Transfusion

April 1, 2020
Fans of Oldham's popular Henry Christie police procedurals may have worried that, with Christie's retirement from the Lancashire, England, force, the series would end. Fortunately, that's not the case. Christie is now running a country pub and trying to recover from the brutal murder of his fianc�e. He's also working with the locals to combat a fast-burning brush fire on the moor. As unofficial fire warden, he's touring the surrounding countryside to ensure that everyone is safe when he makes a horrific discovery, which quickly leads to a murder investigation. Christie is promptly drafted as a special consultant to the police force to help find the killers. His involvement leads to a tense confrontation with his old nemesis, the Costain family. This is a fast-paced, suspenseful thriller that's packed with unexpected twists and brutal violence. As in the earlier series installments, it's Christie's talent as a copper, along with his sometimes foolhardy bravery in the face of danger, that makes this latest adventure a gripping page-turner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2021
Oldham's latest starts off as if it's going to be a fourth adventure for disgraced ex-cop Steve Flynn before it ropes in his veteran colleague Henry Christie in an unlikely role. Albanian crime lord Viktor Bashkim, holed up in Cyprus, is as sharp as ever, but now that he's 80, he knows it's time to hand over the reins--not to his playboy son, Nico, but to his daughter, Sofia, who's got the brains and the guts to breathe new life into the family business. Unfortunately for Viktor, Flynn and Kurt Donaldson of the FBI have just discovered that he only faked his death the last time they crossed swords. So he hires a killer dubbed the Tradesman to kill Flynn before he can get any closer. The Tradesman, who, under the name of Bennett, runs a profitable pet crematorium that gives him access to confidential information he turns into an even more profitable side hustle of credit-card fraud, stops on the way to another assignment with an intriguing connection to his latest job to ask directions of a pubkeeper who just happens to be Christie, a retired detective superintendent working as a civilian investigator with formidable DS Debbie Blackstone of the Lancashire Constabulary. Bennett returns that night to pinch Christie's phone, and the chase is on. Or rather, the chases: a junior colleague who thinks it's time he seized control of Bashkim's organization, Christie's search for the man who swiped his phone, and of course Flynn and Donaldson's original pursuit of Bashkim, who ends up having troubles even closer to home. Understated exposition and violent set pieces, all professionally handled throughout.

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January 1, 2022
Oldham continues his highly successful thriller series featuring ex-cops Henry Christie and Steve Flynn and FBI agent Karl Donaldson. Flynn has just learned that Viktor Bashkim, head of a vicious and much-feared Albanian crime gang, is alive, despite Flynn's earlier attempt to kill him to avenge Bashkim's brutal murder of Steve's girlfriend. But it seems Bashkim escaped and is even now headed to the UK with his equally violent daughter Sofia to punish a man called Bennett, who supplies "goods and services" to the gang but who's made the fatal mistake of wanting a larger share of the profits. Knowing the horrific violence Bashkim and Sofia are capable of inflicting, Flynn teams up with Donaldson and Christie to try to stop them. What follows is a violence-fueled game of hide-and-seek, with the trio trying to track the Bashkims before they can inflict their brutal brand of justice on Bennett and escape back to Albania. This edge-of-the seat narrative, with constantly ratcheting tension, features a twist-a-minute plot and a thoroughly unexpected shock ending.

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