In the quiet North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield a policeman's lot is often a very happy one. So found PC Nicholas Rhea whose colourful and warm-hearted stories of his countryside beat in the 1960s are the inspiration behind the enormously popular television drama, 'Heartbeat'.
Ever since he arrived form the smoky South, PC Nick Rowan has been kept on his toes by the petty - and occasionally not so petty - wrong-doings produced by his rural Yorkshire patch. His current puzzle is a spate of thefts from remote moorland churches, thefts that may not be unconnected with Claude Jeremiah Greengrass's latest enterprise, a free grass-cutting service to local churches . . . Meanwhile, Sergeant Blaketon is occupied with the tricky task of policing a football match in Whitby, and with family matters: his son, Graham, has come to Aidensfield on a weekend visit. Little does Blaketon know that his learner driver son has joined the ominously named Killing Pits Club who plan to take advantage of the absence of Blaketon and his officers in Whitby to stage a reckless, potentially lethal, motor-car time trial around Aidensfield . . .
