The Cornish Scoop is a novel, but I’ll be totally honest, there’s very little I’ve had to imagine, as I have experienced the majority of the content in this book in my career as a police officer. Treavey is a Cornish police officer who is just out of his probation in 1994 and making it alone in the big wide world of policing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this very much reflects the time and locations of my own policing experience, so I will leave it up to you which parts are made up and which are true. Remember that life tends to be stranger than fiction!

There is a golden thread throughout the story of a major drug smuggling operation into Perranporth, a Cornish seaside town near Newquay, leading to many fatal overdoses. The main character, Treavey, has numerous adventures along the way, including air-sea rescues, shipwrecks, a plane crash, and many a pursuit along the stunning cliff tops. You may know through my previous autobiography, Firearms and Fatals, that I like the human side of policing, so I relied on my experiences in describing Treavey looking for an Alzheimer’s sufferer who wanders off at night in a Cornish storm in just her nighty.

If you love Cornwall or you remember visiting Cornwall in the summer holidays as a child, then this book will feed your senses.