Tom Harper must catch a traitor intent on disrupting the war effort and bringing terror to the streets of Leeds in this page-turning mystery.
Leeds. December, 1916. Deputy Chief Constable Tom Harper is called out in the middle of the night when a huge explosion rips through a munitions factory supplying war materials, leaving death and destruction in its wake. A month later, matches and paper to start a fire are found in an army clothing depot. It's a chilling discovery: there's a saboteur running loose on the streets of Leeds.
As so many give their lives in the trenches, Harper and his men are working harder than ever - and their investigation takes a dark twist with two shootings, at the local steelworks and a hospital. With his back against the wall and the war effort at stake, Harper can't afford to fail. But can he catch the traitor intent on bringing terror to Leeds?
Many thanks to Chris Nickson, Severn House Press and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my advance digital copy of the series, received through Netgalley.
A Dark Steel Death is the tenth book in Chris Nickson's Tom Harper series and the third I've read so far. I'm a little annoyed with myself because I'd somehow missed the previous two books and so have skipped from the events that occurred in 1899 in The Leaden Heart to wartime Leeds in 1916/17. I look forward to catching up with the earlier novels, but A Dark Steel Death can easily be read as a stand-alone so even those completely new to the series can start here.
It was really quite touching to realise just how much life has changed for Tom Harper and his family over the years. Harper himself has risen through the ranks of the police force and is now Leeds' Deputy Chief Constable. One of the most enjoyable aspects of his series has always been seeing Tom at home with his family as well as following his police work and like so many others, they haven't escaped loss and grief. His daughter, Mary is now a grown woman and has joined the Voluntary Women's Patrols, while Annabelle, his wife, faces a very different, heartbreaking issue which will resonate with a great many readers who have experienced similar in their own lives. Without going into too many details, I thought these parts of the book were written with such empathy and understanding of the emotional and practical challenges that families have to come to terms with.
While this is a police procedural and not a war story, the Great War casts its long shadow over everything that occurs here. This was before the Americans had entered the war and there are some poignant reminders of the scale of the tragedy throughout the book. The police force has been decimated by the war, many of the younger officers have been called or joined up meaning most of those left are past their prime and so have to rely on special constables and the Women's Patrols to keep order. It's a fascinating context in which to set a murder mystery, particularly one as difficult and politically sensitive as the case which terrifies the city and almost consumes Harper and his colleagues.
As they fear a saboteur is on the loose, they have to try to keep the news quiet for fear of what it might do to the already low morale of a community reeling from its losses. However, as the investigation chills and frustrates in almost equal measure, it gradually becomes evident that this isn't a black-and-white case at all.
There's a scene when it's suggested that Harper has become more Conservative and it's certainly true that some of his attitudes to law and order are authoritarian and retributive; however, this series is always strong on its social commentary, and I thought his growing understanding of the motives behind the murders emphasised the kind of man he is superbly. Tom Harper has been through some extraordinary changes since he first joined the police and it's clear he is still adjusting to a role which takes him away from the streets and into the more political arena expected of the higher ranks. He experiences huge change in both his personal and professional life in A Dark Steel Death and the pressures weigh heavily on him.
Wartime Leeds, which is still divided by areas of affluence and abject poverty, is vividly brought to life, the suspense levels are compulsively ratcheted up until the nail-biting conclusion – Chris Nickson impressively combines the sense of time and place expected in historical fiction with the tension and dark drama of a crime novel. The result is a book which intrigues, informs and moves; the authentic, gripping storyline enthralled me from start to finish and I highly recommend it.
A Dark Steel Death is published by Severn House and can be purchased here.
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