Sergeant Cluff Goes Fishing

By: Gil North

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

When Detective-Sergeant Cluff, on the lookout as ever, overhears a conversation in Gunnarshaw concerning the Amblers’ estate in Egilsby, he grows suspicious. But when Colonel Ambler is found dead at the riverside, Cluff – unorthodox as ever – promptly embarks on a fishing trip to investigate, much to the despair of Inspector Mole. Events begin to spiral: the rector’s corpse is discovered in his bathtub; and Sims, a penniless adolescent, who has somehow bought himself a motorbike, has apparently killed himself on it within twenty-four hours. True to form, Cluff has his own opinions about the deadly events unfolding, but, in his pursuit of justice, he gets much more than he bargained for.

Detective-Sergeant Cluff is at home in the bleak, moorland market town of 1960s Gunnarshaw. A gruff and gloomy loner, he has spent a lifetime observing local folk – and knows their lives inside out. They know him, too – a bulky, macintoshed figure who watches from the shadows of Gunnarshaw’s ginnels as they go about their daily business, his dog Clive always at his side.

But it’s not just criminals Cluff has to watch out for. Never satisfied with easy answers to cases, Cluff is a maverick and no flatterer to authority – much to the bemusement of Detective-Constable Barker, but much more so to the despair of the hapless Inspector Mole, who tries at every opportunity to outwit or contain Cluff’s singular methods of detection.

But beneath Cluff’s dour exterior beats the heart of a truly compassionate man who possesses a deep understanding of human nature, in all its sordid and depraved details – details which frequently push Cluff to bend the rules in his pursuit of moral justice.

“The Maigret of the Dales”
‘Gil North’s atmospheric writing shows the influence of Simenon, and
Gunnarshaw’s finest, Sergeant Caleb Cluff, is a memorable detective – the
Maigret of the Dales’
Martin Edwards, CWA Diamond Dagger winner 2020 and author of Mortmain Hall.

Background
Gil North’s eleven novels following the investigations of Detective-Sergeant Cluff, in the fictional and close-knit moorland market town of Gunnarshaw, were first published in the 1960s. Incredibly popular, they were adapted for BBC Television and regularly attracted twelve million viewers. Gil North wrote the scripts for every episode.

Gil North was the pen-name of Geoffrey Horne (1916–1988). He was born in Skipton, North Yorkshire, where his father was Town Clerk. Horne was educated at the local grammar school, then studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge, before embarking on a career as a civil servant in Nigeria and Cameroon.
He later returned to pursue his writing ambitions in his native Skipton, which was not only the inspiration for Gunnarshaw, but also the location where the television drama Cluff was filmed.