‘No Precious Truth’ by Chris Nickson

Published by Severn House,
1 April 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-4483-1445-4 (HB)

The story is set in February 1941, when Britain is immersed in the horror and deprivation of war. Cathy Marsden is a police sergeant in Leeds who has been seconded to the SIB, the Special Investigation Branch that focuses on deserters and related crimes on the Home Front. Cathy is the only woman in a squad of tough ex-policemen, who are now part of the military, but she has proved herself and been accepted by all of the men, apart from one chauvinist, who will always snipe at her and try to undermine her. Cathy still feels that she continually needs to prove herself, and the last thing she needs is to find her older brother, Dan, standing in the SIB office. Dan has always been the clever one who put Cathy in the shade, however hard she worked. Cathy had felt pleased when he moved to London to take up a post with the Civil Service, while Cathy stayed on, living with her parents in their modest council house, and working her way up in the police force. Now Dan is back in Leeds and requiring the help of the SIB. He is now working for a new government department, known as the XX (the double cross) Committee, which is part of MI5. The role of this committee is to work on German agents that have been captured and turn them into double agents, then these agents are supposed to feed false information back to the Germans. Dan has returned to Leeds because a Dutch agent that they thought they had successfully ‘turned’ has fooled them. He has escaped from the agents who were monitoring him and has disappeared. MI5 has information that the spy, Jan Minuet, is heading to Leeds, a city he had visited before the war, and he has got maximum destruction on his mind.

MI5 are short of men, and they need the SIB to work with Dan, in order to catch Minuet before he causes irreparable destruction. They start by checking out the most likely targets for sabotage and use the army to increase their security. They also give out pictures of Minuet to all the places where he may be looking for somewhere to stay. Most taxing of all, they have to hunt down the criminals who are also traitors, who are aiding Minuet. The hunt is gruelling, dangerous, and is made even more exhausting because of nights broken by air raids, and the tension that continues to mount. Worst of all, it is bitterly frustrating, because Minuet always seems to be one step ahead of them, and his methods for dealing with anybody who gets in his way are ruthless and violent. For the first time in her life, Cathy begins to get to know her brother and understand the strain it has been for a working class boy from Leeds to try to fit in with his new public school colleagues. However, this crisis involves more desperate consequences than the destruction of Dan’s career. This dangerous and cunning spy could deal a serious blow to the British war effort, and Cathy and her colleagues must track him down and stop him, whatever the risk to their own lives.

No Precious Truth is the first book in a new series featuring Cathy Marsden. It is a compelling read, with a perfectly paced, tense plot, and engaging, believable characters. The historical details are beautifully observed and skilfully inserted, bringing alive the deprivation and tension of the Second World War. This is a page-turner, which I thoroughly recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron

 

Chris Nickson was born and raised in Leeds. He is the author of historical mysteries set in Leeds. The Richard Nottingham books are set in the 1730’s. The books are about more than murder. They're about the people of Leeds and the way life was - which mean full of grinding poverty for all but the wealthy. They're also about families, Nottingham and his and Sedgwick, and the way relationships grow and change, as well as the politics, when there was one law for the rich, and another, much more brutal, for everyone else. Chris has penned a further six series, and to date has published 37 books. For full details visit his web site. In addition to this Chris is also a music journalist, reviewing for magazines and online outlets

http://chrisnickson.co.uk/  

Carol Westron is a Golden Age expert who has written many articles on the subject and given papers at several conferences. She is the author of several series: contemporary detective stories and police procedurals, comedy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries. Her most recent publications are Paddling in the Dead Sea and Delivering Lazarus, books 2 and 3 of the Galmouth Mysteries, the series which began with The Fragility of Poppies. 

www.carolwestron.com