May 1, 2018
Police Superintendent Tom Harper likes the status and the pay that come with his new title but misses daily involvement in police work. Also on his mind is the fact that his wife, Annabelle, is running for political office?hardly a typical occurrence in turn-of-the-century England. Despite the obstacles and many constituents' comments that a woman's place is in the home, Annabelle is determined to run and win. But then she receives a death threat, and a bomb explodes in the hall where she is supposed to give a campaign speech. Tom is both furious and terrified, so he puts his entire force on high alert. But the villain is wily, leaving few clues as to his identity. When the threats to Annabelle become more violent and are extended to the five other women running for office, Tom knows he must stop the perpetrator or risk not only Annabelle's life but also the idea of a free society where women can run for and hold office. A tense, well-crafted police procedural with authentic period ambience, a clever plot, and an engaging husband-and-wife duo in the lead.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
May 27, 2019
Nickson’s superlative seventh whodunit featuring Leeds police superintendent Tom Harper (after 2018’s The Tin God) effortlessly blends an intriguing mystery with a portrait of the plight of the lower classes in that city in 1899. Insp. Billy Reed is bereft when his shop owner brother, Charlie, poisons himself after a new landlord buys the building housing the shop and doubles the rent. When Billy finds that Charlie was making regular payments to a notorious extortionist, Tom does some digging himself, only to run into a stone wall when he tries to ascertain the new landlord’s identity. Worse follows. Charlie’s widow, Hester, is threatened and then murdered in her home by someone who took pains to make the death seem natural. Meanwhile, Tom’s wife, Annabelle, one of the city’s few female Poor Law Guardians, looks into the drowning of two small girls by their dissolute father, who threw them into a canal after a workhouse refused to take them in. Thoughtful characterizations and a plausible, heartrending plot add up to a winner. Nickson stands in the front rank of historical mystery authors. Agent: Tina Betts, Andrew Mann Agency (U.K.).
Starred review from May 15, 2019
As Britain teeters on the brink of the Boer War, the Leeds police force braces in the expectation of losing too many men just when its caseload seems impossible to manage. The summer of 1899 is blazing hot in Leeds, adding more misery for the populace and complicating several nasty cases Superintendent Tom Harper has on his plate. His wife, Annabelle, who serves on the board of the guardians of the poor, is deeply frustrated by her inability to get the condescending men to listen to any of her ideas for improvements. The well-off are being burglarized by someone who shinnies up drainpipes while the occupants are out and helps themselves to cash and jewelry. When Harper's old friend Billy Reed, who now does his policing in Whitby, comes to town after his brother Charlie commits suicide, his visit leads to a dark and dangerous case. Reed discovers that Charlie was being squeezed by a landlord who suddenly doubled the rent on his little corner shop. An investigation reveals that shops and houses are being bought up at suspiciously low prices by the Harehills Development Company so that the son-in-law of a town councilor can build new houses. Harehills is a front for the North Leeds Company, whose lawyer is able to hide the firm's real ownership. Charlie's shop is trashed and his wife, Hester, beaten by two big men, possibly John and Jack Smith, an elusive pair who'll stop at nothing. Then Hester is found dead, and an autopsy shows that she was smothered. When two of the most dishonest among the council members insist on Harper's ouster, he and the Chief Constable suspect the councillors are involved in the vicious scheme. Another fatality chalked up to the Smiths urges the force go all out to close the case. Nickson (The Hanging Psalm, 2019, etc.) is a master at mixing social commentary with police procedurals; he digs deep into the backgrounds of his characters and highlights the inequalities so common to the Industrial Revolution while deftly handling several troubling cases. Nickson's latest and perhaps finest is a breathless race for the truth from start to finish.
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