At the Dying of the Year

Starred review from May 6, 2013
British author Nickson’s stellar fifth 18th-century whodunit finds Richard Nottingham, Constable of the City of Leeds, returned to work after the life-threatening wound he received in the previous book, 2012’s Come the Fear. Nottingham worries that he won’t hold the post much longer, given the limitations imposed by his injury as well as the antipathy shown him by the mayor, but he soon has worse things to worry about. The discovery of the abused corpses of three children sets the constable and his men on a desperate search for the killer, who has probably claimed other lives. A description of the suspect, a man known only as Gabriel, leads Nottingham to one of the city’s most powerful men. Nickson has never been better in merging the private life of his hero with a quixotic quest for justice in a community where the privileged look out for their own, no matter what. Agent: Tina Betts, Andrew Mann (U.K.).

Starred review from November 5, 2012
Set in 1733 Leeds, Nickson's outstanding fourth mystery featuring constable Richard Nottingham (after 2012's The Constant Lovers) shows that linking the crime under investigation to a wider plot of broader significance isn't necessary to carry the reader along. In the ruins of a house gutted by fire, Nottingham makes a gruesome findâthe blistered husk of a woman's corpse, with her fetus ripped out and placed on her sliced-open belly. Identifying the victim proves a challenge, and Nottingham and his men have a hard time getting traction in an inquiry of no interest to anyone but themselves. Besides delivering an intriguing puzzle, Nickson does a fine job depicting Leeds's underclass ("A few thousand souls, so many of them pushed together in the cold, crowded spaces of the poor: faceless, anonymous folk, all working for the few who tasted luxury each day without thought"). Agent: Tina Betts, Andrew Mann Ltd.

December 1, 2012
A fire in a house that stands empty in 1733 reveals the charred corpse of a pregnant woman. As the City of Leeds emerges from the icy clutches of winter, Constable Richard Nottingham has all the usual crimes to solve. But when he searches the burnt building and finds a young woman with a baby ripped from her womb, he and his deputies, John Sedgwick and Rob Lister, focus on tracking down a merciless killer. Each of the deputies has problems of his own. New father Sedgwick suffers from lack of sleep and an older son whose jealousy of the baby makes him run wild. Lister's father has forbidden his marriage to Nottingham's daughter Emily since he considers the family to be beneath his. The victim is Lucy Wendell, a simple girl with a harelip who had been turned away by the wealthy family she worked for when her pregnancy was discovered. She never returned to her mother or her blacksmith brother for help. So, what was she was doing in the month before her death? In addition to dogging the dead girl's steps, Nottingham also has to deal with a London thief-taker who has set up shop in Leeds and may be behind a rash of burglaries and the fear that sweeps through the city when a child is kidnapped in broad daylight. Nottingham's fourth (The Constant Lovers, 2012, etc.) is a police procedural with a nicely detailed historical setting, the obligatory social commentary and a middling mystery.

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Starred review from January 1, 2013

Dedicated Constable Nottingham watches over 1755 Leeds like a hawk, defying anyone to mess with his thriving city of industry. So when a suspicious house fire leaves behind the charred remains of a young, pregnant victim, he is spurred into action. Perplexed at first by the victim's anonymity, Nottingham learns that she was a disabled woman abused both by employers and kin. No way will his fledgling police department let this wrongful death slide by. Nottingham is quietly powerful and strives to ensure justice for all, not just the moneyed class. Not surprisingly, his investigation exposes more than some city leaders had planned and leaves him particularly vulnerable. VERDICT Nickson's fourth title (after The Constant Lovers) in his superb 18th century-set series lives up to expectations. Clearly written so that the titles can be read out of order, this historical police procedural ends with a cliffhanger, guaranteeing your patrons will demand number five,

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