Writers Read: Chris Nickson

Friday, April 10, 2026

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, The Faces Of The Dead, is the second title in his WWII historical thriller series featuring Sergeant Cathy Marsden – a female police officer working for the Special Investigation Branch – who investigates the death of a local gangster in WWII Leeds.

Recently I asked Nickson about what he was reading. His reply:

It seems I'm never reading just one book. There's my entertainment reading downstairs, currently November Road by Lou Berney, a crime novel set in the aftermath of the JFK assassination in 1963, around New Orleans and Texas. Too early to tell where it's going, but he's a good enough writer to keep my interested. Also going through several book on Todmorden, a small town on the border of Yorkshire and Lancashire, as research for a novel I've just begun to write. It's set in 1862, and only a part of the book is set there. I've visited several times and walked the streets, imagining myself back 160 years so I can try and capture the place (even some of the street names have changed!)

Upstairs, a Georgette Heyer I've never read, The Infamous Army, all about Waterloo, and supposedly a little different from her usual romances. I'm a big fan of her writing and her impeccable research, so this should be a joy to discover.