A raw and psychologically complex crime series that digs deep into the personal cost of justice…
Pachan, a former officer turned novelist, pulls no punches in his gritty Cam Clay series, which opens with Revoked and deepens in Stampede City. Set against the unforgiving sprawl of Calgary, the books follow Detective Sergeant Cam Clay, a man shaped (and increasingly undone) by the job.
In Revoked, the first installment in the series, Clay is back from administrative leave after a fatal shooting with his badge intact, but his psyche is fractured. The murder of a young mother and her child, a crime that looks like a simple domestic tragedy but proves something else, pulls him into a case where every answer leads to deeper questions.
Stampede City, the second installment, picks up the pace and the pressure. The Calgary Stampede is in full swing when a young man is gunned down in a quiet neighborhood, and Clay is handed a case that turns out to be more than just a gang hit. A meth super-lab, a violent turf war, and the growing presence of a brutal crime boss all point to a criminal network far more entrenched than anyone wants to admit.
Pachan layers police procedure with emotional reality. The investigations unravel slowly and painfully, revealing as much about Clay’s inner turmoil as they do about the crimes themselves. He’s not a rebel, not a drunk, not out to break rules. But he’s carrying too much grief, and it leaks into every decision. Detective Jazz Breslow, Inspector Hiroki Sanchez, and the returning cast provide continuity, tension, and emotional ballast. Their relationships with Clay, whether marked by loyalty, friction, or shared trauma, add dimension and texture. Pachan is careful not to idealize his characters. They are flawed, sometimes overwhelmed, and occasionally broken. But they endure.
The city, meanwhile, looms large. Calgary’s icy winters and dusty summer streets bleed into the narrative, its contradictions, including civic pride and buried corruption mirroring Clay’s own erosion. Pachan’s knowledge of law enforcement gives the books their procedural snap, but it’s his sensitivity to emotional damage that gives them staying power.
This isn’t crime fiction built for thrills; it’s built for impact. Clay is a man who keeps showing up, even as the system grinds him down and that, in the end, is what makes the series hit so hard.
Pachan is a writer to watch.
FriesenPress
Revoked: A Detective Cam Clay Novel Book 1
ISBN 978-1-5255-1660-3
Price $27.99 Hardcover, $19.49 Paperback, $4.99 eBook
The Stampede City: A Detective Cam Clay Novel Book 2
ISBN 978-1-03-832487-0
Price $33.49 Hardcover, $20.99 Paperback, $4.99 eBook
