Writers Read: Chris Nickson

Monday, March 24, 2025

Chris Nickson

Chris Nickson is the author of eleven Tom Harper mysteries, eight highly acclaimed novels in the Richard Nottingham series, and seven Simon Westow mysteries.

He is also a well-known music journalist. He lives in his beloved Leeds.

Nickson's new novel, No Precious Truth, is the first title in a brand-new WWII historical thriller series introducing Sergeant Cathy Marsden – a female police officer working for the Special Investigation Branch – who risks her life to protect the city of Leeds from an escaped German spy!

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Nickson's reply:

Over the last several days, I've been re-reading Mick Herron's Slough House series, possibly more widely known as the Slow Horses series on Apple TV. The books are an absolute delight, full of twists and unexpected turns, spy novels that can make you laugh even as they crank up the tension. At the centre is Jackson Lamb, a former crack field agent who now runs his kingdom of agents exiled from the Park – the home of MI5 – for various offences. Lam, a dissolute-looking reprobate who seems to have no redeeming qualities, is still a supremely gifted agent, able to run rings around both opposition and those in charge at home, and his agents prove themselves better than those who were once their colleagues. They're just, you know, damaged.

The books are unapologetically British in their references, and reading one of the books is a rush of adrenaline. Smiley's cold-blooded Circus it's definitely not. This has plenty of unmanaged anger and more than its quota of thrills. A series to drag out every so often and lose yourself inside.