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Charlie Priest #12
Grief Encounters
DI Charlie Priest is in for a surprise at the monthly superintendents' meeting. DCS Colin Swainby stands to make a personal statement - he is to resign, quietly and without fuss, because certain allegations have been made against him involving a mysterious beautiful woman. When an attractive woman is snapped in a passionate clinch with MP Edward Gross on the roomy backseat of his Rover, he too opts for a quiet exit, but his has a far more permanent outcome. Charlie knows there must be a connection between the two - but he has to go to great lengths to prove it.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
About the author
Stuart Pawson
18 books36 followersStuart Pawson lived in Fairburn, Yorkshire, with his wife, Doreen.
After a career as a mining electrical engineer, he worked part-time for the probation service for five years, mediating between offenders and their victims. This gave him a good insight into the criminal justice system, and it was during this period that he started to write his first book, The Picasso Scam.
Stuart believed he must have some cowboy genes somewhere in his genome because he always had a strong affinity for the American West. His first visit to the USA was to work for a month at a Wyoming coalmine, and he holidayed over there many times. Although tone-deaf (some would say stone-deaf) he always thought it would be good fun to be a songwriter. The thought of composing a three-minute song as opposed to a 300-page book had a certain attraction. He managed to combine the two themes - song writing and the West - in the opening chapters of Laughing Boy, and he enjoyed writing that one immensely.
After a career as a mining electrical engineer, he worked part-time for the probation service for five years, mediating between offenders and their victims. This gave him a good insight into the criminal justice system, and it was during this period that he started to write his first book, The Picasso Scam.
Stuart believed he must have some cowboy genes somewhere in his genome because he always had a strong affinity for the American West. His first visit to the USA was to work for a month at a Wyoming coalmine, and he holidayed over there many times. Although tone-deaf (some would say stone-deaf) he always thought it would be good fun to be a songwriter. The thought of composing a three-minute song as opposed to a 300-page book had a certain attraction. He managed to combine the two themes - song writing and the West - in the opening chapters of Laughing Boy, and he enjoyed writing that one immensely.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 12, 2026
Priest goes undercover in order to catch four con artists preying on folk via a speed dating venue. Its a great tale with a good, feasible ending.
October 31, 2020
.Apart from Ian Rankin . I don't normally read British crime stories . The days of Edgar Wallace , John Creasey , Sapper and Leslie Charteris are long past. Despite its awful title , I decided to give this one a go. It turned out to be pretty good .The lead character is believable , there is a liberal sprinkling of humour throughout and the twin story lines are both enjoyable and brought together neatly at the end . In any event , who could resist a book which has the first corpse with " property of the pope " tattooed on her bum !
August 5, 2025
Following the whole series. One to go
Thoroughly enjoyed every book cant wai
t to read final book in the series hopevits s happy ending for Charlie
Thoroughly enjoyed every book cant wai
t to read final book in the series hopevits s happy ending for Charlie
September 24, 2025
Another good book. Light and entertaining.
May 5, 2009
GRIEF ENCOUNTERS is Stuart Pawson's 12th in his dozen stories of the East Pennine force's longest serving Inspector, Charlie Priest. Priest is tenacious but kindly and fair, and is generally left alone to pursue his own methods of detection. For once we see a more human face to the Police and an understanding of the compulsion to put criminals behind bars, even if the law conspires against it.
Unfortunately Charlie is less lucky in the love department, but we still hold out hope for him.
Someone is blackmailing prominent citizens in Heckley, and Charlie tracks it down to a speed dating agency.
The characters in this novel are somewhat more complex than in some of his others, but Pawson easily makes you believe them. He also manages to interweave several distinctly different plots together, smoothly and seamlessly, and the prose is so readable one can pick up a book and just enjoy the odd chapter before retiring. By his own words he is quite proud of this one but if you haven't read any of his others, RUN, don't walk to your nearest library or bookseller. You'll be assured of a treat.
He is at work on the 13th Charlie Priest novel. We can't wait.
Unfortunately Charlie is less lucky in the love department, but we still hold out hope for him.
Someone is blackmailing prominent citizens in Heckley, and Charlie tracks it down to a speed dating agency.
The characters in this novel are somewhat more complex than in some of his others, but Pawson easily makes you believe them. He also manages to interweave several distinctly different plots together, smoothly and seamlessly, and the prose is so readable one can pick up a book and just enjoy the odd chapter before retiring. By his own words he is quite proud of this one but if you haven't read any of his others, RUN, don't walk to your nearest library or bookseller. You'll be assured of a treat.
He is at work on the 13th Charlie Priest novel. We can't wait.
April 25, 2013
Anyone who is already familiar with Pawson will appreciate this as another in his fairly distinctive style. Little laugh-out-loud humour, but an awful lot of gentle grins and some mild tension in places. This is another police procedural - not quite sophisticated enough to call it a mystery, though it does have one nice twist towards the end - a victim who turns out to be not quite the victim we had been led to expect! Credibility is a little down from Pawson's normal standard, but the reader is unlikely to care much about this, it is still a cracking good yarn - and while justice is not entirely done at the end, the real world says that justice is rarely done in full, and there is a reasonable approach, so far as most evildoers are concerned.
This will not appeal to those who like their detective stories full of action, shoot-outs and gritty arguments in dark corners - this has hints of that but we don't see much violent action live, it is just reported later - it is very gentle, and will appeal to the more mature reader.
This will not appeal to those who like their detective stories full of action, shoot-outs and gritty arguments in dark corners - this has hints of that but we don't see much violent action live, it is just reported later - it is very gentle, and will appeal to the more mature reader.
August 31, 2012
‘Grief Encounters’ by Stuart Pawson
Published by A & B November 2008
Attending the monthly superintendents meeting, DI Charlie Priest is shocked when DCS Colins Swainby makes a short statement to the effect that he expects to be asked for his resignation owing to certain allegations that have been made against him. The meeting has further shocks in store for Charlie when a DI from Halifax passes some photographs round showing the dead body of a women whom they are having difficulty in identifying – Charlie recognises her.
The action switches between two couples who are conducting a series of scams, and DI Charlie Priest who slowly pieces together several unrelated events and gets on their trail.
The weaving together of the different strands of the investigation is cleverly achieved. One of great strengths of this series is the humour, which is much in evidence in this book, making this another very enjoyable entry in this series.
Recommended.
Lizzie Hayes
Published by A & B November 2008
Attending the monthly superintendents meeting, DI Charlie Priest is shocked when DCS Colins Swainby makes a short statement to the effect that he expects to be asked for his resignation owing to certain allegations that have been made against him. The meeting has further shocks in store for Charlie when a DI from Halifax passes some photographs round showing the dead body of a women whom they are having difficulty in identifying – Charlie recognises her.
The action switches between two couples who are conducting a series of scams, and DI Charlie Priest who slowly pieces together several unrelated events and gets on their trail.
The weaving together of the different strands of the investigation is cleverly achieved. One of great strengths of this series is the humour, which is much in evidence in this book, making this another very enjoyable entry in this series.
Recommended.
Lizzie Hayes
November 5, 2011
I like this series a lot. This must be the 4th or 5th that I have read and I only wish that I had started at the beginning of the set.
I enjoy the style of writing, Charlie's character and the bonhomie of his unit. There was one incident where the owner of the local chippie was in the cells after a 'domestic'. As DI Priest walks in the briefing room he is told that it wasnt a serious incident, 'she was only lightly battered'. Wouldnt it be great to have worked in that sort of environment?
I know what my next couple of reads are going to be and that will give me the time to visit www.fantasyfiction.com to find the other books in this series and put in an order for them at my local library.
As for the plot here, I managed to get some of it right but there were still some surprises.
Another 4 from me for this author.
I enjoy the style of writing, Charlie's character and the bonhomie of his unit. There was one incident where the owner of the local chippie was in the cells after a 'domestic'. As DI Priest walks in the briefing room he is told that it wasnt a serious incident, 'she was only lightly battered'. Wouldnt it be great to have worked in that sort of environment?
I know what my next couple of reads are going to be and that will give me the time to visit www.fantasyfiction.com to find the other books in this series and put in an order for them at my local library.
As for the plot here, I managed to get some of it right but there were still some surprises.
Another 4 from me for this author.
November 22, 2014
It took a while to get into this book, but by the middle, it picked up and the ending was more enjoyable and faster paced. The writing style was a bit different compared to other police procedural, but the lighter tone - the joking made by the primary character sets this author aside from others. Different, enjoyable and I may just have to pick up another book in the series.
May 3, 2013
I found the story line a tad weak and inconsistant and the writing was quite wooden. The author tried to hard to inject humour and technical detail which sometimes resulted in him falling flat on his face. there were odd moments of good story telling but few and far between.
July 22, 2013
This book is so severely boring that you ache for it to finish soon. The plot is wafer thin and there are absolutely no scintilating twists and turns. Pawson's writing style is supremely cheesy. The metaphors are juvenile and characters caricaturish. Strictly avoidable!
August 17, 2015
Love the English Who Done Its'. I didn't recognize the setting like I do in some of the England mysterys. I do like DI Priest novels.
This one has a lot of twists and I was still wrong in my guess as to actually did the deed.
This one has a lot of twists and I was still wrong in my guess as to actually did the deed.
January 9, 2012
Great book couldn't put it down want to read more of his books
January 24, 2012
Good solid reading again from this author.
April 24, 2012
This was a very good police procedural. I thoiught all of the characters were well described and I enjoyed the cop's banter. The crime was also satisfyingly complex to solve.
December 14, 2012
An excellent piece of work!
October 8, 2013
Loved this and looking forward to reading more about Charlie Priest!
July 10, 2016
I skipped quite a bit as I really didn't like this book which was a shame as I liked all the others in the series that I've read up to now :(
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews