In her latest novel On Dangerous Ground, we meet again two of Bradford's finest - Inspector Handford and Sergeant Ali and, as in her debut novel, Snares of Guilt, we are taken into the city's seamy underside.

Before it was racism, this time it is child prostitution. A serial killer is targeting child prostitutes and the police investigation is not helped by the fact that this is a social problem that dare not speak its name: according to the city fathers, child prostitution just does not exist.

However, this is not Inspector Handford's case. His team is tied up with what appears to be the suicide of a sixth-former with no dark secrets and everything to live for. By chance, Handford is driving through the city on his way home one night and spots a young constable throwing-up at the mouth of an alley way. The killer's third victim has been found.

The murder team are summoned and the investigation begins. In a pocket of the unfortunate young victim is a photograph, some fifteen years old, of a man that Handford recognises - his boss DCI Russell. From then on Handford is involved and despite his better instincts is ordered to make discreet enquiries into Russell's past.

Lesley Horton is excellent on the police procedures that accompany a murder investigation. On prostitution, she pulls no punches. In her acknowledgments she thanks author Sheron Boyle (Working Girls and Their Men) for her help and in the details she provides of how young girls are inveigled into a life on the streets she does not spare her readers.

The politics of policing are also in the mix and Handford and Khalid are believable creations who fall victim to foibles, both personal and bureaucratic. Life remains challenging for Ali as an Asian officer in a Force.

As in the first Handford mystery, the story is cleverly plotted with that taste of authenticity that distinguishes the good from the indifferent crime novel, and I look forward to her next Bradford investigation.

Reviewed by Dave Verguson