View source for To Catch a Rabbit by Helen Cadbury

{{infobox1
|title=To Catch a Rabbit
|author=Helen Cadbury
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's always a pleasure to discover the author a good police procedural.  Helen Cadbury is going to be one to watch.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=322
|publisher=Moth Publishing
|date=May 2013
|isbn=978-1901888874
|website=http://helencadbury.com/
|cover=1901888878
|aznuk=1901888878
|aznus=1901888878
}}

''' Joint Winner of The Northern Crime Competition 2012'''

Sean Denton's grandmother always said that his smile was his biggest asset.  He wasn't overburdened with other qualifications.  Being a Police Community Support Officer was OK for him but he was out of his depth when two young lads took him to the body of a young woman at a disused catering caravan.  He was even more confused when when no one seemed that worried about who she was or what had happened - and deciding to look into it himself wasn't the cleverest thing he'd ever done.

The story's set in Yorkshire.  In York Karen Friedman works for the Refugee and Migrants Advice Centre but her brother, Phil, lives near the Humber.  He's just on the edge of being shady - doing dodgy work to make some money to support his wife and daughter but determined that he's going to find a ''proper'' job.  He's got a good heart too - which is why he worried about the girl he saw in a caravan, on her own and without decent food.  For a man of the world he was just a little bit naive about exactly what it was she was doing there.

In Sheffield DCI Moon investigates human trafficking, but not everyone in the police force is quite so worried about the situation.  PCSO Sean Denton's nemesis is DCI 'Burger' King, who's just returned to work after breaking his leg: rumour has it that he was standing still when it happened and his weight caused a stress fracture.  He's not big on political correctness though.  He sees the illegal immigrant workers as having their uses and the PCSOs are called 'Plastic Percy'.  Nice.

The girl at the catering caravan is just the first body - and then Karen Friedman's brother disappears.

Finding a new writer of decent police procedurals is a rare treat.  Finding one with a new 'angle' is a rarity.  I couldn't see how the PCSO as investigator would work, but it does and surprisingly well.  The characters come off the page well too, with even minor characters being fleshed out.  The plot's good too, with a twist or two near the end that I really wasn't expecting.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.

For more Yorkshire-based crime you might enjoy [[The Dark Winter by David Mark]].

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