The Devil’s Smile with Daniel Sellers

Submitted: 10th August 2025

Yorkshire’s Devil’s Smile

The Devil’s Smile is the second book in the Yorkshire Killings series. It features the two oddly matched heroes of The Lollipop Man and takes place eighteen months later, in the autumn of 1995.

The Lollipop Man was largely set in Calderdale, where I invented a couple of fictional towns in addition to real ones like Hebden Bridge. There were occasional forays into Bradford city centre, Leeds and Huddersfield.

Location map in The Devil’s Smile

The Devil's Smile Daniel Sellers

Media Museum – Bradford city centre

Media Museum(c) Daniel Sellers

The Devil’s Smile takes place largely in Leeds (where I grew up), with a focus on the city centre, It’s here where you will find the gay scene, the goth scene, the university and Hyde Park, where thousands of students lived in rented terraced housing.

Location map in The Devil’s Smile

The Headrow, Leeds (c) Daniel Sellers

The Headrow, the main thoroughfare in Leeds

The story focuses initially on Sheila Hargreaves. She is a TV presenter and co-host of Yorkshire CrimeTime, a programme that follows the format of the BBC’s Crime Watch, but which is focused on Yorkshire. Sheila’s co-host, Tony Tranter, is a nightmare to work with. He’s unreliable, inappropriate and often drunk. Hours before Tony and Sheila are due to ‘go live’, Tony goes missing. Sheila presents the programme on her own, coming off air to learn that Tony has been murdered. His body is found in the sinister Dark Arches, where the River Aire is rerouted under Leeds Central Station.

Location map in The Devil’s Smile

The Dark Arches with rainbow lights (c) Daniel Sellers

The Dark Arches have been gentrified quite a bit over the years, but they’re still very spooky, with shadows and the roars of the water underneath the walkways.

Location map in The Devil’s Smile

The Dark Arches (outside) (c) Daniel Sellers

The novel also follows Adrian Brown, now in his second year at Leeds University. Before the story begins, Adrian has been attacked by a man with a strange smile who drugged his drink during a night out. The attack has affected him deeply and he turns to his old pal Sheila for support.

The gay scene in Leeds is largely in the same place it was in the 1990s, focused around Leeds Bridge and the river.

Location map in The Devil’s Smile

Call Lane at the bottom of Briggate (c) Daniel Sellers

Call Lane at the bottom of Briggate – A view along Call Lane

Did you know that one of the first (if not the first — it’s arguable) films was shot on Leeds Bridge, by Louis Le Prince in 1888? Read about it and watch the clip here.

Location map in The Devil’s Smile

The River Aire from Leeds Bridge (c) Daniel Sellers

Location map in The Devil’s Smile

A view of the River Aire from Leeds Bridge in 2025

Leeds had a thriving Goth scene in the 1980s and 90s, centred around a bar in the basement of the 1960s Merrion Centre called Le Phonographique, often called simply ‘the Phono’. It’s not there any more, but you can see evidence it did indeed exist. Adrian’s friend Gav is a goth and they go to the Phono together.