From the PR: “What if one moment – one split second – changed everything?
When a firearms officer shoots a suspect dead and wounds another, who later dies in hospital, the official line is that the sun was in her eyes. Her body cam failed. Known only as Officer X, her anonymity is meant to protect her – until a judge releases her name and a media storm erupts.

Detective Superintendent Jack Dylan and DI Charley Mann are called in to determine whether it was a justifiable use of force – or something darker. And when it’s revealed that Officer X knew the victim, and her brother died of a drug overdose linked to the same woman, the case becomes charged with personal and political tension.

As pressure mounts, a vulnerable witness dies and a lost phone surfaces with a photograph and a message that could unravel everything – and reveal the truth about what happened that day. Split Second brings Dylan and Mann together for the first time, in an investigation that will test their instincts, their loyalties and the limits of justice itself, as both detectives must decide how far they’ll go – and what they’re willing to sacrifice – to uncover the truth.”

This book gave me sunburn. Well, maybe not directly but it sure enough contributed to it. I blasted through this in two sittings, the first of which was on a beach in Brittany where ‘just one more chapter’ meant reapplying sunscreen slipped my mind. It’s just such a monumentally gripping book. Those two sessions absolutely flew by – Split Second is so immensely addictive and satisfying that there’s no real question of finishing it as soon as you pick it up.

That doesn’t mean, though, that this is a novel without depth or substance, far from it. This is an intensely rich and detailed story with plenty of twists and populated by great characters. There’s no doubting that R.C. Bridgestock know what they’re talking about. Husband-and-wife writing team Carol and Bob both worked for West Yorkshire Police – Bob eventually becoming Head of CID – and that experience is apparent throughout Split Second. Procedure isn’t simply something sprinkled around the edges to make everything look convincing; it informs the way the investigation develops, the decisions people make and, perhaps more importantly, the consequences of those decisions. There’s a weight and credibility to it that’s too often sacrificed in crime fiction in the rush to get to the next body, revelation or conveniently timed car chase.

This is probably a good point to admit that, historically, the home-grown British police thriller hasn’t been particularly high on my reading list. That may seem slightly odd given how often I’ve complained about people who simply declare entire genres off-limits, but hypocrisy comes for us all eventually. Perhaps it’s the familiarity of it. Years of mundane interactions with the local constabulary and seemingly endless television programmes involving police officers standing beside wet roundabouts have never quite offered the same escapism as, say, a semi-alcoholic Norwegian detective pursuing murderers through the snow, or a one-man army called Jack arriving in some unfortunate town shortly before half its population requires medical attention. Which, given how much I bloody loved this book, may have been something of a mistake.

I’m also going to mention here that I came to Split Second knowing absolutely nothing about R.C. Bridgestock’s previous books. Detective Superintendent Jack Dylan and DI Charley Mann may be the protagonists of two established series – and their coming together here may well mean considerably more to existing readers – but both were complete strangers to me. Happily, that proved no obstacle whatsoever. There’s no sense that you’ve arrived late to a party and are expected to know who everyone is, nor any requirement to head off and read any previous novels before being allowed through the door. Split Second works perfectly well as a thriller in its own right, and a highly addictive one at that. In fact, it’s so bloody addictive that I’m now impatient for the follow-up. Without venturing anywhere near spoiler territory, Split Second doesn’t so much finish as pull the rug out from underneath your feet and disappear.

It does, however, mean R.C Bridgestock have managed something I really wasn’t expecting when I picked this one up. Not only have they completely dismantled my own, admittedly ill-founded, reluctance toward the British police procedural, they’ve left me invested in characters I’d never encountered before and am impatient to find out where they’re going next.

More importantly, Split Second is simply a cracking read. It’s intelligent without ever getting bogged down in its own detail, authentic without endlessly pointing at the research behind that authenticity and ridiculously difficult to put down. I went into it knowing nothing of the writers or their existing characters and came out the other side wanting more of them all – just need to ensure that next time I remember the sunscreen.

My thanks to Orenda Books for my copy of Split Second and to Anne Cater for inviting me to review as part of the blog tour.