Bums

Let's narrow it down to the sort of people who, if you were inclined to use such language, you might, between clenched teeth, refer to as 'bums'. Take Smelly Shelley, a middle-aged bag woman, stinking of urine and bad attitude - what's her story? How did she get here? And Bernard, a shambolic mess of learning difficulties and obsessive behaviour - and Greg, a middle-class and useless young drug dealer. Or Karl, the dodgy nightclub owner and his brutish brother Byron.

These are just some of the characters that Detective Inspector Frank Lee encounters as he investigates the bizarre killing of the headmaster of the largest school in the county.

DI Frank Lee is an ex-punk-new-age-traveller motivated to catch the real bad guys and not at all bothered about anyone else's definition of what constitutes crime. He goes about his work in a calm zen-like manner, believing that the solutions will unveil themselves in their own way and in their own time. Despite this apparently laid back attitude, he gets results, and he gets them quick.

Bums is the first in a trilogy of novels featuring DI Frank Lee and set in the large post-industrial town of Elchurch on the South Wales coast. Beats and Bones, The next two novels in the series will be released in 2016.