He grew up in the 80s reading anything he could get his hands on at the library, writing stories, watching large amounts of television, playing video-games, and largely avoiding the great outdoors. Lead character DS Adam Tyler works on the Cold Case Review Team for South Yorkshire police, well to be fair he is the review team.

The writing and flow are excellent and I especially liked the protagonist and hope this is the beginning of a series. Adam Tyler – keenly observant and very sharp witted, a taciturn loner, gay, conflicted, and emotionally damaged. When I found myself drifting off while reading the digital review copy, I went to Seattle Bibliocommons and checked out the audio book. The deduction made by the other officer was elementary, and should have been obvious to the protagonist.I think that now that the characters have been developed a little, the second book should be better. Very tall and handsome, Tyler is lusted after by his female colleagues even though they know about his sexual preference for men.

Here we have a gay detective, just holding on to his job, whose father committed suicide, involved in cold cases. Russ came through the same route as myself for writing with very familiar names cropping up in the acknowledgements. Tyler cannot workout if Oscar purposefully made a play for him, but he does trust his friend Sally-Ann.

But while working the case, DS Adams discovers the skeletal remains of the man’s body buried inside the wall of the old burned-out mansion. Told over the period of a week and set in the sleepy village of Castledene, Sheffield, Firewatching is a dark and twisty police procedural introducing Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler, a cold case reviewer with a troubled past, and the sole representative of South Yorkshire's Cold Case Review Unit. It would have gone undiscovered for years – but someone just sneaked into the Gardens and dug it up. A taut investigative thriller bursting with character and tension, introducing an enigmatic, fresh lead detective unlike any you have met before – Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler – for fans of Adrian McKinty, Tana French, Steve Cavanagh and Sharon Bolton.

Edna Burnside and Lily Bainbridge – Two elderly spinsters whose cottage backs upon the “Old Vicarage” where the body was found.His successes in solving cases have made him a lot of enemies, he has to endure sly pointed comments about his father, and homophobia in the form of 'banter' and otherwise. The characters felt authentic to me - flawed and vulnerable, I was drawn to the main character Adam Tyler - a disgraced officer relegated to cold cases. Their first outing sees them investigating a cold case in which a body has been discovered by workers renovating a fire damaged house.