Fair and Tender Ladies

Starred review from November 4, 2013
Effective portrayals of brutality and genuine emotion and loss distinguish Nickson’s well-crafted sixth Richard Nottingham novel (after 2013’s At the Dying of the Year). In 1734, Nottingham, Constable of the City of Leeds, carries out his duties despite his wife’s devastating death. His hopes for fulfillment now lie with his grown daughter, Emily, who has opened her own school for the poor, and who is seriously involved with Rob Lister, one of Nottingham’s assistants. He fears for Emily’s safety after vandals attack her school. Meanwhile, several people die unnaturally, including Jem Carter, a man who was searching for his 16-year-old sister. In addition, a former crime lord returns to town, and Nottingham again has to navigate a prickly relationship with his bosses. The author’s willingness to shake up the status quo marks this as one of the best historical series set in the first half of the 18th century. Agent: Tina Betts, Andrew Mann (U.K.).

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.).

May 15, 2013
The Constable of Leeds investigates the most horrifying case of his long career. There's no safety net in 1733 Leeds. The poor scramble for every crumb of food and die with no hope of help, while the wealthy mostly ignore their plight. So it's no surprise to Richard Nottingham that when the bodies of three young street children are found tortured, raped and murdered, the mayor offers a reward that adds more trouble than help and is furious when clues indicate that a wealthy man may be the killer. Nottingham has barely recovered from a knifing, and his assistants John Sedgwick and Rob Lister are putting in long hours to help him in what seems a hopeless case. He finds a street boy who has seen the mysterious killer and, when he too is murdered, finds another, a young girl he takes into his home as a serving maid. Even the friends he has among the city's rich merchants warn him that although the well-connected Mr. Darden and his assistant, Mr. Howard, may be guilty, they will never hang for it. But Nottingham refuses to ignore what he knows to be the truth. When his wife, Mary, is murdered, he's willing to give up everything he worked for to bring the guilty to justice. Despite the relative dearth of mystery, this case for Nottingham (Come the Fear, 2012, etc.) is a wicked good combination of history and social commentary.

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July 1, 2013

Grateful to be alive (after Come the Fear), Leeds's honorable constable returns for his fifth case in an outstanding British procedural series. This time, a rash of child murders rips Nottingham's world apart.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2013
Richard Nottingham, constable of Leeds, is back in another superior historical mystery steeped in suspense and complicated by the misguided social mores of early eighteenth-century England. With a ruthless child killer on the loose, Richard, seriously debilitated by a wound he sustained in his last outing (Come the Fear, 2012), is desperate to unmask the demon preying on vulnerable street urchins. Zeroing in on the culprit, he is stonewalled as the more wealthy and privileged citizens close ranks. Though his tenacity exacts a huge personal toll, he and his deputies are committed to seeing that justice is done. This grim tale is harshly relentless in its honest depiction of crime, retribution, and the collective sins of society.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)