An introduction to the Henry Christie crime novels of Nick Oldham

I've written seventeen police-based crime novels featuring Henry Christie

The novels have been affectionately described at ‘Blackburn Noir’.  I'm a former Lancashire police officer with thirty years of operational policing,  and the books are are dark, police-based crime stories set in the bleak north-west of England.  At the heart of these novels is Henry Christie.

‘A main character who's both intelligent and appealing’ Emily Melton, Booklist

Henry Christie is the type of tough, caring, no-nonsense copper most of us instinctively imagine an effective policeman should be.  Married with two fast-growing daughters, he’s a working-class northerner through-and-through.  Amongst his troops he commands respect, because they know that when things begin to kick off, he’ll be leading from the front.  He likes to ruffle feathers and has little time for politically-correct edicts from above, or for fast-tracked management-speak bosses who can’t pull their operational weight.

Christie is a perfect balance of brains and brawn.  His cunning detective’s mind is easily the equal of a Morse or a Frost, but it’s backed-up, when needed, by the ‘kick-the-door-down’ attitude of a Jack Regan.  Yet, he’s human and he sometimes makes mistakes - occasionally big ones - and nobody could criticise him more harshly than himself.  Underneath the tough exterior he’s a deeply sensitive individual.  He’s haunted by the nervous breakdown he once suffered after a harrowing incident in which he risked his life pulling school children from a minibus submerged in freezing river.  Even now, it’s a constant struggle to prevent the bleak realities of the job from becoming become too much for him.  However, the job is his life, and he does it to the best of his ability.

Blackpool is the setting for most of the stories.  It’s an unusual but appropriately symbolic backdrop which highlights the underlying themes of the novels; a glitzy tourist veneer masking an underbelly of vice and corruption.  The novels themselves are fast-moving and densely-plotted police procedurals and cover a range of themes and topics.

A list of all the books - in order - together with brief outlines will be posted shortly.