Member Reviews

Leeds, Yorkshire. 1936. The once thunderous clatter of its mills and factories is now a hesitant stutter. Although the Great Depression is over, like the plague passing over biblical Egypt it has left many victims. Work is scarce, and men live in fear of being unable to put bread on the table for their wives and children. There is state relief, but it is a grudging pittance. When a widely disliked Means Test Inspector – a man paid to snoop around people’s houses rooting out efforts to cheat the system – is found garotted, there are few to mourn him. But murder is murder, and police detective Urban Raven must find the killer.
It appears the dead man is a would-be follower of Sir Oswald Mosley, charismatic leader of the British Union of Fascists and, after an appearance in Leeds by Mosley and his Blackshirts turns into a riot, it is tempting for the police to think that the murder is politically inspired. As Raven tries to make sense of the killing, he has his own demons to face. Like many other Yorkshiremen, Raven is a Great War veteran, even though his war was brief and horrific. Only able to see active service in the dog-days of the conflict, he was unlucky enough to be close to a fuel dump which was hit by a stray shell. There’s a line from a song about that war, which goes,
“Never knew there was worse things than dying..”
Those words might be an extreme take on the scars of war, but Urban Raven’s face is a shiny and distorted mass of scar tissue, and he has become adept at ignoring the fascinated horror on people’s faces when they see him for the first time. His disfigurement might do him no favours with ordinary people, but has learned that it gives him an extra edge when dealing with criminals.
Against a fascinating background of the attempts by British fascists to emulate their German and Italian counterparts, and the ongoing saga of a member of the royal family who wants to marry an American divorcee (plus ça change?) Raven’s problems become deeper and wider as he falls foul of the secretive Special Branch, begins to suspect his wife’s fidelity and then – as if his problems weren’t serious enough – finds himself mired in a a political and criminal conspiracy.
As in every other Chris Nickson novel I have read, the city of Leeds is the central character. Whether it’s Richard Nottingham, Tom Harper, Lottie Armstrong or, now, Urban Raven treading its grand thoroughfares and mean ginnels, Leeds remains gritty, grimy, home to all manner of beauty and bestiality, but always vibrant. There is a wonderful feeling of continuity running through the books; it’s as if each police officer is carrying the baton handed on by a predecessor; Nottingham to Harper, Harper to Raven, Raven to Armstrong. The characters inhabit the same city, though; The Headrow is ever present, as are Briggate and Kirkgate, their suffixes names testifying to their antiquity.
The Dead On Leave is very bleak in places. Hope is in short supply among the working people in Leeds, and men have no qualms about building a wooden platform for Moseley to rant from, because a job is a job; consciences are a luxury way beyond the reach of folk whose families have empty bellies. Nickson is a writer, with social justice at the front of his mind and he wears his heart on his sleeve. I doubt that he and I agree on much in today’s political world, but I can think of no modern British author who writes with such passion and fluency about historical social issues.
Make no mistake, though. The Dead On Leave is not a sermon, and it does not wag a finger in admonition. It is an excellent crime novel, a perfect example of a police-procedural and it ushers on stage another compelling character in Nickson’s Leeds Dramatis Personnae. The book is published by Endeavour Quill and is available now in Kindle and as a paperback.

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Murder happens in an instant.

And that setting always finds itself nudging in during hard times. It's September of 1936 in Leeds with the aftermath of the Great War, the devastation still lingering after the Great Depression, King Edward abdicating his throne, and severely felt political unrest.

Detective Sergeant Urban Raven rubs his scarred face in frustration. It's always been a cruel reminder of the burns he suffered while in the military. With fifteen years on the Leeds Police Force, Raven has just about seen everything. And yet, these particular puzzle pieces have never fit so tightly in a city lined with the desperately poor and with jobs still so scarce. Leeds seems to be dragged into the 20th century prepared or not.

With the strong preying upon the weak, Leeds becomes a hotbed for the new mindsets and power struggles. Word is out that Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts will be holding a march near the downtown area. (True factual history) The Communist Party manages to grab the attention of the crowds as well. Leeds is now ripe for mayhem.

Urban Raven is dressed in worn and tattered clothes mingling within the crowd with his partner, DC Daniel Noble. Trouble is brewing. When violence breaks out, the crowd runs in every direction. Raven receives word that a body has been found near a privy. The man has been strangled with an electrical cord. No sooner does this body end up in the morgue when others will follow. Who's behind these killings and why?

Chris Nickson has a superb talent for combining historical fiction with mystery/thrillers as seen in his DI Tom Harper Victorian Series. I'm an avid fan. The Dead On Leave is particularly eerie in how events of the past may mirror events of the present. Nickson wraps his main characters in the frustrations and the uncertainties of the times in which the desperate will do desperate things. He fills in a side thread with Raven experiencing problems in his marriage with Marjorie, his wife. Long hours on the case leave cold ashes in the home.

The Dead On Leave is a very satisfying read with its emphasis on the deep complexities of humanity. It's my sincere hope that Urban Raven will find his way through the streets of Leeds and into another book at the hand of Chris Nickson.

I received a copy of The Dead On Leave through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Endeavour Quill and to Chris Nickson for the opportunity.

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procedural, british-detective, fascists, black-shirts, murder, historical-fiction, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research

The reader follows a detective in Leeds as he diligently investigates the murder of a vile man involved in the clash between the fascists and the communists in 1936. The worldwide depression is in full swing and ordinary people feel desolate with no work and look for hope in these political groups, but there is much strife in either group. The study of life and times seen through the eyes of a detective who has suffered more than many from the effects of the Great War is exceptionally well done and needs to be read. This is well written and the political warnings are appropriate for today's world.
I requested and received a free review copy via NetGalley. Thank you!

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#DeadOnLeave #NetGalley Thanks to Chris Nickson, favorite author, NetGalley and Endeavor for this fascinating book about an era in Britain I knew little about. I was reminded that Churchill wrote the book "While England Slept" in 1938 and JFK wrote a rebuttal of it , "Why England Slept" in 1940.

It was clearly a conflicted time in England and especially Leeds with deep economic depression. I will mention that I was not yet born, and my father, who was in battle in the South Pacific at my birth, always stated that he would not go to war again unless the Japanese were landing in Atlantic City. (We were from New Jersey) Dad had performed a heroic act shortly before my birth aboard his ship, which haunted him his whole life.

That was in my mind as I got into this quite excellent book, and I am still exploring after reading it, what was going on in England at that time. I was unaware of the factions existing in the UK at that time, and my husband whose parents were still British Citizens in the 1930s was not either.

Enter "the political tensions between Mosley’s Blackshirts and working-class Communists in 1930's Leeds" which was a city "struggling to shake off the effects of the Great Depression," and our hero WWI Vet DI Urban Raven. The Battle of Holbeck Moor September 1936 followed a week of rising tension, Sir Oswald Mosley against city orders, marched his Blackshirts ( British Union of Fascists) to Holbeck. The expected BUF rally was aborted by about 30,000 Leeds residents, opposing communists among them.

One unpopular, and mostly unmourned man( a means test inspector),was murdered and left in an alley which began our story. Detective Inspector Urban Raven was given the unwelcome task of finding the murderer with many unanswered questions. Was the murder a vengeful act or was it due to the rising political tensions in Leeds ? Which "side" was responsible and why were subsequent murders happening?

Add to that Urban's unraveling marriage, helping his young assistant DC Daniel Noble cope with the ensuing violence, and the conflict of his superiors, and you have a perfect mystery novel.
Suffice to say, it ends well (for most) and I sincerely hope this will become a series by this gifted writer.

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The story begins with the "Battle Of Holbeck Moor" - an actual historical event which took place in the city of Leeds in September 1936. There was a march and rally held by the British Union of Fascists (BUF), led by right wing politician, Sir Oswald Mosley. He was due to speak to an estimated 1000 members of the BUF, but when they arrived at Holbeck Moor, they were met with 30,000 Leeds residents, many of them Communist Party members. A fight broke out and around 40 fascists were injured in the clash, and - heavily outnumbered - the BUF broke and ran from the scene. Three people were arrested, and all were given light sentences.

With this as his starting point, author Chris Nickson turns the story into a murder mystery as the body of a man, Frank Benson, is found near the scene of the rally. He has been strangled and Leeds police Detective Sergeant Urban Raven is tasked with finding the killer. Raven is a burns casualty from the First World War, a fact that weighs heavily on him although he doesn't wallow in self pity. He also seems to be in a failing marriage and is convinced his wife Marjorie is seeing another man.

It transpires that although the murdered man was a member of the BUF, he was also a means test inspector - men who investigated unemployed men and women to see if they were entitled to unemployment benefit. Raven's inquiries lead him to discover that Benson had also been molesting his young daughter, but the murder of another BUF member steers him back to taking a close look at the Fascist movement in the city, along with his rookie partner Detective Constable Daniel Noble.

The police investigation is carried out at a slow pace and there is strong sense of gloom about the story as Nickson details the plight of the unemployed in Depression-era Britain with poverty all too prevalent throughout the country and especially in an industrial city such as Leeds.

The story switches between Raven's domestic life and his mistrust of his wife and his work as a detective which leads him to interviews with a wide range of characters from a broad spectrum of 1930's English society, be they police informants, Communist Party members, downtrodden wives of unemployed men or successful businessmen. Raven is a very likeable character and I'd be interested to read more about him if this is to become a series.

My thanks go to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

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The dead on leave by Chris Nickson.
This was a fantastic read. I liked the story and the characters  apart from the killer. 
Detective sergeant Urban Raven is with Leeds city police. His partner detective constable Daniel Noble is not long out of uniform. A murdered body is found by Raven. It's Frank Benson.  He was a mean test inspector. Raven thinks the super will investigate not him but is surprised when he is asked to help and try to solve it. Who done it and why? I liked Raven.  He was my favourite character.  I felt for him for what he went through. It was interesting to find out how the police worked back then. I loved the ending too.  5* from me.

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I would like to thank Netgalley and Endeavour Quill for an advance copy of The Dead on Leave, a police procedural set in Leeds in 1936 featuring Detective Sergeant Urban Raven.

In the aftermath of a march by Sir Oswald Mosely and the British Union of Fascists a man is found garrotted by an electrical flex. Sergeant Raven is on the case but there is not much progress. When a second man is found shot his death is linked to the first murder because both men had links to the BUF.

I enjoyed The Dead on Leave which is a slow burner in terms of plot but very informative on historical detail as 1936 is fertile ground for any author. The police investigation is necessarily slow as they don't have much in the way of forensics or science so depend on informants and tips and culprits confessing to get to the solution. The plot itself is puzzling as Raven tries to work out what is going on and while it ends in a frenzy of activity I don't feel that all the details were cleared up satisfactorily.

Mr Nickson excels at period detail and this novel is no different so the reader gets a real sense of the era. As the depression is still in full swing poverty is rife, jobs scarce and fear predominates. In fact, it doesn't sound so very different from current day conditions - they even have benefit sanctions in the form of a means test inspector. The big difference lies in the politics. War is looming and the extremists have more influence than normal with the Communists looking for better working conditions and the Fascists insisting that Hitler doesn't want war. Most people just want to have a job and put food on the table.

The Dead on Leave is an interesting read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

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