Tom Harper #8
Detective Superintendent Tom Harper senses trouble ahead when the prime minister plans a visit. Can he keep law and order on the streets while also uncovering the truth behind a missing child?
Leeds, September 1908. There's going to be a riot. Detective Superintendent Tom Harper can feel it. Herbert Asquith, the prime minster, is due to speak in the city. The suffragettes and the unemployed men will be out in the streets in protest. It's Harper's responsibility to keep order. Can he do it?
Harper has also received an anonymous letter claiming that a young boy called Andrew Sharp was stolen from his family fourteen years before. The file is worryingly thin. It ought to have been bulging. A missing child should have been headline news. Why was Andrew's disappearance ignored?
Determined to uncover the truth about Andrew Sharp and bring the boy some justice, Harper is drawn deep into the dark underworld of child-snatching, corruption and murder as Leeds becomes a molten, rioting city.
"[S]uperior...Even minor characters are fully fleshed out in this trip down the mean streets of early 20th-century Leeds. Nickson's consistent high quality across multiple series continues to impress." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Social commentary and period detail enhance a solid, thoughtful procedural." - Kirkus Reviews
"Offers authentic period ambience, engaging characters, and a realistic look at the challenges of policing without high technology...A good read in this reliably entertaining series" - Booklist
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Chris Nickson has written since he was a boy growing up in Leeds. At 21, he moved to the US, and spent the next 30 years there, returning to England in 2005, and finally full circle to Leeds. He's made a living as a writer since 1994, initially as a music journalist, specializing in world and roots music. These days there's far less of that, but he still produces a few articles and several reviews a year. He authored The NPR Casual Listener's Guide to World Music, a volume that's now long out of date.
His first novel, The Broken Token, came out in 2010, featuring Richard Nottingham, Constable of Leeds in the 1730s (there was a real Richard Nottingham, and that was his post, although it was probably largely ceremonial). There have been eight books in this series. Cold Cruel Winter was ...
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