When a violent row breaks out at a wedding reception between the groom and the bride's ex-boyfriend, and the groom is badly injured, DS Smith must ask himself the age old question: did he fall, or was he pushed?
Colin Parfitt is an ambitious copper - too ambitious perhaps. He's arrested 38 criminals within three months, and it now appears that someone is seeking revenge. DS Smith investigates a fire at Parfitt's home and asks: Is it an accident?
A head-on collision between two cars. One driver dead, the other intoxicated and driving without a licence. PC Pooley believes he has an open and shut case - Ken Ridgeway thinks otherwise.
Hearing that a volatile and aggressive West Indian youth, picked up for speeding, is wanted for questioning in Birmingham, DS Smith, too, turns aggressive. But does he overstep the mark because of racial prejudice?
It's a tough to crack, but DS Smith is determined to get to the bottom of the villainy - even though he may turn up a connection which proves that a copper and a villain have more than a little in common.
When the annual Broadstone fête finds police and the local hooligans on show before the whole town and Special Constable Alec Richards is put to a severe test, DS Smith and his boys lend a hand.
PC Pooley, on night patrol, finds a man covered in blood. DS Smith and Sergeant Ken Ridgeway must find out who is responsible for the man's injuries, and why it happened.
When Len Summers, who runs a local youth club in his spare time, is accused by a club member's father of sharing a relationship with his son which is closer than it should be. DS Smith foresees personal tragedy.
No one other than his wife seems concerned when PC Pooley fails to arrive home one evening. But when his empty car is found at the scene of a break-in, it becomes a job for the Broadstone police - who view it as a serious matter.
When a local girl disappears, everyone, including her mother, assumes she has "gone off again". But acting on pure instinct, the village policeman is determined to prove that this time something more serious is involved.
Neighbours can be a problem. With no love lost between Miss Sheldon and the Grahams next door, what kind of petty irritation escalates into a crime which DS Smith and PC Pooley must investigate.
Take two drunken, penniless Scotsmen returning from a cup final abroad, two Chinamen, one of them running around a restaurant with a meat cleaver, add a pregnant wife, and you have more problems for DS Smith to sort out.
Why should a man systematically destroy his own home? Sergeant Ken Ridgeway is landed with the job of finding the answer. He soon finds that he's dealing with a very violent customer indeed.
