LS92

by Billy Morris

Two years have passed, but the events of Bournemouth 90 continue to cast a dark shadow over the lives of everyone who travelled south on that hot Bank Holiday weekend.

Max Jackson is out of jail and trying to re-establish himself in a Leeds underworld being torn apart by gangland warfare. The Yardsley brothers are still paying the price for their actions, with the spectre of Alan Connolly continuing to haunt them. At Millgarth, Sergeant Andy Barton finds himself in the limelight after Bournemouth, but terrace culture is changing, and police intelligence is struggling to adapt to the new normal of the nineties.

At Elland Road, a resurgent United are heading towards their first league title in eighteen years, but a disturbing, malevolent force is threatening to gatecrash the champions' victory party.

Old scores are settled and new ones imagined, as the climax to the title showdown becomes a deadly quest for vengeance, forgiveness and redemption. LS92. Dark crime fiction from a time when it was still grim up north.

178 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 26, 2022

About the author

Billy Morris was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1966. He left Leeds in the late 1990's and has lived and worked in Europe and USA. He now lives mainly in South East Asia with regular visits back to Yorkshire.

Four of Morris's books form the 'Eighties Leeds' series, LS65, Paris75, Bournemouth90 and LS92 span the period from 1965 to 1992, a period which saw profound changes for the city of Leeds, its football team and its fashion and cultures. The books are all standalone stories but are linked by people and places and the common themes of a gritty Northern English underworld, pubs, music and football.

'Birdsong on Holbeck Moor' is Morris's first standalone story, set during the tumultuous period at the end of World War 1. The Leeds Pals have been decimated at the Somme and the soldiers who survived return to find a city in the grip of a global pandemic, with food rationing, unemployment and a football team facing expulsion from the league due to financial irregularities during the war years. Throw in an unhealthy dose of corruption, inter-city gang wars and witchcraft and you have the makings of a dark, gritty, Edwardian thriller.

Morris's 6th book, Spotter, published in April 2025, moves into the new millenium, but follows the same gritty fact-meets-fiction formula of his previous work. It's April 2001. The city of Leeds is reinventing itself as an economic powerhouse, and David O'Leary's young United side are conquering Europe in the champions league. For PC Charlie Mills it couldn't be better time to return to his home town as Leeds' football intelligence 'spotter.' But Charlie and the city have a dark history and when a local gang leader is released from prison to unleash a reign of terror, Charlie is forced to revisit his past and question whose side he's on… and try to remember who he really is.

Nineteen85 was released in Nov 2025. The latest story is set against the usual football background with Leeds United languishing in the second division, in a decaying stadium plagued by the worst hooligans in the country. Adversity represents opportunity for 3 men - a politician, a tabloid reporter and a local crime boss who wants to own a football club. 3 men trying to manage a situation which is spiralling out of control in an era of greed, power and corruption.

Morris's latest book 4-56 was released in June 2026. t's April 1956. Ronnie Clegg is living his life in two worlds. A teenage existence of rock and roll music, juke boxes and dance halls, drape jackets and brothel creeper shoes, collides with his day-job in a vicious Leeds underworld being fuelled by a ready supply of post-war weaponry.
At Elland Road, a United team led by inspirational captain John Charles, are making an unexpected late surge for promotion which looked impossible just a month ago, and must now be prevented.Ronnie Clegg is in the eye of a storm of his own making, and survival becomes a deadly test of loyalty to his gangland bosses, his own family and the football team he loves.

"If you like dark, urban fiction with a terrace twist, you'll enjoy the journey Billy Morris's books take you on."

Reviews

[Luke White · Rating 5 out of 5]

LS92 is the sequel to Billy Morris's first book Bournemouth90. You really need to read that before LS92 in order to fully appreciate the characters and the storyline. There are some characters who managed to survive the first book, such as the Yardsley brothers, but we find them suffering teh consequences of their actions in Bournemouth. There are also some new characters, particularly Le Renard who looms large over the whole book in frightening fashion. As with Bournemouth90, the storyline covers gangland in the city of Leeds with the backdrop of the City's football team and its supporters. The chapters are short and fast paced, slitting between the viewpoints of the various characters but it flows well and there is none of the confusion you sometimes get in thrillers describing multiple viewpoints. You're kept guessing right to the end what is going to happen and as with the first book, fiction is skillfully weaved into a narrative based largely on fact. It's very cleverly done and anyone familiar with British football in the early 90s will recognise the personalities and events described in the closing chapters. This was an entertaining, if often very dark, crime thriller which kept me on the edge of my seat to the final chapter.

[John Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sequel to the excellent Bournemouth 90 sees many of the same characters from the first book, as the name suggests, 2 years on from the original. The events of the first book loom large so you really need to read that first to understand the backdrop to the story. The anti-hero in this book is a psychopathic French hit man with a long standing obsession with (then) Leeds United star Eric Cantona. A job in Leeds is too good an opportunity for him to miss and he's soon causing chaos across the city, terrifying even the tough local gangsters from book 1. The book takes the reader on an explosive rollercoaster ride of violence, against the backdrop of Leeds United's quest to win the league championship. The explosive finale keeps you guessing right to the end. I hope there's another book in the series!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic continuation from Bournemooth 90. Very happy to have come across Billy's work.

[Karl Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed it but you need to read the first book Bournemouth 90 first to understand what's happened before.