METROPOLITAN police officer Samson O’Brien has been back in the Dales town of his birth for a short six months.

But Bruncliffe is far from sleepy. In just half a year, the detective agency he set up when he first arrived has solved all sorts of dastardly goings on, and all of them with something to do with the charming but dodgy property developer Rick Procter.

Then there is Samson’s Delilah. Delilah Metcalfe, owner of the Dales Dating Agency and partners with Samson in the detective business.

She is the most volatile woman in Bruncliffe, liable to plant a kiss one minute and punch the next, and never without her loyal hound, Tolpuddle by her side. Will they ever get together? Will Samson head back to London eventually, or will he settle down in the Dales with Delilah? We’d all like to know.

In Date With Deceit, the sixth instalment in Julia Chapman’s Dales Detective series, we find baddie Rick Procter up to his neck in trouble with the Bulgarian Mafia.

Called in to solve what on the face of it was the town mayor’s extra marital affair, the detective duo get caught up in something far more deadly and the ultimate death of the mayor himself.

Date with Deceit centres around a shooting party with Rick Procter as the host and the cocaine snorting, gun toting Bulgarians as his guests. It all ends in disaster, but not in the way one might think.

Samson and Delilah leap into action with a death to solve and if that wasn’t enough, there is a bit of romance fraud on the side. There’s also Delilah’s dating agency and it’s increasing success with the farming community, and all the business back down in London and Samson’s pending court case.

Julia, who lives in the Dales, has written the latest and best yet adventures of Samson and Delilah in lockdown. As with her previous books, she’s called on the help of those who know for research, step forward former Dales police officer, Harry Carpenter and a friend with all the know how on guns and shooting.

Bruncliffe is actually Settle, and the action takes place on the hills and surrounding towns and villages, much to the enjoyment of anyone familiar with the area.

Date With Deceit is published by Pan, and is available from April 1 at bookshops including The Stripey Badger in Grassington, Limestone Books, Settle,  and online.