📖 Book Review ~ Death at the Castle Gates by Nick Oldham

 

Severn
2 June 2026

PS Jessica Raker #3

My thanks to the publisher for the copy of this book 

His dying wish will be her biggest regret . . .

With her colleague Dougie Doolan’s health rapidly failing, former firearms officer Sergeant Jessica Raker takes on his hunt for local crook Rory Walton. Not only is Rory the suspected arsonist behind a house fire that claims the life of a young mother, but he and his brother are also burgeoning rivals to the Ribble Valley’s crime supremo, Mags Horsefield.

As Jess strives to bring Rory to justice, she is drawn into a deadly web of deceit and corruption. But there’s another case Dougie also wants Jess to solve . . . Is she ready to confront a terrifying night from her own past twenty years ago to help a dying colleague?

📖 My Review ..

The opening prologue sets a rather creepy atmosphere which further continues as we meet once again with Police Sergeant Jessica Raker who, together with her small team of officers, seeks to keep the criminals at bay in rural Lancashire. However, as Jess discovers, to her cost, there is more going on in this small corner of the Ribble Valley than she could ever have imagined when she first moved to the North West from London. Chasing crooks is what Jess and her small team of police officers do best but this case is complicated from the start and it’s soon obvious that there is someone pulling the strings who may have previously had crime links in the area. 

Those who have read the previous book in the series Death on Wolf Fell will be more than familiar with this author’s gritty style of writing and whilst this story pretty much picks up where the previous story ended there are lots of new clues to follow and plenty of twists and turns in a plot which hits the ground running and which doesn’t let up its exciting pace until the dramatic conclusion, which more than lends itself to another story featuring Sergeant Jessica Raker.

The setting is perfect, rural Lancashire at its best, the police procedural is authentic and utterly convincing, the crooks are so bad, they’re horrid and yet there’s also humour and heart, with well drawn characters who remain long after the story is told.  Death at the Castle Gates had everything I wanted in a crime thriller, even a bit of a supernatural twist added for good measure, my only disappointment is that I’ll have to wait a while for the next book, which I hope won’t be too long in coming.

About the Author

Nick Oldham was born in Belthorn, Lancashire, in 1956. He has been a police officer since the age of nineteen, spending the majority of his service in operational roles, before retiring in 2005. He lives with his partner, Belinda, on the outskirts of Preston.

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