Top cop's hunt for 'next Osama bin Laden' as ex-Moss Side detective turns crime fighter to writer

It is not only the masters degree in creative writing from Manchester Metropolitan University which fuels James Ellson's literary abilities. His niche is the crime thriller, and his words drip with authenticity.

They do so because he is an ex cop who witnessed real life horror. As a night-duty Detective Inspector in Greater Manchester Police, he dealt with murder, shootings, and tragedy in the pressurised "golden hour" - the 60 minutes after an incident when the gathering of evidence could be the difference between someone getting caught or getting away with it.

He worked on the Stockport Division before switching to Moss Side where his workload was vast. At the time Manchester was gaining national notoriety for its gun crime. In 2007 there were 146 shootings across the region and the south side of the city was plagued by lethal feuds.

A glance at the Manchester Evening New s archives from 2009 and 2010 gives an indication of what he was dealing with. He was quoted after a 19-year-old man was shot in Fallowfield; teenage robbers threatened to shoot a female vicar in Stockport; and a gang of up to 30 masked youths dressed in black were intercepted by police as they carried out a sinister search for their target on an estate in Longsight.

James' professional desire to do a "perfect job" with every investigation and the nature of what he saw, "a lot of dead bodies", eventually took its toll. He suffered burn-out. He had a break-down and his impressive career as a cop - 10 years with the Met in London, and five years with GMP - was over.

He now has a dual life - as a writer and running a small holding in Derbyshire. But his days as a detective remain vivid in his memory and have been put to creative use .

This week his