods in favour of immediate action - which even Inspector Mole must admire - but in doing so, and in his haste to bring the case to a close, he puts himself in great personal danger.