Chris Nickson

Dark and vengeful!

Wow! Chris Nickson once again transports us back to 1824 Leeds. Atmospheric and stark reality color every page.
Simon Westow (the thief-taker) has a new client, an ex cavalry officer, and son of one of Leeds most notorious magistrates, who’s proving to be evasive and high handed. He wants Simon to find some stolen papers of his dead father’s but will give him no clues. It turns out others are on the trail and the dead bodies begin to stack up.
Something dark is happening in the lanes and alleyways of Leeds.
Jane has befriended a young girl, Sally, in whom she sees herself at that age. Sally feels protective of the children who live on the streets. In particular one small girl, Emma, who doesn’t quite seem like the others. Jane and Sally discover she and her sister were grabbed from a park when they hid from her governess. Emma was released because she was too old. Harriet, all of four, was deemed suitable.
Both Simon and Porter the Constable are shocked. They will become more so. Power and money are at work.
Sally comes more into the picture as Jane decides to only help when Simon really needs her. Her relationship with Simon has not been the same since he intervened in her planned revenge. Jane hasn’t really come to terms with Simon’s actions. She’s become more distant from the family.
Nickson’s portrayal of life on the streets for the forgotten and lost children is harsh and unforgiving.
Street justice is paid out for some of the child snatchers.
This latest novel in the Simon Westow arc has endings for some and new promise for others.
I was captured by events as they unfolded, horrified on many levels, and constantly admired Nickson’s ability to capture the terror of situations his characters faced and the driving search for justice and revenge they sought.
A challenging topic brought into the light, revealed by the power of the very talented Nickson’s pen.

A Severn House ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.… (altro)

1920 and Leeds is coming to terms with the end of the war and the Spanish Flu pandemic. Many families have been affected and Tom Harper is coming to the end of his career in the police force. Before he leaves he has three cases to solve. One is the influx of female shoplifters and pickpockets from London who are working their way around the northern cities causing havoc. The second is a favour to a local politician who has foolishly sent letters to a younger mistress and is now being blackmailed. Most dangerous of all is the gang of robbers who are getting more violent with each raid.
I have really loved Nickson's books about the career policeman Tom Harper and how they have progressed over a forty year slice of Leeds history. As ever the sense of time and place are spot on and here, in the early twentieth century there are more references to institutions still in place in the 1970s (but often alas no more). I love the way that local history is woven around social history and yet at its heart this is still a really solid police procedural.… (altro)

Hooked from the very first line!

How could I not be? This is Tom Harper. A man I’ve traveled with down through the years. It’s 1920 and Harper’s only six weeks away from retirement. He’s been asked by his boss, Alderman Thompson to quietly investigate a matter for him. Thompson’s being blackmailed. He’d “engineered Harper’s permanent appointment as Chief Constable of Leeds City Police.” Now Thompson’s calling in the debt.
Three live cases are on the go, three cases to be wound up before handing over to his replacement. All have Harper puzzled and frustrated.
*There’s this blackmail case with a moneyed and cool woman seemingly at the center.
*A series of jewellery shop heists by four highly disciplined robbers.
*The coming onslaught of organized groups of women en mass shop lifting from bigger department stores in numbers too large to control. They have been working their way from London connecting to large centers by train and foiling police. Mayhem has ensued.
Leeds is next!
And with all this Tom is faced with extreme sadness and loss. The love of his life, his wife Annabelle, “the vibrant woman, the suffragist speaker, has vanished.” Caught in the clutches of a relentless disease. Dementia has taken her away. Oh, there’s good moments when she’s in the now, but they’re disappearing.
I ponder on the question of how divorced can an author be from his characters?
Nickson’s sensitive writing about the man Harper is, Harper’s alertness to situations, the presentation of his failings and strengths over the years, and now his sensitive handling of his wife’s illness, all point to the empathetic and brilliant mind behind the tales. The modestly brilliant and determined writer Chris Nickson, the creator of our beloved Harper, who writes with a huge love and knowledge of the city he loves, Leeds.
I freely admit to having tears in my eyes and a tightness in my throat as I read the last episode in Tom Harper’s investigative career, from a humble on the beat policeman to equally humble Chief Constable. So much seen, so much endured, and yet he maintained his dignity, his compassion and his humanity. We grew with him and his family through situations that saw them all go from strength to strength despite the odds.
Farewell Tom Harper, it’s been a great journey! I’ve enjoyed every moment.

A Severn House ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change… (altro)