Two Bronze Pennies

by Chris Nickson

Overview

The second intriguing historical mystery to feature Detective Inspector Tom Harper

Leeds, England, Christmas Eve, 1890. DI Tom Harper is looking forward to a well-earned rest. But it’s not to be. A young man has been found stabbed to death in the city’s poverty-stricken Jewish district, his body carefully arranged in the shape of a cross, two bronze pennies covering his eyes. Could someone be pursuing a personal vendetta against the Jews?

Harper’s investigations are hampered by the arrival of Capitaine Bertrand Muyrere of the French police, who has come to Leeds to look into the disappearance of the famous French inventor Louis Le Prince, vanished without trace after boarding a train to Paris.

With no one in the close-knit Jewish community talking to the police and with tensions rising, DI Harper realizes he’ll have to resort to more unorthodox methods in order to unmask the killer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727884916
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	08/01/2015
Series:	A Det. Insp. Tom Harper Mystery , #2
Edition description:	First World Publication
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(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

Editorial Reviews

06/29/2015
Set in 1890, Nickson’s second Insp. Tom Harper novel (after 2014’s Gods of Gold) falls several notches below his best work, notably his 18th-century Richard Nottingham series (Fair and Tender Ladies, etc.). A newly and happily married Harper, who worries that his loss of hearing in one ear may become permanent, is enjoying Christmas Eve with his wife, Annabelle, when he learns that a corpse has been found in a Jewish neighborhood of Leeds. The victim, Abraham Levy, was stabbed multiple times, his body arranged to make the sign of a cross, and his eyes covered with two bronze pennies. The timing of the crime and the staging of the body make local anti-Semites the logical suspects. The investigation Harper launches is pretty straightforward, and the plot is diluted by the gratuitous insertion of another mystery, drawn from real life—the disappearance in France of Louis La Prince, the inventor of motion pictures. Agent: Tina Betts, Andrew Mann (U.K.).

Publishers Weekly

Suspense-filled, tense, and engrossing, Nickson’s latest is a fine read and an excellent addition to the Tom Harper series

Booklist

★ 07/01/2015
It is a bitter and raw Christmastide in 1890s Leeds, England. DI Tom Harper is roused from his warm bed by constables telling him that a young Jewish lad has been stabbed and left posed in the street, with two bronze pennies covering his eyes. No one in the close-knit Jewish community is willing to talk to the officers, and when a second young man is stabbed and displayed in the same manner, Harper and the police force go on high alert for rioting and carnage. Further complicating Harper's life is a visit from a French police officer, investigating the disappearance of a French inventor who was headed to America but never reached his destination. VERDICT Nickson's second historical to feature detective inspector Harper (after Gods of Gold) is a thoroughly enjoyable procedural. Victorian-era Leeds comes alive as an unusual setting against which the sympathetically drawn characters perform their roles. Recommend for anyone who loves Ripper Street on BBC America or Anne Perry's Victorian crime novels.

Library Journal

2015-05-19
The Christmas Eve killing of a Jew exposes the depth of anti-Semitism in 1890s Leeds. DI Tom Harper (Gods of Gold, 2014, etc.) is preparing to enjoy some Christmas leave with his wife, Annabelle, the wealthy, ambitious owner of a pub and several bakeries, when he's called out to a murder in the Leylands section, where a young Jewish man has been found stabbed to death, posed in the shape of a cross, with pennies covering his eyes. Abraham Levy was the nephew of Rabbi Feldman, an honored figure in the Jewish community. But the community's younger men, who were born in England, are inspired by a younger rabbi, who helps them fight for their rights as British citizens—until he becomes the next victim. Harper and his sergeant, Billy Reed, don't have to look very hard to find individuals and groups who think the Jews and the Irish are taking their jobs, and Harper soon identifies some likely suspects. Even one of his old neighbors, always a bully, turns out to be a member of a small cadre led by a mysterious upper-class man who's been free with money to encourage the haters. Despite Harper and Reed's best efforts to uncover his identity, they can identify him only as Alfred, a name assuredly not his own. Going undercover, Reed is badly beaten and left for dead. When the younger men of the Jewish community form a protection group called Golem after the old folk tale, the powers that be fear a powder keg is ready to explode. Desperate for answers, Harper pushes himself and his men beyond his normal code of ethics. Another of Nickson's excellent police procedurals with a social conscience.

Kirkus Reviews