I have been a huge fan of David Young’s books and absolutely loved his Karin Müller series. I interviewed David back in May 2019 and he mentioned then that he would be starting a new series set in WW2 Hull. So I jumped at the chance of reading and reviewing. Before I give you my thoughts, here’s the blurb.
The Blurb
1942. Hull, East Yorkshire – It is the most heavily-bombed city outside of London – but for the sake of national morale the Hull Blitz is kept top secret. Only the politicians in Whitehall and Hull’s citizens themselves know of the true chaos.
Newly-posted Inspector Ambrose Swift cannot believe the devastation he finds. But for Swift and his two deputies – part-time bare-knuckle boxer Jim ‘Little’ Weighton and Dales farmer’s daughter Kathleen Carver – it’s murder, not the war, that’s at the forefront of their minds.
When a series of sadistic killings is wrongly blamed on locally-stationed black American GIs, Swift, a one-armed former WW1 cavalryman who tours the rubble-strewn city on a white horse, soon discovers these are no ordinary murders. The fetid stench of racism, corruption and perversion go to the very top. And for Swift, Weighton and Carver, finding the real killers means putting their own lives at risk – because powerful forces in the US and Britain cannot let the war effort be undermined. Not even by the truth.
My Review
I enjoy reading historical crime and love WW2 books. A lot of these deal with the actual war, particularly agents abroad. David Young has taken a different tack and given us a new police procedural series set in wartime Hull. Hull was bombed heavily during the war, a fact not mentioned very much. But this novel is less about the wartime effort and more about crime. The ruins of a bombed out house is the perfect place to hide a body.
It often takes a while to settle into a new series but David Young has set up the team beautifully. Detective Inspector Ambrose Swift is ably assisted by Detective Sergeant Jim Weighton, a Hull man whose bulk and local knowledge prove invaluable to his senior officer. In 1942, women in the police force had menial tasks such as typing, filing and making cups of tea. Swift though, appears to be a progressive man, as he can see the potential in Auxiliary Constable Kathleen Carver and encourages her to take a full part in the investigation. Swift is the most intriguing character of all. A former WW1 soldier who lost his arm in action, he’s keen to discover the truth, no matter what the consequences. There’s also a mysterious past from his time in London and I’m looking forward to seeing how that plays out in future stories.
As with his Karin Müller series, David Young has weaved in another historical thread. The full picture doesn’t become clear until near the end. I genuinely wasn’t sure how it was all going to work out. The subtle clues are there but I hadn’t spotted them all. It certainly made for a very interesting story and I’m looking forward to reading more about Detective Inspector Swift and his team.
You can buy Death in Blitz City here or check out your local bookshop.
The Author
East Yorkshire-born David Young began his East German-set crime series on a creative writing MA at London’s City University when Stasi Child – his debut – won the course prize. The novel went on to win the 2016 CWA Historical Dagger, and both it and the 2017 follow-up, Stasi Wolf, were longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. His novels have been sold in eleven territories round the world. Before becoming a full-time author, David was a senior journalist with the BBC’s international radio and TV newsrooms for more than 25 years. You can follow him on Twitter @djy_writer
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