“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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Neil White’s Lancashire Crime Novels: Garret and McGanity on the Job

British author Neil White is a criminal lawyer by day and a crime novelist by night. His books featuring reporter Jack Garrett and girlfriend DC Laura McGanity are set mostly in the Lancashire town of Blackley. White draws on his expertise and experience in the courtroom to provide reality-based fiction that has drawn acclaim from reviewers. The Blackpool Gazette hailed his first novel in the series, Fallen Idols, “a stunning debut.” Second in the series, Lost Souls, has, according to eurocrime.co.uk, “plenty of excitement, character development and tension…this book will make you squirm.” Closer Magazine called that same work “a fast-paced crime novel that will keep you guessing until the very end.”

White has published two further installments in the crime series. The Lancashire Evening Post felt that his third, Last Rites, “teems with menace, and the action builds to a terrific climax.” And White’s latest series addition, Dead Silent, is a “superb, tense, action-filled tale with lots of human interest and totally unputdownable,” according to Bookseller magazine.

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