Constable on the Prowl

Another visit to Aidensfield and Ashfordly police station where Constable Nick is still trying to settle into his role as the village bobby. Poor Nick has been lumbered with a string of night shifts and soon realises that not all is quite as quiet as he expected under cover of darkness. A delightful and engrossing read, gentle and full of humour.

I really liked this book by Nicholas Rhea.  Constable on the Prowl is a an amusing look at the English countryside and its residents in a gentler time as seen through the eyes of the local constable.The storytelling is charming and reminiscent of James Herriot.  I highly recommend it to all readers looking for a fun read. Thanks to Net Galley and Agora Books for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

For anyone who doesn’t know, this is one of the books by Nicholas Rhea that the Heartbeat TV series was based on, so if you enjoyed that series you will no doubt enjoy the books too.  Some of the characters from the series are found in this book, Sgt Blaketon, Alf Ventress, and of course, Claude Jeremiah Greengrass, as well as many other memorable characters.  

The book centres around Constable Nick Rhea, newly posted to Aidensfield in North Yorkshire and is  unusual in the fact that it takes place entirely at night.  It is a selection of stories from Nick’s night duties, with each chapter dealing with a different aspect of his work, making it an easy book to read if you can only snatch an hour here and there.  As the book is set in the late 60s/70s things are very different to policing today.  In those days the police actually investigated crimes such as burglary.  Just imagine!

The book does seem a little dated now, but is still an interesting read, full of gentle humour.  There are some lovely stories, especially the one about Belinda the Badger, and there are lots of amusing anecdotes about the pranks the bobbies played on each other.

I'm a fan of Nicholas Rhea's books: I like the gentle humour and the cosy atmosphere.
I liked all those I read and this one is no exception.
I like the setting, the characters and the style of writing and this was one the best I read.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Agora Books and Netgalley for this ARC