The Judas Sheep [Hardcover]

Product Details

• Hardcover: 453 pages
• Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print; Large Print edition edition
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750510684
• ISBN-13: 978-0750510684
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,123,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid British police procedural, July 18, 2003

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Judas Sheep (Detective Inspector Charlie Priest Mysteries) (Paperback)

This is another entry in the series about Yorkshire policeman Detective Chief Inspector Charlie Priest and a good one it is too ,although I would urge newcomers to start with the earlier series novels which fill in the back story.
Events are triggered when the wife of an American tobacco tycoon is snatched outside a London department store and her chauffeur murdered .The object of the kidnapping is for the gang to raise a ransom but they are foiled when the husband not only refuses to pay but is able to rescue a tape showing the identity of the kidnappers.He then recruits the gang to further the interests of the tobacco lobby by killing the leader of the Opposition party in the country ,a man likeky to br Prime Minister shortly and set on a nationwide ban on tobacco.
The gang is ruthless and includes at least one seriously deranged soul ,the disfigured psychopath Shawn Parrott who is able to achieve sexual gratification only in the act of killing and he does a lot of that in the book-the chauffeur ,a truck driver and a teenage whore .
Priest while still officially on stress related sick leave gets involved with the case and operates undercover on the trail of drug runners in the course of which he encounters the gang and becomes involved in the plan to thwart the assassination attempt

A few too many subplots hold things up -namely the fashionable theme of child abuse which is introduced late in the book ,and the fact of Priest's girl friend being a propagandist for the anti-smoking lobby and its "exploitation "of Africa which allows Pawson to ride his tirsome hobby horse into the setting sun.While the gang is a chilling creation the cabal of U S tobacco tycoons underwriting the assassination bid fails to convince --the section where they appear is like a weak episode of Dallas in which everybody is JR
Good things outweigh the bad and Charlie is a likeable hero.
One for lovers of the British police novel

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DI Charlie Priest: Always a Very Good Character, December 5, 2008

By 

K. Thalheimer "Beach Reader" (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Judas Sheep (A DCI Charlie Priest Mystery) (Detective Inspector Charlie Priest Mystery) (Paperback)

If you like British copper novels & British humor you'll like these novels by Mr. Pawson.

While out on a temporary disability, DI Priest can't stay away from the murder, mayhem & the chase. A very likable character, with the dry Brit humor he sets about trying to solve a number of murders which are all connected. The villains are ruthless; the chief bad guy being over the edge in the sanity department. The villains are all Brits hired by an extremely wealthy American tobacco magnate who splits his time between the U.S. & United Kingdom.

The book has a number of sub-plots. Some are crucial to the main story. Others are much weaker &, I felt, detracted from the book.

It's a very enjoyable & solid British crime novel with very good characters

The book hits the ground running. It's action starts from the onset

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gritty and Enjoyable, January 6, 2008

By 

J. Chippindale (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Judas Sheep (A DCI Charlie Priest Mystery) (Detective Inspector Charlie Priest Mystery) (Paperback)

Stuart Pawson had a career as a mining engineer He followed this with a spell working for the probation service, before he became a full-time writer. He lives in the pleasant waterside village of Fairburn in Yorkshire. The author's writing is gritty and to the point added to which he has a likeable sense of humour that he usually incorporates into his books, all of which I have found enjoyable.

DI Charlie Priest is mulling over the fact that as the saying goes a copper is never off duty. Although supposedly on sick leave he has been asked to keep an eye on a well known drugs courier, who uses the Hull-Rotterdam route on a regular basis. He is also concerned for the safety of his girlfriend as she spies on a tobacco company and their sales operation in Africa.

Stuart Pawson's books are to me at least, a cut above the average crime novel. As I said earlier, he has a dry wit that transmits itself to the reader and makes the reading of his books that much more enjoyable an experience.