Skin Like Silver

by Chris Nickson

Overview

The third intriguing historical mystery to feature Detective Inspector Tom Harper

Leeds, England. October, 1891. An unclaimed parcel at the Central Post Office is discovered to contain the decomposing body of a baby boy. It’s a gruesome case for DI Tom Harper. Then a fire during the night destroys half the railway station. The next day a woman’s body is found in the rubble. But Catherine Carr didn’t die in the blaze: she’d been stabbed to death – and Harper has to find her killer.
The estranged wife of a wealthy industrialist, Catherine had been involved with the Leeds Suffragist Society, demanding votes for women, the same organization for which Harper’s wife Annabelle has just become a speaker. Were Catherine’s politics the cause of her death? Or is the husband she abandoned behind it? But when her brother escapes from the asylum and steals a shotgun, Harper has to race to find the answers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727885708
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	03/01/2016
Series:	A Tom Harper Mystery , #3
Edition description:	First World Publication
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Chris Nickson is the author of the highly-acclaimed Richard Nottingham series and is also a well-known music journalist. Born and raised in Leeds, he lived in the USA for thirty years and now makes his home in England. www.chrisnickson.co.uk

Read an Excerpt

They ran, scraping their way over the debris. Dust rose around them as they scrambled.
‘Over here,’ the man called. He was standing by a pile of rubble. ‘You can just see her foot over there.’
They gazed. Half a button boot, the leather torn clean away to show bloody flesh. The rest of her was buried under chunks of concrete.
‘Must have collapsed right on top of her,’ Hill said grimly, taking off his uniform jacket. ‘Let’s get this shifted.’
Ash glanced at Harper’s bandaged hands.
‘Will you be all right, sir?’
‘I’ll manage,’ the inspector told him as he stared at the foot.
It took them a quarter of an hour to move everything, sweating and grunting. Blood seeped through Harper’s bandages. He grimaced and worked on.
‘Christ,’ Hill said quietly.
Most of her clothes had burned away. Her hair was gone. She was part-flesh, burned and black. But it was the rest of her that made them draw in their breath. Patches of metal across her body that glinted in the light. Skin like silver: the thought came into his head.
‘What..?’ At first he didn’t even realize he’d spoken.
‘Must have been the girders,’ Hill said. He couldn’t take his eyes off the body. ‘They melted in the heat and the metal dripped down on her.’ He wiped a hand across his mouth. ‘I just hope to God she was already dead.’
Harper took a deep breath and squatted, moving this way and that around the corpse. Only the shape and size of the body and the torn button boot showed she’d once been female. Now... he could scarcely believe what he saw. Two dark, burned holes where her eyes had once been. The smell of her, like charred meat. The glittering metal. Dear God, it was grotesque. A statue of death. He shuddered as he stood again.

Editorial Reviews

01/18/2016
Gun violence and the ambiguities of justice add a topical edge to British author Nickson’s solid third Tom Harper police procedural (after 2015’s Two Bronze Pennies), set in Leeds in 1891. Shortly after the police discover a dead infant who was packaged and mailed in an anonymous parcel, Harper rushes to a huge blaze accidentally ignited at the city’s railway station. A female body there is partially sheathed in silvery metal liquefied in the fire, but she’s dead by stabbing. Harper’s team identifies her as former servant Catherine Carr, who married an elderly factory owner but fled his abuse six months earlier. Meanwhile, Catherine’s brother, a military veteran institutionalized for violent rages, escapes to begin sniper attacks, possibly spurred by his sister’s death. Subplots involving the unidentified infant, Harper’s failing hearing, his wife’s suffragist awakening, and tensions between himself and his former sergeant, Billy Reed, add appealing warmth. Nickson resolves the mystery of the dead baby in a believable, nuanced way. Agent: Tina Betts, Andrew Mann Agency (U.K.).

Publishers Weekly

Nickson’s latest DI Tom Harper historical procedural is tautly written and highly engaging, with a keep-’em-guessing plot and plenty of late nineteenth-century period details

Booklist

"Skin Like Silver is a good, interesting, well written novel and I don't hesitate to recommend it."

E Tomasso

"Chris Nixon writes with knowledge and love of the area, having been born and bred in Leeds. He has clearly done lots of research and the consequence is that the reader is transported back to the late 19th Century. The book is vividly atmospheric and I could smell the smoke and smog, and could see the grime and grubbiness of industry and the general population’s fight against abject poverty."

Breakaway Reviewers

"If you enjoy good characterization, good placement within a specific time period, and good police investigative processes, you will almost surely enjoy this novel."

J Lesley

"Skin Like Silver is a fantastic murder mystery. I love the history and detail Nickson creates to make his story more real and authentic"

K Malott

"I highly recommend this book for those that love a good Victorian mystery. In fact, I recommend the whole series. I have to give this one five stars, it’s really that good."

A Milton

Nickson’s latest DI Tom Harper historical procedural is tautly written and highly engaging, with a keep-’em-guessing plot and plenty of late nineteenth-century period details

Booklist

03/01/2016
The latest adventure of DI Tom Harper of the Leeds Police sees the detective balancing two very different cases. In the first, he is trying to locate the mother of a dead baby found in a parcel at the local post office. Then a fire destroys a railroad station and discovered beneath the rubble is a woman's corpse, covered in melted steel. As Harper works to identify the murderer of Catherine Carr, he has to partner with a former colleague who had transferred to the Fire Brigade. Harper and Billy Reed had a serious falling-out, and their relationship remains tentative at best. Murder, women's suffrage, madness, and industrial shenanigans all come together in a shocking conclusion. VERDICT Harper is a good copper; he wants justice, but sometimes he is forced to seek it in slightly unethical ways. As an industrial hub, Leeds drew immigrants from all parts of the British Empire, making for a riveting historical setting. Readers of Iain Pears and Will Thomas will enjoy this Victorian series.

Library Journal

2015-12-23
Suffragettes and serial killers have the populace of Victorian Leeds on edge. Apart from losing his hearing in one ear, DI Tom Harper, a successful police officer, and his wife, Annabelle, the ambitious owner of a public house and three bakeries, seem to have little to fear. Unlike other men who feel threatened by women getting any power, he supports Annabelle's interest in the Leeds Suffragist Society. Their calm is shattered when two nasty cases arrive on Harper's desk. One involves a newborn baby found dead in a parcel posted to an undeliverable address and the other, the body of a badly burned woman who's been stabbed to death in the rubble remaining after a massive fire at the train station. Billy Reed, who transferred to the fire service after a disagreement with Harper, is assigned to help his former partner in the fire-related death. At length the woman is identified as Catherine Sugden Carr, a former lady's maid who married the wealthy widower who employed her. He claims she moved out after taking up for women's votes; one of the servants tells the police he beat her. Then Catherine's brother, Stanley Sugden, a former army sniper and scout who's been placed in an insane asylum, escapes and begins killing people. While the whole police force tries to hunt Sugden down, Harper and Reed still must discover who murdered his sister. Not the best of Nickson's Victorian mysteries (Two Bronze Pennies, 2015, etc.) but still full of engaging characters as the author continues to intertwine social problems with murder.

Kirkus Reviews