AT WORK, DI Brian Peters is a senior member of the CID team. Experienced, popular and respected, in private he is a heavy-drinking depressive.

Having led investigations into previous high profile cases in his home city of Bradford, including an international drug smuggling ring, he is now called upon to tackle the rise of the so-called ‘zombie’ drug Spice, in tandem with a series of murders.

His journey into the dangerous, uncharted waters of the drug, which can cause organ failure, seizures, paranoia and a host of other conditions, forms the basis of a new book by author Ian McKnight.

Games People Play is the fifth novel penned by Ian, of Greengates, and follows on from ‘Premonition’ and ‘The Devil Finds Work’, both focusing upon complex cases, expertly unravelled by DI Peters and his hardworking team.

This time, the rapid emergence of Spice, a relatively recent problem in the area with only isolated incidents and one death, tests their investigative skills.

‘The two tyre tracks were puzzling at first, until we measured their trails. They were always the same distance apart. They were definitely caused by a wheelchair…,’ a member of team reports. ‘A wheelchair would explain how he managed to get the girl’s body from the nearest road to the tree in Peel Park where she was found., writes Ian. ‘He picked her up close to his vehicle, paralysed her, drove her to the park, sat her in a wheelchair and pushed her to the spot where she was hanged and sexually assaulted.’

The book does not pull any punches in its description of the murders - which bear the marks of a serial killer - nor of the effects of the drug. On top of this, other challenges of policing are ever-present - cannabis farming, human trafficking and car crime

Games People Play focuses on DI Peter’s psychological struggles following the death of his close working partner in ‘Premonition’, where he felt he was in some way to blame.

In common with his previous books, the characters and their experiences are in part drawn from real life. “DI Peter’s decision to cut his alcohol intake and seek counselling, and the subsequent improvement in his physical and mental health is my own personal story over the past nine months,” Ian says candidly. “Putting his team’s health, both mental and physical, high on his agenda, he makes sure that his fellow officers are given sick leave and access to counselling after they face life-threatening situations.”

Old school and tenacious, yet also caring and compassionate DI Peters is also, says Ian “a good, proud Yorkshireman.”

The idea for the core plot - the serial killer and the way he makes decisions based on board games- came from Ian’s student days. “ Whenever we were unable to agree on an action, we would roll a dice.”

Ian’s life experience is vast - he has lived all over the UK and worked in jobs ranging from an IT specialist Bradford to a pub landlord. In the Nottingham area he performed as a stand-up comedian in under the name of Ian Stupid, and wrote an award-winning column of satirical humour for a provincial newspaper.

This has no doubt helped him to create believable characters and intriguing plotlines in his novels.

Ian’s regular drinking haunt in Bradford, the Idle Draper, features in the book. It is DI Peter’s local too, and is the place where crimes are unpicked by both officers and regulars, where tip offs are gleaned and the world put to rights over a pint. “The Idle Draper is DI Peters’ haven, his shelter from a mad world, as it is for me,” says Ian. “I go there to talk to people and to listen to their stories.”

The T&A also pops up in the novel, as it does in his previous books. Indeed it is the paper’s crime reporter who gets wind of the first murder.

*Games People Play by Ian McKnight, is available from Amazon.