Leeds, 1920. Chief Constable Tom Harper of Leeds City Police has just six weeks left in the role before his well-earned retirement. But even though his distinguished 40-year career is ending, the crime and mayhem on the city’s streets continues.

Council leader Alderman Thompson is being blackmailed. He wants Harper to find the love letters he sent to a young woman called Charlotte Radcliffe and return them discreetly, while elsewhere, masked, armed robbers are targeting jewellery shops in the city, and an organized gang of shoplifters is set to descend on Leeds. As events threaten to spiral out of control, Harper battles to restore justice and order to the streets of Leeds one last time.

The very first review is one, over two months before publication, buy by God, it’s good. From Publishers Weekly in the US, a starred review, which they only give to a few books. They say “It all culminates in a knockout conclusion that showcases Nickson’s unique blend of intricate plotting and well-rounded character development. Series devotees will be thrilled.” Not bad, eh? You can read the whole thing here.

A second review, and another star, unbelievably, this from Kirkus Reviews. It’s all right here, but it starts with a line that I could hardly believe at first, and concludes with something equally wonderful.

“The 11th and final installment of Nickson’s Tom Harper series ties up all the loose ends and breaks your heart…An excellent procedural paints a painfully accurate portrait of dealing with dementia.”

This, from Booklist, is everything a writer could wish for in a review.

“…utterly gripped by a riveting, very human, very heartbreaking story with suspense, fast-paced action, vivid characters, and an unexpected tearjerker of an ending in this last book of Nickson’s magnificent Tom Harper series.”

The Promoting Crime Fiction blog summed up the book and the series like this: “This is a series that I would recommend reading from the beginning and I envy those readers who are about to have the pleasure of discovering it for the first time. Rusted Souls is a thought-provoking, powerful page-turner” – Read it all right here.

The Between the Covers blog offers an absolutely beautiful coda to its review, one that stunned me: “This is a magnificent and poignant end to the finest series of historical crime fiction I have ever read.” Read the entire piece here (and you probably should). 

A towering review from the Morning Star, describing the Tom Harper series as “one of the monuments of historical crime fiction and Rusted Souls as “the best of the lot.”