A Richard Nottingham Mystery Series

A tale of greed, ambition and thwarted love in eighteenth-century Leeds -July, 1732. On a hot summer morning, Richard Nottingham, Constable of Leeds, is called out when a young woman is found stabbed to death among the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey. In her pocket is a love note: "Soon we'll be together and our hearts can sing loud, my love. W." What happened to the maid who accompanied her mistress on her final, fatal journey? Who is the mysteious 'W' who signed the note? Nottingham must delve into the dark secrets of the rich and influential to uncover the truth.

Second in the highly-acclaimed Richard Nottingham historical mystery series 1732. Richard Nottingham, Constable of the City of Leeds, is grieving the death of his daughter, but he must rouse himself from his lethargy when the body of wealthy wool merchant Samuel Graves is discovered, his throat slit, the skin razed from his back. Why would the killer want Graves' skin? When Nottingham receives a slim, bound volume entitled The Journal of a Wronged Man he discovers the shocking answer - and it hurls him into a desperate battle for survival against a ruthless killer with old scores to settle.

With the discovery of a young woman’s charred and blackened body, Richard Nottingham tackles his most disturbing case yet March, 1733. Fire rages through an empty house in a rundown area of Leeds, but the investigation takes a disturbing turn with the discovery of the charred remains of a young woman and her baby amidst the smouldering ruins. Was the fire deliberately started to conceal the woman’s murder? Richard Nottingham’s enquiries into the victim’s identity will lead him from squalid alehouses, prostitutes’ haunts and thieves’ dens to the home of a wealthy wool merchant.

As an atmosphere of fear and suspicion pervades the city, Richard Nottingham and his team find themselves hunting a ruthless child-killer, a monster who preys on abandoned street children, those with no one to care about them, no one to report them missing. The Constable has his suspicions as to who the culprit might be – but how can he prove it when the wealthy and powerful protect their own? He could also do without the interference of the new mayor, who’s taking a close personal interest in the case. Nottingham’s efforts to bring the killer to justice will have tragic consequences for himself and his family.

1734. When a young country lad requests the Constable’s help in finding his sister who has run away to Leeds to seek her fortune, Nottingham is not optimistic. Such girls usually end up as prostitutes – or worse. The following day, the young man is found dead, his throat slit. The evening before his death, the victim had been seen in deep conversation with career criminal Tom Finer in the Bell Inn. Could there be a connection to his murder? Why has Finer returned to Leeds after a seventeen-year absence? And what really happened to the young man’s sister? Then a second body is discovered floating in the River Aire – and Nottingham finds himself plunged into a murder investigation where nothing is as it seems.

Richard Nottingham discovers that a new, more ruthless breed of criminal has colonised the city when he returns as Constable of Leeds. October, 1736. Lured out of retirement to serve as Constable once again, Richard Nottingham finds Leeds very different from the place he remembers. Many newcomers have been attracted by the town?s growing wealth,but although the faces have changed, the crimes remain the same, as Nottingham discovers when a body is found floating in the River Aire, its throat cut. What has changed is the fear that pervades the town. With more bodies emerging and witnesses too frightened to talk, Nottingham realizes he's dealing with a new kind of criminal, someone with no respect for anything or anyone. Someone who believes he's beyond the law; someone willing brutally to destroy anyone who opposes him. To stop him, Nottingham will need to call in old favours, rely on trusted friendships, and seek help from some very unlikely sources.