Great read from Helen H. Durrant.
First book that I have read in this series, so will be going to read all of the other 10 instalments.
Great plot that keeps you hanging on its rollercoaster ride.

I am new to Helen H Durrant's Calladine and Baylis mysteries, but I do love a good police procedural, and this fits the bill nicely. My heart did sink (for a nanosecond) when I saw the first chapter was headed 'Twenty five years earlier', as split time narratives are something of a bête noire for me, but in this case it ended up working quite well.

Detective Tom Calladine and his partner DS Ruth Bayliss work in the fictitious town of Leesdon, which seems to be in the north west of England, with views of the Pennines and somewhere on the border between the counties of the Red and White Rose. They are called to a seedy block of flats where the decaying corpse of a woman is found but, as neighbourliness in the flats is in short supply, so no-one had reported her missing or noticed anything untoward.

As the plot develops we learn that the dead woman, Becca O'Brien, was pretty much human wreckage, drug addicted and feckless. Interestingly, her daughter (who now lives in sheltered accommodation0, was involved in an act of criminality which happened twenty five years earlier (see first paragraph) at a moorland location called Gorse Farm, where human bones have recently been discovered. In an ostensibly separate plot thread, Calladine is being threatened by a criminal adversary (something of a stage eastern European gangster) called Lazarov. When Lazarov threatens to harm Calladine's grand-daughter if he doesn't facilitate the Bulgarian's take-over of the Leesdon drug scene, the tension ratchets up several notches.

So far, the plot has something of a "we've been here before feel" to it, but Helen Durrant plays her strongest cards relatively late in the story, and the narrative becomes anything but straightforward as 'knowns" become "unknowns" and several assumptions made by Calladine and his team (and us) are proved to be very wide of the mark. The quest to unravel what actually happened at Gorse Farm a quarter of a century earlier meshes in nicely, plot-wise, with the Leesdon coppers search for a trigger-happy criminal with a Glock automatic.


Tom Calladine is an interesting character and, like many another fictional Detective Inspector, his personal life is something of a mess. Sometimes, he doesn't always seem to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but Ruth Baylis is usually there to put him right.

Another interesting feature of the book (I read the KIndle version) was that it ended with a 'Glossary of English Usage For US Readers'. I don't know if this is something peculiar to the series, or to crime books from this publisher, as it contained explanations of words and terms as diverse as Bun: small cake, Desperate Dan: very strong comic book character, Lovely jubbly: said when someone is pleased, and War Cry: Salvation Army magazine. Most odd!

Dead Sorry is a well crafted and engaging police procedural which proves that even if detective duos are something of an old dog, this particular one still has plenty of life in it. Published by Joffe Books, it is out now.

This is the 11th book in the series of Calladine and Bayliss I have read a few of the series so far and each one that I have read so far is just as good as the last.

This one was as action packed as the last one that I read, great characters with an interesting plot I was fully absorbed from start to finish had me soaking it up!

A first rate, fast paced action packed gripping police procedural that was a fantastic read!

A thriller that kept me guessing. If you want to enjoy a suspenseful read this one will do it! Dead Sorry hold your attention and keeps you reading.

What a fantastic and exciting instalment in a series set in the fictional town of Leesdon, Greater Manchester, featuring DS Ruth Bayliss and DI Tom Calladine! Written by best-selling author Helen H. Durrant, this was a fast-paced crime thriller that had me hooked, even before I had reached the second page.

Helen H. Durrant has drawn some marvellous characters in this novel. I love DI Tom Calladine as he is portrayed to have immense strength of the character. He loves his job and gives his all, but his personal life is not running as smoothly. In this story, an arch-villain, Lazarov, from a previous case threatens Calladine, who is now a grandad, and his family. I also like the ordinariness of the characters. Calladine and Bayliss are friends as well as colleagues and their interactions are pleasing to read about.

Dead Sorry was complex and well-plotted with enough twists in the tale to keep me guessing. Although challenging, there was never any point that I was confused or lost. The easy and highly readable writing style of Helen H. Durrant meant there was no putting this one down to go and do something else! Towards the end, the threads of the plot merged, creating an exciting, horrifying conclusion. This was an incredibly riveting read with an addictive plot and a believable, if flawed, cast. This is a must-read, very highly recommended and I absolutely loved it. It would be great for any lover of police procedural novels and it's a five-star read!

Thanks to NetGalley, Joffe books and the author, Helen H. Durrant for the complimentary advanced copy. This is my honest and totally voluntary review.

DEAD SORRY by Helen H. Durrant Not sorry at all about this addition for the Callatine and Bayless series. A fast, paced, action filled, with all the twists and turns which the author deftly knits into the storyline. Enjoyed revisiting old friends , DCI Stephen Greco is beginning to interact with the team, Ruth is coping after breaking up with Jake and Alice and Rocco are getting closer. Tom receives a death threat to him and his family, has some health issues, former adversities returning and a new Kitty in in life. Add to all that is a cold case come back to life and a number of execution style murders. Most definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

DEAD SORRY by author Helen H. Durrant is book 11 of a new series of detective thrillers featuring D.S. Ruth Bayliss and D.I. Tom Calladine. Having read all the previous books in this series and really enjoyed them and the characters, it was like old home week, touching base with some of my old friends. I looked forward to starting the next crime thriller in the series. The books work great as a standalone, but I would recommend reading the complete series to really get the most out of them.

This book will have you turning the pages until the shocking conclusion. This is a crime thriller with an ending with a huge twist.

The Detectives
Detective inspector Tom Calladine is a workaholic, totally devoted to his job. He is a hands-on copper that does investigations and solves crimes. But his personal life has not been so rewarding, being married and divorced before he was twenty-one.

Ruth Bayliss is in her mid-thirties, plain-speaking but loyal. She is balancing her professional life with looking after a small child.

The setting is the fictional village of Leesdon on the outskirts of an industrial northern English city. There is little work and a lot of crime. The curse of Calladine’s life is the Hobfield housing estate, breeding ground to all that is wrong with the area that he calls home.

THE CALLADINE & BAYLISS MYSTERY SERIES
Book 1: DEAD WRONG
Book 2: DEAD SILENT
Book 3: DEAD LIST
Book 4: DEAD LOST
Book 5: DEAD & BURIED
Book 6: DEAD NASTY
Book 7: DEAD JEALOUS
Book 8: DEAD BAD
Book 9: DEAD GUILTY
Book 10: DEAD WICKED
BOOK 11: DEAD SORRY

DI Tom Calladine and DS Ruth Bayliss are called to a crime scene where twenty-five years ago a schoolgirl was attacked by three bullies in her home where she lived with her grandmother. Now, the mother of one of those bullies is found brutally murdered on the Hobfield housing estate. Written on the wall in the victim’s blood is the word, “sorry.”

Bones are found at an old house, with links to the murdered woman.

Detective Tom Calladine and his partner DS Ruth Bayliss have their hands full with this case. On top of all this, a major drug dealer has threatened not only Calladine, but his daughter and grandson.

The pressure is on for Calladine and his team.

This is a great series to follow, and in this novel the focus is on bullying and drug dealing. Lots of action, and great relatable detectives. I will continue to follow this series. Highly recommend!

Many thanks to the author, Joffe Books and Netgalley for my digital copy.

This is the latest in Helen Durrant's DI Tom Calladine and DS Ruth Bayliss series based in a northern industrial city and the fictional Leesdon with its problematic estate of Hobsfield, which is at the centre of this book when the brutally murdered body of a drug addict is discovered, with the word 'sorry' on the wall. The victim is Becca O'Brien, and it turns out the case has connections with a long ago historical case of bullying. This is but a small part of the nightmare that Calladine is undergoing, the criminal gangster, Andrei Lazarov, from previous events is threatening Calladine's family and the pressures of this and from numerous other areas is threatening to break him. Ruth is having to juggle professional demands with personal family ones with having to take care of a young child.. With a priceless Celtic gold collection due to be shown at the local museum, this is a humdinger of a dark and intense crime story, with plenty of suspense and twists. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

This book is part of a series. I haven't personally read any of the other books in the series, but this can be luckily read as a standalone. You still get a feel for the characters and their backstories trickled in without having to read the other books. Although, part of me wishes I had to maybe fully appreciate this book more.

This book is set out in a way that makes you feel like you have everything figured out pretty early in the story. Although a clever way to write, it meant I, unfortunately, wasn't fully absorbed as I read it. Within the first couple of chapters, I had it in my head I knew the ending. And Calladine pretty much knew it too. With other books in this genre, you're usually trying to work out the pieces as you go. Most of the pieces felt already figured out in this one. That meant I was pushing to just finish the book and not enjoying it as much as I should have. But then, once you reach the end... you realise you didn't actually know anything at all.

So, don't read the book thinking you're clearly too clever for the story and the ending is so obvious. It may come back to bite you in the ass.

Another excellent book by Helen starring Detective Tom Calladine and DS Ruth Bayliss investigating the murder of a woman connected with a murder case 25 years previously. A man named Lazarov from a previous case comes to threaten Calladine and his family. Thoroughly enjoyed this book which follows on to the previous novels I read by Helen H. Durrant, each one excellent.

I’m absolutely amazed to find that this is the first book I’ve read in this series!

A quarter of a century ago, a schoolgirl is attacked by three bullies in the home she shares with her grandmother. Now, the body of a woman found relates back to this first crime as she is the mother of one of the bullies and when bones are found in the now abandoned home where the attack took place, they seem to belong to the attacked girl, giving Tom Calladine and Ruth Bayliss plenty to work on. On top of all of this, Tom’s new baby granddaughter is being threatened by arch-villain Lazarus, and a hoard of Celtic gold is due to arrive at the local museum. All of this stress is putting a lot of pressure on Tom Calladine . . .

I wonder if Helen H Durrant is a knitter? I like to think of this one as an Aran sweater with all the complicated stitches that involves: slip stitches, ones that are knitted into several times and plenty of cables twisting first one way and then the other, but resulting in a finished garment with no fraying edges. There is some very clever writing which had me thinking one way when in fact it wasn’t the case. Well-plotted and smartly written, this is another triumph for the author with a pair of detectives I’ll happily read again. Gripping to the very last, and thoroughly enjoyable. There is no reason not to give this one all five stars – it earns them, easily. Highly recommended.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy and to Jill Burkinshaw for my spot on this tour; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

Helen H Durrant never disappoints, I find her books are nice quick easy reads.
The characters interest me and I always find myself wanting to know more about them
Dead Sorry is no exception to this rule, I want to know more about Tom and Ruth, also about Stephen Greco, I think there is a lot more to explore there.
The story line was intriguing, keeping me guessing all the way.
I look forward to the next installment

I do love the Calladine and Bayliss series so I was thrilled when this new addition came along.

This is a very intriguing book with a lot going on. A nemesis from Calladine's past is looking for revenge and the threats against Calladine's family are real and terrifying. Marilyn Fallon has been released from prison pending an appeal and is determined to force her way into Calladine's life in addition there appears to be 2 different cases on the go. Its all stressful and Calladine is struggling.

The first case has links to an unsolved case from many years ago and takes Ruth Bayliss back to her school years and Tom Calladine back to his early days in the Police force and forces him to look for mistakes he may have made back then. The second appears to be drug related. Is there a plan for a drug baron to take over in Leesdon?

The characters are old friends and I loved reading about how their lives and personalities are developing. Both Tom and Ruth have emotional problems to deal with along with the stress of the cases.

The story is fast-paced and has many twists and turns making it an engaging read that i couldn't put down. Several red herrings add to the intrigue and keeps the adrenaline pumping.

All in all an absolutely fantastic read that left me waiting eagerly for the next addition to this brilliant series.

Whoa! Dead Sorry by Helen H. Durrant is full of so many great twists and turns. Now I want to read the rest of THE CALLADINE & BAYLISS MYSTERY SERIES. This is the 11th installment in this series and Calladine has just become a grandfather. He can't just relax and enjoy grandfatherhood, though, because someone is threatening him and his family. He has to find who it is and keep his family safe. In the meantime he and his team are trying to solve a murder that starts to spiral into a whole lot more. I really enjoyed the pace of this book. I also liked the main characters and how they worked together. This is a great book for anyone who enjoys a good, fast paced mystery.

A suspenseful book with non-stop action from the first page until you reach the shocking conclusion! A perfect book to read pool side or at the beach and although it's part of a series, it can be read as a standalone! Highly recommend!

This is book eleven in the hugely popular Detective Calladine and Bayliss series, one which I would strongly suggest you read in order. There is a lot of ongoing character development over the series which continues further in this story and also references are made to previous events which are much easier to understand if you’ve read the earlier books. The series is set in the fictional village of Leesdon on the outskirts of a northern English industrial city where there is much unemployment and crime, particularly on the Hobfield estate, still the bane of DI Tom Calladine's working life. Most of the main characters in Leesdon CID and the Duggen, which handles forensics and pathology, are still present and it is a bit like revisiting old friends who need little introduction. DCI Stephen Greco from Oldston is starting to settle into his new posting and really slots well into the team in this story. DS Ruth Bayliss is coping with life without partner Jake after his affair, and DC Alice Bolshaw and DC Simon "Rocco" Rockliffe are getting close.
Book ten left us on a bit of a cliff-hanger with the knowledge that criminal boss Andrei Lazarov was on the loose and swearing revenge on Calladine. Amongst the presents for the birth of baby Maisie to Calladine’s daughter Zoe and her partner Jo, fathered by senior forensic scientist Professor Julian Batho, a teddy bear appears to have come from Lazarov, and Calladine wastes no time in putting in protection for the family. At least a chance meeting with an attractive woman running a new restaurant has put a smile on Calladine’s face but is she all she seems to be? The story really starts with the discovery of a woman’s battered corpse in Heron Tower on the Hobfield. She was known to be a drug addict and was heard arguing with a man earlier that night. However there is a strange message daubed on the wall in blood and this puts Ruth in mind of a case a few years ago, where the same thing appeared at the scene of the discovery of a twenty five year old murder. Most sinister of all, the current dead woman was the mother of a girl linked to that crime. The race is on to find the killer and this also then re-opens the old case where the victim was never properly identified. Who was that victim and why was she killed? There are a lot of secrets to be unearthed by the detectives as the body count rises and a turf war breaks out. Poor old Calladine – a murdered woman, his family under threat, a cold case to solve and now his cousin’s murdering wife wants to stay with him! As the team make more shock discoveries and delve into the past, the different threads all start to collide with horrifying results.
What a magnificent tale this author weaves! There is absolutely loads going on in this story jam-packed with crimes and faces old and new. The pace is kept up superbly throughout in a first rate police procedural with a cast of very likeable characters and a clever plot to keep the reader guessing right to the end. Highly recommended! 5*

I have been a fan of Helen’s work for a fair while now. I haven’t quite caught up with everything that she has written to date but I am getting there. I especially love the series featuring Detective Calladine and Bayliss. ‘Dead Sorry’ is the latest book in the s1eries and it was released on 17th June 2021. It is another corker of a read, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading but more about that in a bit.
The fact that Helen’s name was on the cover was enough to convince me that I had to read the book just as soon as I could. So when I managed to get my hands on a copy of the book, I squirrelled myself away and hibernated until I read the very last word on the very last page. This was one of those books that I managed to finish within the space of a few hours. My Kindle wasn’t exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it went everywhere with me. I just couldn’t bear to miss a single second of the story. The more of the book that I read, the more I wanted to read and the quicker the pages seemed to turn. All too quickly I reached the end of the book and I had to bid farewell to Calladine and Bayliss. I found ‘Dead Sorry’ to be a gripping read, which kept me guessing and which kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.
‘Dead Sorry’ is superbly written but then to be fair I have always found Helen’s books to be superbly written. She certainly knows how to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into what proves to be one hell of a story. I found that the story started with a bang and from then on it maintained a fairly fast pace. Reading ‘Dead Sorry’ felt like being on a scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with many twists and turns along the way. I always find with Helen’s books that I feel as though I am part of the story myself and I ‘live’ the story as it were real. Helen has certainly created a tense and dramatic story.
In short I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Dead Sorry’ and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Helen’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

EXCERPT: They'd had a quiet few weeks but Calladine, ever the realist, had known it wouldn't last. Now it looked as if the days of keeping office hours and getting home in time for tea were finally over.

The sight that greeted him as he stood in the doorway of the flat was truly awful. The woman lay on the lino, limbs splayed at unnatural angles. It didn't take much medical knowledge to know that they were broken. Her face was fast disappearing under the close attention of dozens of maggots, and brain tissue gaped from a hole in her skull.

ABOUT 'DEAD SORRY': Twenty-five years ago a schoolgirl was attacked by three bullies in her home where she lived with her grandmother.

Now, the mother of one of those bullies is found murdered on the Hobfield housing estate. Written on the wall in the victim’s blood is the word, “sorry.”

There is a link to the discovery of bones at an old house up in the hills — the home of the teenage girl who was attacked.

Detective Tom Calladine and his partner DS Ruth Bayliss have more than this puzzling case on their hands. Arch-villain Lazarov is threatening Calladine’s granddaughter and a valuable hoard of Celtic gold is coming to a local museum.

The pressure is on, and this time Calladine is cracking . . .

THE DETECTIVES
Tom Calladine is a detective inspector who is devoted to his job. His personal life, however, is not so successful. Having been married and divorced before the age of twenty-one has set a pattern that he finds difficult to escape.

Ruth Bayliss is in her mid-thirties, plain-speaking but loyal. She is balancing her professional life with looking after a small child.

THE SETTING The fictional village of Leesdon is on the outskirts of an industrial northern English city. There is little work and a lot of crime. The bane of Calladine’s life is the Hobfield housing estate, breeding ground to all that is wrong with the area that he calls home.

MY THOUGHTS: Helen Durrant took me for a ride with Dead Sorry. Early in the book I was accusing Calladine and Bayliss of missing things that were right in front of them. They didn't, and my suspicions were mostly wrong.

Dead Sorry cracks along at a good pace. It is a quick, easy read, and probably able to be read as a stand-alone, although it is #11 in the series.

Bullying is at the centre of one of the two threads in Dead Sorry, drug dealing at the other. There are plenty of twists and turns in the plot. One in particular had me sitting up and taking notice as it knocked a couple of my theories right out of the ring.

I love that the author includes a quick bio of her main characters at the beginning. It's a lovely reminder to those of us who have read previous books, and a good introduction for those of whom this is their first book. A new character is introduced in Dead Sorry, and Tom has a bit of a health scare.

Dead Sorry is a good read that kept me guessing, but one that I probably won't give another thought to until #12 is published.

⭐⭐⭐.8

#DEADSORRY #NetGalley

I: @hhdurrant_author @joffebooks

T: @JoffeBooks

#contemporaryfiction #crime #detectivefiction #murdermystery #mystery #policeprocedural

THE AUTHOR: Helen H. Durrant is a British author who sets her novels in the area she has lived for many years, the towns and villages that sit in the shelter of the Pennine hills. The area offers an interesting mix of the industrial and the countryside and makes for a great setting for a crime novel.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Joffe Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Dead Sorry by Helen H. Durrant for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

Excellent British Police Mystery
This book is the 11th is a series. After reading this one, I plan on reading the other ten books. This book stands alone well. The author gives the reader a sense of the past to fill in the blanks. The story was just aces! The reader follows the clues and evidence along will the Inspectors. There is an abundance of bad guys and crime to cause misdirection, but the final denouement was surprising and very satisfying. I highly recommend this book. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

Twenty-five years before Millie invites some other girls to play after school. They had bullied her before, and started to then. Millie went ballistic and hit two of the others over the head with a hammer. Jade was seriously injured. Soon thereafter Millie's grandmother died, and Millie disappeared. Now, Jade's mother (a drug addict) is found beaten dead in her apartment with blood and mud all over, and on the wall a heart is written in blood with the word Sorry. Meanwhile, Tom Calladine is getting messages from Lazarov, a gangster sworn to so harm to Calladine and his family.

When the police go back to look again at Gorse House where Millie and her grandmother lived. They find bones in the basement hiding behind a panel. There is a heart drawn and the word Sorry. Thus, they figure the two cases 25 years apart are linked somehow. There is a sideline where Calladine meets Kitty when she bumps his car with hers and they begin seeing each other. At one point Calladine thinks Kitty might be Millie.

This is a well told story, with lots of excitement, and detailed police work and a few side issues. There were some hints to the culprit, but all doesn't come out until almost the end.