This is the dilemma facing CSI Eddie Collins, a man blessed with prowess at crime scenes, but cursed with sarcastic wit and lumbered with the people skills of a brick.
One day in 1987, Norton Bailey’s life changed irrevocably after his sister’s murder. He’s hated life and despised street kids ever since. Now, known as the Madman of Mabgate, an artistic genius who’s constructed a vicious iron maiden for his victims, Norton can’t rest until the horror of that day leaves him. No matter how many lives it takes.
After an uncharacteristic error, one kid escapes. Almost.
Eddie Collins, busy fighting burglars, is dragged into the investigation, and soon attracts the attention of a local street gang. And wherever they go, death follows like a hungry dog.
DI Tom Benson of the Major Crime Unit takes an instant dislike to Eddie, but working together, they almost decipher what’s going on, and who is chasing who.
The question is, can they put things right before old man Walter and two young children suffer the pain of strangers?

The Pain of Strangers is the first in the series of gripping crime thrillers featuring everyone's favourite CSI, Eddie Collins, and one that will keep you captive to the very last page.

“If you’re a fan of crime thrillers, beware, this book will drag you in and keep you hostage until the very last page.”

What people say about The Pain of Strangers

• Fiendishly good, absolutely gory, gruesome and darker than you can imagine but with sharp gallows style humour.
• The style of writing is brilliant, short, snappy chapters, with funny titles and the fake realism travels all the way through to the unmissable epilogue.
• One of the finest crime series out there.
• Barrett feeds the reader with the nitty gritty of the dark corners, nasty alleys, and tenements of Leeds.
• I totally loved this book.
• The Pain of Strangers is brutal and thought-provoking.
• Barrett’s writing style is full of sarcastic humour and pulls no punches.
• The whole series is truly compulsive reading.
• The best book I’ve read so far this year.
• The drama, psychological drama, suspense, timing, and original plot make this one of the best books I’ve read in a while.
• The Pain of Strangers is well written by a master craftsman who knows his subject inside out.
• I was caught completely off guard by this whole book. This is my first book from Barrett and it was... disturbingly good! This complex story was a constant punch in the gut with grit and criminal angst.

Also available by Andrew Barrett:

• The Pain of Strangers – CSI Eddie Collins 1
• Black by Rose – CSI Eddie Collins 2
• Sword of Damocles - CSI Eddie Collins 3
• Ledston Luck - CSI Eddie Collins 4
• The Death of Jessica Ripley - CSI Eddie Collins 5
• This Side of Death - CSI Eddie Collins 6
• Death Warning - CSI Eddie Collins 7
• The Lift – a CSI Eddie Collins Short Story
• The Note – a CSI Eddie Collins Novella
• The Lock – a CSI Eddie Collins Novella
• The Crew – a CSI Eddie Collins Novella
• A Long Time Dead – SOCO Roger Conniston 1
• Stealing Elgar – SOCO Roger Conniston 2
• No More Tears – SOCO Roger Conniston 3
• The CSI Eddie Collins boxset - Books 1 - 3
• The CSI Eddie Collins boxset - Books 4 - 6
• Short and Curlies - The CSI Eddie Collins Novellas (including a bonus short, Eye Contact)
• The Third Rule - CSI Jack Riley, stand-alone crime thriller
• The End of Lies - featuring Becky Rose, a stand-alone psychological thriller