“Leeds. October, 1891. An unclaimed parcel at the Central Post Office is discovered to contain the decomposing body of a baby boy. It’s a gruesome case for Detective Inspector Tom Harper. Then a fire during the night destroys half the railway station. The next day a woman’s body is found in the rubble. But Catherine Carr didn’t die in the blaze – she’d been stabbed to death, and Harper has to find her killer.
The estranged wife of a wealthy industrialist, Catherine had been involved with the Leeds Suffragist Society, demanding votes for women, the same organization for which Harper’s wife, Annabelle, has just become a speaker. Did the husband Catherine abandoned kill her? Or were her radical politics behind her death – and can the Inspector keep Annabelle safe? When Catherine’s brother escapes from the asylum, steals a shotgun and arrives in Leeds, Harper needs to race to find the answers.”
Being a Loiner through and through, I am always terribly excited by books set in Leeds or written by local authors, and Chris Nickson is without a doubt an author to get excited about.
A plethora of historical facts distilled into fictional thrillers, featuring references to real people who lived and worked in Leeds (such as Isabella Ford of Leeds Suffragist Society, a hero of mine) his books are such a treat to read. After reading Gods of Gold and Two Bronze Pennies, I was eager to dive back into 19th century Leeds and Skin Like Silver, the third in the Detective Tom Harper Trilogy was another feast of familiar streets and places in all their smoky, grimy glory.
The story was every bit as gripping as the first two but it focuses as much on the personal relationships between the characters as it does on the web of crime that the protagonist is busy untangling. Tom’s wife Annabelle is one of Chris’ typical strong female characters and her involvement with the Suffragist Society is a pretty empowering story arc to accompany his wonderful descriptions of the filthy fog and crippling poverty. It’s humbling to read scenes set up The Bank in Cross Green, where I live, which is an area still failing to live up to its promise of regeneration after generations of being populated by low socio-economic status families.
Looking out of the window at 10am on a Tuesday to see people walking to the shop on the corner in their pyjamas, returning with their first lager and cigarettes of the day, furiously scrubbing at a scratch card it isn’t too big a leap to imagine them dressed in period clothes from 100 or so years ago, living in the same sort of hopeless squalor and most assuredly not appreciating the Police hanging around the area.
Giving the devastating effects of government cuts on local services, I had a lump in my throat reading about the heroic fire fighters and police officers and the mill workers around the time of the Industrial Revolution. So often I read for a bit of escapism but I got a real sense of how nothing really changes. Leeds may be a bit cleaner and a bit bigger but we still face the same struggles as we ever did.
Don’t miss these gorgeous books. They really are outstanding!
Thanks for the book review Lianne, it does sound interesting.
However I can’t help but feel irked by your commentary on modern day Cross Green. You refer to it as ‘an area still failing to live up to its promise of regeneration after generations of being populated by low socio-economic status families.’ I think you’re confusing regeneration with gentrification. Regeneration is about revitalising an area after years of neglect and chronic underfunding and is nothing to do with the wealth of its inhabitants.
Also, your tone when discussing the customers of your local corner shop on Tuesday’s at 10am is rather judgemental, especially given you move straight on to talk about the devastating cuts to local services in the next breath – perhaps these 10am pyjama-dwellers were laid off when the library closed and have just bought a jobs paper in the corner shop with their cigs?
I’m sorry to have caused any offense Rosey but I can assure you I have no interest in the area being gentrified! If I was a crashing snob like that I would move somewhere wanky instead. What I wish is that there were better facilities for families, like for example the library, or a park which isn’t constantly vandalised, and a better health centre or childcare or that we still had a post office etc. I understand why you may think that I was generalising and being judgmental but given that I’m part of the local neighbourhood watch and have worked extensively with the police and social services for years to deal with the constant domestic violence, drug dealing, benefits fraud and vandalism in the area I can assure you that the people I specifically referenced were not going to the shop to buy a paper (for a start the shop doesn’t sell papers) but they do often bulk buy sandwich bags to house the weed they are growing.
I truly believe that a difference could be made in the lives of the people who live here and their children (and pets – good grief the RSPCA is on my most dialled list…) and it frustrates me that people just seem to accept that Cross Green is the ghetto and leave it to fester. If attempts to revitalise the community are being made, I am not seeing any success!