A new case for DS Tom Harper (his eighth), following up from last year’s excellent The Leaden Heart .

We’ve moved on to 1908 – a new century and a set of new challenges for Harper and his team. The prime minister is on his way to Leeds and Harper is tasked with making sure everything runs like clockwork – no small feat when the suffragettes and unemployed both plan on making trouble.

On top of that, Harper has a mystery to solve. He’s received a letter claiming that a young boy was stolen from his family some fourteen years ago. But where was the outcry? Why is the file so empty?

I really enjoyed delving back into the world of DS Tom Harper. I read a lot of modern crime fiction set all around the world, so it’s great to find one set so close to home. I know the streets and alleyways that Harper’s men walk, and get a real feel for how my adopted city has changed. Not that you’d need to be familiar with Leeds to enjoy this, mind!

The story is, as with The Leaden Heart, full of intrigue and good, solid no-nonsense police work. Nickson clearly knows and loves his subject (and city) well, and it really comes across on the page. Leeds is very much a key character in Nickson’s books, and I hope to read many more.

The Molten City is the eighth book in the Tom Harper series, but could easily be read as a standalone. I still need to go back and read some of the earlier books, and am looking forward to doing so.

If you like historical fiction that is unapologetically feminist, and love getting stuck into an old-fashion police procedural, then look no further – this book is absolutely outstanding! Set nine years after the close of The Leaden Heart some big changes have caught up with Tom, Annabelle, Mary, and Tom's team back at the precinct. With such a large gap between books that includes the passing of Billy Reed, the end of Annabelle's second term as Guardian, and the dispersal of some key officers to fight in the Boer War you can't help but get the feeling that Harper's crime fighting days are coming to an end.  

This finite tone is set with plenty of introspection, looking at both the correction of past wrongs and possibilities for the future. The result is that this book has a slightly slower pace than some of those that came previous in the series, with the weight of the feeling only amplified as Harper focuses on two cold cold cases rather than chasing down high down high stakes crime. That's not to say this book is boring, quite the opposite in fact, as this melancholy tone set by the missing children Tom's life changes is offset by the stress and drama that comes with arranging security for a high profile visitor - one that's sure to draw riots. 

These political tensions provide an exciting backdrop for the change coming at the Harper family, especially since women's suffrage is such a prominent staple at home. With Tom's daughter Mary becoming more involved in the fight for suffrage than Annabelle, the dynamic shifts rapidly, especially since teenaged Mary leans towards a more radical crowd. A tenuous balance must be struck between fighting for what's right and protecting the family - so naturally some hot-headed drama ensues...  

If there is one thing I am confident saying about Mr. Nickson's writing, it is that it bleeds authenticity. Everything from the grimy buildings of industrial Leeds to the politics of the day, and from the feels of the neighbourhoods through to the riots, clearly comes from a deep knowledge and love of place. The passion and attention to detail will effortlessly transport you to another time and place, which is ideal for getting lost in the story.

The Molten City is an emotionally provocative and meticulously crafted read. Lovers of historical fiction will appreciate the attention to detail, while readers of crime fiction will get lost in the case. There's even a little something for the women's fiction and family drama readers in the mix. And despite the feeling of wrapping up the series that's come with this last book, with such human and lovable characters I can only hope that Harper has at least one more big case waiting in the wings.

We first met Leeds policeman Tom Harper in Gods of Gold (2014) when he was a young CID officer, and the land was still ruled by Queen Victoria. Now, in Molten City, Harper is a Superintendent and the Queen is seven years dead. ‘Bertie’ – Edward VII – is King, and England is a different place. Leeds, though, is still a thriving hub of heavy industry, pulsing with the throb of heavy machinery. And it remains grimy, soot blackened and with pockets of degradation and poverty largely ignored by the wealthy middle classes. But there are motor cars on the street, and the police have telephones. Other things are stirring, too. Not all women are content to remain second class citizens, and pressure is being put on politicians to consider giving women the vote. Sometimes this is a peaceful attempt to change things, but other women are prepared to go to greater lengths.

This small but increasingly vocal movement provides one of two plot threads in what is, to my mind, Chris Nickson’s finest novel yet. Prime Minister HH Asquith and his Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone are due to visit Leeds, and it will be Harper’s task to make sure that the visit passes off peacefully. He knows there is likely to be a protest from unemplyed men whipped up by anarchist Alf Kitson, but his greatest fear is that a demonstration led by suffragette Jennie Baines will provoke more intense publicity. At this point, it is essential to point out the difference between suffragettes and suffragists. The latter have the same aims as the former, but they are avowedly peaceful in their methods. Harper’s wife Annabelle is a suffragist. She has worked for women’s rights for many years, and has passed on her zeal to their teenage daughter Mary.

The parallel thread in Molten City begins when Harper receives an anonymous letter which tells of a child being stolen from a poor family, on the instructions of a rich childless couple. He is determined to investigate, but where to start?
As he uses his local knowledge and that of his older officers, Harper begins to piece together a jigsaw. As the picture begins to take shape, it is clear that it is one that contains elements of tragedy, greed, desperation – and downright criminality, and that solving the puzzle will bring joy to no-one. As the past players in this old drama start to realise that the past is catching up with them, anxiety leads to violence,and violence leads to murder.

There are so many dazzlingly good elements to this novel. Nickson, like many of his readers is someone of the twentieth century, and he has a keen eye and ear for little social mannerisms that certainly struck a chord with me. As Annabelle imagines her husband in a Chief Constable’s uniform, she says:
“You’d look a right bobby-dazzler.”
Only those of us who were brought up having their tea made in a pot will remember this gesture:
“She felt the side of the teapot and poured herself another cup.”
Teenagers were as hungry in 1908 as they are today, but few sit down with their parents at a set table and have their meal:
“She’d already cleaned her plate right down to the pattern and was working her way through the suet pudding.”
Tom Harper is still fit, active,and able to handle himself in a scrap, but like Tennyson’s Ulysses who laments ‘tho we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;’ He is all too aware of the passage of time:
“And it was a detective’s job to follow every possibility. That was what his old boss, Superintendent Kendall, had instilled in him when he was starting out in CID. Another one who was dead now; Harper had filled his shoes at Millgarth. Billy, Kendall, so many others …very soon the dead in his life would outnumber the living.”

Nickson orchestrates the dramatic disorder – based on real events – of the Prime Minister’s visit with panache and the skills of a born storyteller. We know – as does Harper himself – that finding the truth about the child stealing will benefit no-one alive or dead, but he is a policeman who must do his duty while being all too well aware that the truth is frequently uncomfortable.

Editorial review for crime fiction site Crime Fiction Lover https://crimefictionlover.com/2020/03/the-molten-city/

Superintendent Tom Harper of the Leeds Police is attending the funeral of his old partner, Billy. It is September 1908 and there is trouble brewing in Leeds. The King has just visited and everything went well; Harper receives a commendation for his service. But then the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary plan to visit and citizens are up in arms. Unemployment is rampant and women suffragettes are demonstrating to receive the vote. Meanwhile, a kidnapping from years ago resurfaces when a woman who was privy to what happened writes a dying declaration and sends it to the police. Harper discovers the policeman who investigated the crime was involved in receiving the bribes that were distributed, so nothing was ever really done to solve the crime. Harper and his squad have to work overtime to ensure everyone's safety and bring the criminals to justice. This is one of the best historical police procedural series going. The descriptions of what life in Leeds was like are excellent; you can practically inhale the smog. Recommended.

The talented Chris Nickson delivers again in this excellent historical mystery, set in 1908 Leeds. The series protagonist, Detective Superintendant Tom Harper, receives an anonymous letter that reopens an old case of child abduction which, to his astonishment, was barely investigated when it occurred fourteen years earlier. As he tries to locate long-scattered witnesses and reawaken long-ignored memories of the crime, he's also preparing his policemen to deal with the visit of Prime Minister Asquith to Leeds, a visit that seems likely to ignite violent protests from both suffragettes and Leeds' many angry unemployed. At home, Tom's wife Annabelle faces a difficult decision concerning the pub she owns even as the couple deal with their headstrong teenaged daughter. As always, Nickson offers well-crafted prose, characters and plotting; in addition, Leeds—which the series first visited in 1890—feels like a living organism thanks to Nickson's rich evocation of its landscape and population. Highly recommended for lovers of intelligent historical mysteries, turn-of-the-century England, and police procedurals.

This is a great addition to the Tom Harper Mystery series. Tom has his hands full protecting visiting dignitaries as they arrive among throngs of protesting Suffragettes and unemployed men. All this while trying to solve a few murders linked to reopened cold cases of missing children. A terrific series for historical mystery fans.

Set in Leeds in 1908, this is the eighth book in the series featuring Detective Superintendent Tom Harper. There are two main storylines, the first a tip-off letter about a child abduction many years earlier that leads to murder, the second a visit by the Prime Minister that leads to civil unrest from the workers and suffragettes.
This is the first book by Chris Nickson I have read and I found it light and enjoyable. I liked the main character and the dynamics within his family however the others characters were rather flat. It was a quick read but there wasn't much depth in the plot and the historical setting didn't come through strongly enough to be convincing.
Overall it was reasonably entertaining despite the lack of substance.

As always Chris Nickson brings Leeds to life with #TheMoltenCity, which gives a hint of the conflagration which is to come. Thanks to #NetGalley and Severn House for outing number 8 of the Detective Superintendent Tom Harper series. It was a thrilling and complex historical novel to read.

"Detective Superintendent Tom Harper senses trouble ahead when the prime minister plans a visit. Can he keep law and order on the streets while also uncovering the truth behind a missing child?"

Two ( at least), events are taking place, started by an anonymous letter from a dying woman hoping to clear her conscience about knowledge of the child snatching of Andrew Sharp , 14 years before.

As Harper starts to look into this disturbing event, he is informed that he will be in charge of the arrival of Herbert Asquith, Prime Minister to the city. This visit, unlike that of King Edward, will be made dangerous by Leeds already being roiled by by tensions between suffragettes and the unemployed. Tom Harper's wife and now 16 years old daughter seem to be in opposition on the tactics of the suffragettes versus the women's suffrage lower keyed movement.

Events keep the whole city force and other town law enforcement entities stretched very thin with both violence and murders happening with the older child abductions case(s) and the anticipated rioting at the PM's speech.

A very entertaining book on more than one level which kept my attention to the end. Chris Nickson draws on actual historical events, and marvelous period detail, to enmesh his fine mysteries in.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House Publishers for an advance copy of The Molten City, the eighth novel to feature Superintendent Tom Harper of the Leeds Police.

September 1908 and it’s fairly quiet in Leeds after a successful visit from King Edward VII then Tom Harper get an anonymous letter saying that the 1893 disappearance of two year old Andrew Sharp had links to the well-to-do Cranbrook family. After deciding to investigate he gets the unwelcome news that Prime Minister Herbert Asquith will be visiting Leeds, a city that is seeking with unrest from both the suffragettes and the unemployed.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Molten City which has a good mystery attached to an extremely informative depiction of provincial Edwardian England. I found both plot lines, the cold case kidnapping and the Prime Ministerial visit equally absorbing as they are told entirely from Tom Harper’s point of view and they give the reader a bird’s eye view of both policing at the time and his personal reaction to the cases.

The Prime Minister’s visit side of things has an interesting slant in that it is told from the law enforcement side of things which many authors shy away from. The planning is detailed and executed ruthlessly and there is no consideration for the other side. I liked the author’s approach in this, he is prepared to explain both sides but in the end, the law is the law. The “other side” is the grinding poverty of unemployment and women’s suffrage. It makes you wonder how much has actually changed.

The cold case is completely different as it involves trying to retrace 15 year old friendships and associations. Harper’s team and records department are incredibly competent at this but a series of events prevent them from getting all the names until the last minute. It is good reading but I must admit to having doubts about this competency in information gathering and record keeping as it seems to fit the needs of the plot rather than historical accuracy.

Tom Harper is an easy going husband and father but an exacting boss. I like him as he always seems even handed. His wife, Annabelle, is a suffragist whilst his 16 year old daughter is a suffragette, the difference being in how they protest the women’s right to vote. It is an interesting discussion.

The Molten City is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

I am a great fan of historical mysteries and was drawn to this early 20th century crime novel set in Leeds because of the period and the historical events included in the book.

The protagonist, an intrepid senior police official, was a very engaging and sympathetic character. He cared about justice, he cared about his men, he cared about his victims-----so, my disappointment in the book was not based upon him. It centered on the lack of period flavor in Chris Nickson's writing. I didn't really feel the strong sense of time and place that makes a historical novel hum. With a few exceptions, the characters could have been contemporary people. We didn't have much descriptive language about the pubs, their homes, their clothes, or anything.

The Suffragist movement was a feature of the book and that set the tone for some dramatic adventures---so, yes, there was a nod to women emerging as activists, but not enough to really put me solidly in the movement, in the country, and on the streets. I loved the idea of the book. And, I enjoyed the family dynamics presented, but I felt there was a lot lacking to make the book come alive.

Netgalley provided me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a candid review.