"No Precious Truth"

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!

Nickson applied the Page 69 Test to No Precious Truth and reported the following:

Does page 69 of No Precious Truth tell us much about the book?

It does, because it contains an important break for the Leeds squad of the Special Investigation Branch in their hunt for Jan Minuit, an escaped German spy in 1941.

After a nightclub raid, Sergeant Cathy Marsden, a female police officer second to the SIB, is questioning the female employees who’ve been brought in, and one of them reveals something important:

Finally Cathy passed her the photograph of Minuit.

‘What about him, Evelyn? Has he been around at all?’

Evelyn stared at it for a long time. ‘Someone who looked like him. I think it was Tuesday night. As soon as he came in, Mr Rawlings took him into the back.’

Cathy felt goose pimples rise along her arms, pulse beating faster.

‘How sure are you?’ She tried to tamp down the urgency in her voice.

‘He looked like that picture. Nice-looking bloke. Big.’ That sounded like a match.

‘What was he wearing?’

‘A suit.’ The girl thought, then blinked. ‘I remember I was surprised he didn’t have a coat or hat because it was perishing out.’

‘Did you see him again?’

She shook her head. ‘Never thought about it. People came in and I was busy. Why, who is he?’

‘Someone we want to find.’

They had a real sniff of him now, beyond any doubt.

‘You’re a minor,’ Cathy said as she finished. ‘Under twenty-one. I can’t just let you go. Do you live with your parents?’

A nod. ‘Me mam. Worse bloody luck.’

‘I’ll have someone escort you home.’

It pushes the plot along, a real sign that Minuit is in Leeds, and it offers and insight into Cathy, the sharp question and observation, drawing Evelyn out. While it doesn’t reveal everything, it offers a glimpse and starts to draws the reader into the wartime world of No Precious Truth.

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--Marshal Zeringue