“BOSS, we’ve got a body”.

It's not exactly what Detective Inspector Jack Dylan needs to hear on a busy day off.

But when Detective Sergeant Vicky Hardacre greets him at the scene, what awaits them behind the blood red door of Colonial House is undoubtedly a murder. Several prime suspects have been identified - but who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

When A Killer Strikes is the latest novel from acclaimed crime-writing husband and wife team Bob and Carol Bridgestock.

Bob, a former West Yorkshire Police detective superintendent, who spent some of his policing career in Bradford, started writing with Carol after retirement. With nearly 50 years of policing between them, the Halifax couple created their DI Dylan crime book series as a response to "cliched novel and TV cops who are burnt out, have drink, drug or psychosis issues or marital problems".

Bob and Carol, who write under the name RC Bridgestock, were storyline consultants on Sally Wainwright's hit TV drama Happy Valley, and are currently appearing in CBS reality series Written in Blood. When A Killer Strikes is their eighth novel in the DI Dylan series.

“We wanted to show a more realistic side of real Yorkshire policing as experienced by Bob and me in our years in the force,” says Carol. “Dylan and Jen are a reflection of mine and Bob’s involvement as people serving in the police during long careers.”

Bob, who worked on more than 20 murder cases in his last three years alone, was keen to bring realism to the stories without directly highlighting cases he has worked on.“This is fiction based on fact and experience," he says. "The police procedures are authentic. The investigations are as an investigation would unfold, but the stories, though drawn from experience, are fiction."

The Dylan books have been a hit with readers and critics, gaining national and international acclaim, and the rights have been sold for a potential TV adaptation.

In When A Killer Strikes, DI Jack Dylan is in the middle of house-hunting with his wife, Jen, when he gets the call about a possible murder on his patch. Before the killer can be caught, another body is discovered, this time in a putrefying mixture of mud and slime, lain among the remnants of decaying food within a waste-bin shelter. Now it’s the task of the man in charge to make the call.

Are the two murders connected? There’s only one way to find out, and that’s by working long hours, within strict budgets and with the usual pressure from above to obtain quick results.

But Dylan is soon distracted by personal matters, with Jen being keen to seal the deal on a renovation project. He suggests they delay finalising the purchase, until he discovers the significance of the house, and that it’s about to be demolished.

In his absence, Jen’s pleas for help from his estranged siblings are answered, resulting in hidden family secrets coming to light.

Meanwhile, Dylan continues, through a page-turning plot that twists and turns, to ensure that justice is done.

And always in his mind are the murder victims, whose hopes for the future have been cruelly snatched away.

* When A Killer Strikes is published by Caffeine Nights Publishing, priced £8.99 paperback and £2.49 eBook