“Murder Was a Frequent Visitor to Blackpool”: The DCI Henry Christie Novels of Nick Oldham

Nick Oldham follows the old dictum of writing what you know. He spent thirty years in various positions in the Lancashire Constabulary before retiring in 2005 to write full time. He has written eighteen well regarded police procedurals in the DCI Henry Christie series, novels set mostly in Blackpool, England. “A flawed and very human hero, inside-the-cop-shop politics, heart-pounding suspense, and gritty realism are trademarks of Oldham’s excellent Henry Christie series” noted Booklist of these works. “Gritty and precise” is how the London Times described the series, while Kirkus Reviews dubbed these works “splendid British procedural[s] with complex plotting.”

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Garry Disher’s Australian Crime Novels: Written from Both Sides of the Law

Garry Disher is an award-winning, prolific, and versatile Australian author best know in the U.S. for his Inspector Challis series of procedurals as well as for the crime caper books featuring the meticulous bank robber and thief, Wyatt Wareen. But this is only part of the Disher story. He has published over 40 books of mainstream and crime fiction for both adults and younger readers, as well as nonfiction books dealing with topics from writing technique to aspects of Australian history.

The winner of two Ned Kelly Awards, Disher began writing professionally three decades ago, and ten years into his career began the series of books featuring the hard-bitten hold-up man Wyatt. He penned six of these titles, Kickback, Paydirt, Death Deal, Crosskill, Port Vila Blues, and The Fallout, before turning his attention to his procedural series featuring Detective Inspector Hal Challis and his partner cum lover, Sergeant Ellen Destry. The titles in this latter series have all been published in the United States by Soho Press, which is also beginning to bring out the Wyatt novels, especially as Disher brought his antihero back after a thirteen-year hiatus in the 2010 novel, Wyatt (which earned Disher one of his Ned Kelly Awards; the other was for a Challis book, Chain of Evidence). The return of Wyatt was, for Booklist, “cause for celebration.” Kirkus Reviews was also jubilant at Wyatt’s re-entry into the world of crime fiction: “Disher takes us back to the golden age of thrillers, a time when they were fast, taut and dependably suspenseful.”

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