British music journalist Chris Nickson is the author of the Richard Nottingham books, historical mysteries set in Leeds in the 1730s and featuring Nottingham, the Constable of the city, and his deputy, John Sedgwick. As Nickson has said of his series: “The books are about more than murder. They’re about the people of Leeds and the way life was – which means full of grinding poverty for all but the wealthy. They’re also about families, Nottingham and his and Sedgwick, and the way relationships grow and change, as well as the politics, when there was one law for the rich, and another, much more brutal, for everyone else.”
Nickson’s debut, The Broken Token, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called it “impressive,” and further noted: “Nottingham and Sedgwick interview whores, pimps, and procurers in an effort to catch the lunatic who slays three couples in six days. Multiple threads of the case come together at the end in an unexpected and disturbing conclusion.” Second in the series, Cold Cruel Winter, appeared in 2011 and earned another starred review from Publishers Weekly as a “superb” novel. It also was named one of the ten best mysteries of that year by Library Journal. His third, The Constant Lovers, comes out in the spring from Severn House’s Crème de la Crime imprint. (more…)
Scene of the Crime 