The Hocus Girl

Sedition: conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch (Oxford Dictionary)

I hadn’t heard of the phrase sedition before reading The Hocus Girl; I think it’s a long forgotten crime that many would now be potentially guilty of! But this crime is at the centre of this historical crime novel.

This is a very intricate case for Simon. It felt a real scenario from the 1800s. Proving someone is inciting rebellion can’t be an easy thing but the longer Davey is held at the magistrate’s pleasure, the more indignant Simon is to get to the bottom of the mess. But then murder comes into the frame upping the ante for this Leeds thief-taker.

I had in my head an olde worlde Leeds. The place I’m very familiar with but in a time gone past. Leeds but not as I know it. As Westow and Jane proceeded through the case, the locations they went to were places I’d been myself. The mention of a woman selling heather made me smile having encountered her modern day equivalent on a number of occasions of a lunchtime.

I really liked getting to know Simon, Jane and Rosie. Simon’s fatherly approach to Jane is admirable and her ability to disappear into a crowd is invaluable in their investigations.

I thoroughly enjoyed my introduction to Nickson’s writing and will be investigating his other series both Leeds based and Chesvegas.