Simon Westow Books in Order

The Simon Westow series is set in Leeds during the 1820s, before a modern police force exists. Simon is a thief-taker, a man paid to recover stolen property for people who can afford his services. It is a useful trade, but an uneasy one. He has to deal with criminals, employers, informers, and powerful people who often expect justice to work only for them.

Simon came from a workhouse background, and he has not forgotten it. His hard-won success gives him more security than he had as a child, but it also leaves him alert to the ways poverty and cruelty can trap people. When cases involve vulnerable children, exploited workers, or families with nowhere else to turn, he is rarely able to walk away.

Jane is at the heart of the series, too.

Simon's young assistant is clever, observant, and dangerous when she needs to be. Once a street child herself, Jane can move through Leeds without attracting notice, hear what others miss, and defend herself in a city where violence is always close. Later books also bring Sally into their small, fiercely loyal circle. Their bond is one of the strongest threads running through the series.

The Leeds of these books is noisy, smoky, and rapidly industrialising. Mills create wealth for a few while working people face injury, hunger, insecure homes, and harsh discipline. Political unrest simmers in the background, and the absence of formal policing means that the rich can often bend the law to suit themselves. Simon's work takes him from respectable homes to taverns, graveyards, workshops, alleys, and the city's most dangerous corners.

Each novel has its own investigation, often beginning with a kidnapping, theft, missing person, or suspicious death. The cases soon reveal larger patterns of abuse, secrets, and social injustice. The series can be grim, with violence and hard truths about the period, but its centre is compassionate. Simon and Jane keep looking for answers because the people harmed by the powerful deserve someone to care.

Expect historical crime with a tough edge rather than a cosy mystery. The action is brisk, the setting is vivid, and the personal histories of Simon and Jane continue to matter from one book to the next. Start with The Hanging Psalm, which introduces Simon, Jane, and the dangerous world they work in.