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[[Category:New Reviews|Crime (Historical)]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Wilson0571370977|title= A Talent for MurderThe Lock-Up|author=John Banville|rating=4.5|genre= Crime (Historical)|summary= Agatha Christie wrote some tantalising crime thrillers back in her day, and here Andrew Wilson makes her a victim to a plot not unlike one of her own. It's all six months since the dramatic events which we read about the mysteryin [[April in Spain by John Banville|April in Spain]] and Dr Quirke is now back in Dublin and living (if somewhat uneasily) with his daughter, Phoebe. The worst of his grief is over but he irrationally blames DI St John Strafford for what happened and it really drives this has made the story forwardalready strained relationship between them more difficult. Agatha is ambushed They're brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the body of a strange man at the train station; she young, Jewish scholar, Rosa Jacobs, is given found in a proposition that confuses her and secretly intrigues herlock-up. Indeed At first, for this man wants her to commit a it looked as though she'd gassed herself but Quirke is convinced that it was murderrather than suicide. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471148211</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Martin Edwards (editor)1529337968|title= Continental CrimesIn Place of Fear|author=Catriona McPherson|rating= 45

|summary=It's not clear whether July 1948 and Helen Crowther is due to start work as a qualified medical almoner the following morning - on the short story has gone out of fashion, relegated to day that the pages of certain types of womenNHS is born. She's magazines, or whether the magazines ll be working for Dr Deuchar and Dr Strasser in their GP surgery and her job will be to help patients with those non-medical problems which affect their health. The hardest part of the format still holds its own job will be to persuade people that the services she offers really are themselves not as high-profile as once free and that they might don't have been. Perhaps they never were, perhaps we only know about to do anything to qualify for them in retrospect. Whatever the truth of that it would seem that the golden age Some of the short story, coincided delightfully with the golden age problems will require delicate handling but Helen has a problem of crimeher own which might give her some insight. Her marriage has never been consummated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356797</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Philip Kerr057136358X|title= Prussian Blue: Bernie Gunther Thriller 12April in Spain|author=John Banville|rating= 3.5|genre= Crime (Historical) |summary= Bernie Gunther is not your typical hero. In 1939Terry Tice was a hitman, although he was stationed didn't think of himself in Berlin as a police officer handling murder cases and occasionally doing work for some high-ranking Nazisthose terms. Although never a Nazi party member himself ( He saw what he was did as ''a known member matter of making things tidy''. I couldn't resist the Social Democratic Party), he understood thought that the best thing he could do for himself at that time was an extreme version of Marie Kondo. He enjoyed his job, something which occurred to make himself indispensable to men like Reinhard Heydrich and Martin Bormann. So him when he is assigned to solve a murder that has occurred at Hitler's Berghof was in Burma with the Bavarian mountains, army ''where he knows that he needs got the chance to do it quickly kill a lot of the little yellow fellows and discreetly – not just for justicehad a fine old time''s sake, but for his own. He is given exactly one week to apprehend the suspect, and he hopes that was spending a lot of time with Percy Antrobus - who couldn't understand why Terry didn't know the help purpose of his friend Friedrich Korsch, an investigator a swizzle stick - surely he wouldn't drink champagne with bubbles in the Krimialpolizei (or Kripo, for short) ''morning''? It was after Percy's death that he just might get luckysaw the benefits of taking up a job in Spain. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784296481</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Alis HawkinsB08Z8BMZ7H|title= None So Blind|rating= 5|genre= Crime (Historical)|summary=When a body is accidentally uncovered nearby in 1850, Harry Probert-Lloyd the London barrister has recently returned to his father's house in West Wales due to deteriorating sight. That means Harry is on hand to press for justice, since he knows whose remains they must be. Unfortunately he's up against a few formidable opponents from the past, not least the Rebecca rioters, members of an illegal group from a few years earlier, and officially it looks like justice might not be on the cards. With the assistance of a local clerk, John Davies, Harry takes up the investigation himself, but it seems like both The Mystery of them know more than they are willing to admit. Will the outcome be worth stirring up all those secrets for?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911332112</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewHealing|author=Gavin Scott|title=The Age of Olympus (Duncan Forrester Mystery 2)A P McGrath

|summary=Whilst part We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of an SOE mission to kidnap a German commander in Greece during the war, Duncan Forrester came across an ancient Cretan stone, which common era and he hoped could lead to 's the physician on duty at the munus - the games put on for the deciphering amusement of Linear Bthe populace. The war is now officially over (although remuneration isn't high but the work gives the doctor a lot feeling of people are still fighting it, mentally if not physically) virtue and Forrester has returned to Athens with hones his lover, Sophie Amfeldt-Laurvig, intent on getting skills: Solon ''wants'' the necessary permissions warriors to go to Crete and retrieve the stonelive. It was whilst 's quite a spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see them, they were in Athens that Forrester was 're sprinkling gold dust onto the unwitting witness lions' manes to make them look more impressive. The sagitarii are the poisoning of a Greek poet archers and where he found himself pursued by a man wearing a mask. Strange as all this might seem, Forrester is convinced that the poet was not beastiarii are the intended victim: it should have been a general condemned criminals who has been approached are going to lead ELAS, fight for their lives with the military arm of the Greek communistswild animals. HeToday, it's the sort of charismatic man who could sway a lot of people to follow him adn that would mean certain warcrocodiles.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783297824</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Kennedy1529337925|title=A Time to Tell Lies|rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical) |summary= Psychologist Alan Kennedy's fifth novel continues the story he began with [[Lucy by Alan Kennedy]]. In the autumn of 1942, Captain Alex Vere and Justine Perry are among the men and women picked up and taken to a stately home in Scotland, where they are trained in spy skills. After this first encounter, Alex is smitten yet uncertain if he will ever see Justine again. The spy's life is dangerous and unpredictable, after all. Six weeks later, though, they meet up again in southwest France, where they have been sent to collect Simone, a Special Operations Executive agent. It's Alex's first mission Mirror Dance (Justine's fourthDandy Gilver) and all goes horribly awry. Alex ends up in custody at the Gendarmerie, facing a German who knows he has a false passport.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993202322</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Lois Austen-Leigh|title= The Incredible Crime|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime (Historical)|summary= Prudence Pinsent flings her novel across the room. ''Unutterable bilge'' is her description of the typical country house murder mystery of romantic novels. The deliberate irony of this is that ''The Incredible Crime'' is precisely one such novel. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356029</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Helen Dunmore|title=Birdcage Walk|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Bristol 1792: Lizzie married well. John Diner Tredevant is a property developer who has reached the zenith of his life's work: building a terrace of prestigious houses overlooking the Avon Gorge. In a time of turbulence as France reaches the dawn of revolution, Britain, including Diner, fears it may spread. This puts Lizzie in a difficult position since her mother and step-father both believe in propagating pamphlets and ideas of egalitarianism for and to all, including women. In other words, they think nothing of spreading ideas of the sort that fanned the French flames. However, that's not Lizzie's only problem… there is a darkness in her husband's past of which she's unaware.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091959403</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Lindsey Davis|title= The Third Nero|rating= 5|genre= Crime (Historical)|summary= Lindsey Davis is one clever lady. Having enthralled readers for years with the adventures of Marcus Didius Falco, the Ancient Roman informer (or, to put it in more modern terms, private eye) she sustains our interest by allowing Falco to take a well-deserved and politically strategic retirement while his adopted daughter Albia takes over the family business. Her wit is dry as dust, she has a highly desirable (well, he's called Manlius: what else could he be?) love-interest and as a Briton, her take on Roman bureaucracy and pettifogging officialdom is just as sharp and funny as her cynical dad's ever was. A new main character, a new way of doing things, which somehow manages to retain all the best elements of the original Falco. Genius.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473613426</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|title=Retribution RoadCatriona McPherson

|genre=Crime (Historical Fiction )|summary=''Sergeant Bowman It was the August Bank Holiday weekend and, as so often happened, it was cold enough to have the fire lit and Bunty the Dalmation wasn't just a hard man, he was something else: a dangerous maninclined to leave it to keep Dandy Gilver warm on the sofa.'' If, indeed, there The thought of work was someone who was ideal for a suicide mission, it was himalmost cheering when Dandy took the call from Sandy Bissett in Dundee. Working as She was the publisher of a soldier for magazine and had been told that the man running the East India Company Punch and Judy show in the rural, remote, outlaw hotbeds local park had used copies of Asia in the 1850s, he's tasked with taking a boat two of unknown prospects her cartoon characters - Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to drum up the Irrawaddy to try and combat some local warlord Pagan Mininterest in his show. It doesn't go well – to start with, he Sandy Bissett's supposed request was simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to run warn the rule over ruffians saved from the gallows, but can't command them until he's forced his way man about infringement of copyright - and Dandy and Alex would be cheaper than employing a solicitor to having the knowledge of do the mission he needs first, only for all hell to break loosesame job. But get back he does, only to find that while his nightmares about what really happened are met with equally dark goings-on, the official record suggests the mission never actually existed…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857053744</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rory ClementsB08LKT7HSR|title=CorpusMurder in the Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery)|author=Helena Dixon|rating=3.5

|summary=A suicidal overdose and In December 1933 the remains of Elowed Underhay were discovered in the cellar of the Glass Bottle Public House. Ezekiel Hamett was sought in connection with the murder of upper class Cecil Langley Elowed and his wife are two events that may be unconnectedhalf-brother, Denzil Hammett, whose body was also discovered. However this is England in 1936Kitty Underhay's long search for her mother, a magnet for opposing forces and their first moves who disappeared in preparation for the coming conflict, assisted or prevented by a royal crisis (depending on which side you're on)June 1916 was over. Cambridge history professor Tom Wilde may fall into Now she's determined that the middle of this accidentally man responsible for her murder will be brought to begin with but his curiosity has been piqued enough to ensure he's not walking awayjustice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762613</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian RossStephen Clarke|title=The Mask of Command (Twilight of Empire)Spy Who Inspired Me|rating=54|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary= Warning: spoilers ahead This is a spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. But it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 'likes the ladies' and who works for previous books in the series. 305AD: Castus Aureliussecret service, following but in the death of his predecessor, has been promoted to commander (or vir perfecctissiums) planning side of things more than the Roman forces at the Rhineactive service. He's also been ordered to take CrispusLemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, Constantine's son and heirthe pair end up stranded in Normandy, for with Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the character-building experience. That complicates matters as when Castus isn't resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to keep Crispus alive, he's finding it difficult to increase his own chance of survival, especially considering how the last Rhine commander met his end.up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784975257</amazonuk>2952163855

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graham Hurley0349423083|title=Finisterre|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=The Second World War is almost lost but in a last, desperate roll of the dice the German High command launch Operation Finisterre. In America the apparent suicide of a scientist working on the atom bomb Death and off the coast of Spain the shipwreck of a German submarine, become catalysts as the plans spiral out of control, leading to a shattering climax. 'Finisterre' is a crime thriller packed with grit, suspense and style.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784977810</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewBrewery Queen (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)|author=Shirley McKay|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)Frances Brody

|summary=A lot of crime happens Kate Shackleton runs her investigation agency from Batswing Cottage, ably assisted by Jim Sykes, who lives in St Andrews during 1588 Woodhouse and therefore her housekeeper, Mrs Sugden. She's been approached by William Lofthouse of the Barleycorn Brewery in the life of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen tooMasham. As we travel through the year Something is going wrong with him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother in law Giles business and he'd like Kate to look into it discreetly: he's hoping that his sister Megnephew and right-hand man, the wise womanJames Lofthouse, we also encounter some of his most interesting caseswill be back from a trip to Germany before long. In fact there's one James went to match each of see what the year's big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas continental brewers were doing and Yulewhat changes Barleycorn might need to make.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Erle Stanley Gardner|title= The Knife Slipped|rating= 5|genre= Crime |summary= Before we begin, I must confess. Confess William is worried that I am a hardboiled noir addict. Therefore, I approach each grisly tale of murder, private detectives and femme fatales with James is perhaps enjoying himself a sense of wonder but also scepticism. little bit ''Surelytoo'', I think much or is going to bring back a German bride but he''this one can't be as good as the last, it must have flaws, poor characters and lack d like the necessary grit business to be a true hardboiled noir masterpiece?'' so you can imagine my trepidation when opening the Knife Slipped. I was wrong, wonderfully wrongship-shape before his nephew returns. This book for me is the essence of the hardboiled noir genre and E.S. Gardner is a marvel. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783299274</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Wray Delaney0241433568|title=An Almond for a Parrot|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=It was when Tully gained a step-mother that her education really started. That was the beginning of the road to discovery. The discovery that she can realise ghosts for others, that she can escape the cruelty of an alcoholic father and the discovery of the income and pleasure her body can generate. That, in turn, leads to the rather classy Fairy House brothel and, now, the condemned cell in Newgate Prison. As she awaits her fate, Tully writes her autobiography ''An Almond for a Parrot'' and allows us to read over her shoulder.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000818254X</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewEight Detectives|author=S G Maclean|title=The Black Friar: Damian Seeker 2Alex Pavesi

|summary=When a dead monk is discovered walled into a disused monastery the local gossip is awash It's 1930 and Megan and Henry are staying with remarks on the miracle of Bunny at his well-preserved body all these years after the monastery was abandonedhouse in Spain. Investigator It's unbearably hot and Captain of CromwellBunny drank too much at lunch: he's guard Damian Seeker has other ideas. This is going to have a recent non-clergy deathrest and then he wants to talk to Megan and Henry about something serious. This is Carter Blyth, a man on such a secret mission Only it never gets that even Cromwell didnfar: when Bunny doesn't know about itemerge after his siesta his guests find that he's been murdered. This will add complications to the already convoluted and dangerous path How can that Seeker will take to solve have happened? There's no one else in the crimehouse, so one of them must be the complications being very close to homekiller.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782068449</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= M J Carter1473682401|title=The Devil's FeastTurning Tide (Dandy Gilver)|author=Catriona McPherson|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime (Historical)|summary=London, Those who were with us at the early 1840s: the newly-opened Reform Club end of [[A Step So Grave (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson|A Step So Grave]] will remember that Donald was engaged to Mallory Dunnoch. They're now married and Mallory is having twins. When they arrive no one can doubt the focal point for the Liberal elitecharms of Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and her brother, where Whigs Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. There are two drawbacks: they're noisy and Radicals can co-exist in harmonythey're staying with Dandy and Hugh. Or such was the intention. With a celebrity chef in its up to the minute kitchen Dandy and her detective partner, howeverAlec Osborne, had not taken up the club seems chance to have more of look into a reputation for its dinners than its politics, and when a man dies horribly after eating one problem at the Reform could have a problem on its hands. Particularly Cramond ferry when it begins was offered to look like murder. Luckily William Avery agrees to look into the matter with some urgencythem twice before, but – as everyone keeps asking him – where on earth is his professional investigator friend Jeremiah Blake?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241146364</amazonuk>suddenly the possibility of being out of the house at Gilverton seems irresistible.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= George Mann Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (Editortranslator)|title= Associates of Sherlock HolmesThe Honjin Murders|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime (Historical)|summary=The world-famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes needs no introductionTo many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; a redoubtable protagonist with an appeal that shows no sign of waning. preferably quantified by the words 'clever'Associates of Sherlock Holmes,or 'good' however. For those who need more, moves here is the spotlight away from our hero and focuses on extra background – we're in rural Japan in the exploits of some 1930s. The oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, although the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thing. Either way, the minor players who celebrations have featured gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in his adventures over their private annexe before the yearssun rises on their marriage. Here we get What with a chance to reacquaint ourselves with friends man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and foes alikesome mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, all keen to give their own, unique perspective this case has a lot of the indomitable investigatorpeculiar about it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783299304</amazonuk>1782275002

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lindsey DavisB07XLM3SM6|title= The Graveyard of Murder at the Hesperides|rating= 5|genre= Crime (Historical)|summary= Our heroine Albia's grey-eyed and broad-shouldered love interest in this, the fourth of the Falco New Generation crime novels (Falco himself has got on the wrong side of Emperor Domitian, and has very sensibly retired to the coast) is called Manlius – that alone should be enough to tell you reams about the wickedly sly sense of humour Ms Davis displays in her novels. The setting is once again Ancient Rome, and Ms Davis provides enough local colour to create a world so convincing you could almost be there. In fact, the descriptions are so vivid that, as you pull in your skirts or bewail the fate of your brand-new sandals to follow our gutsy heroine into picturesque slums like the Brown Toad bar or Mucky Mule Mews, you could be forgiven for suspecting you've wandered into somewhere far more familiar, like, say, the back streets of Brum.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473613396</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewDolphin Hotel|author=Frances Brody|title=Death at the SeasideHelena Dixon

|summary=Kate Shackleton felt Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care of her grandmother. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and the conclusion was that she needed a holiday and since it was August when ''nothing'' ever happeneddead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she decided that it was running the ideal time Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to visit leave to look after her friend Alma and goddaughter Felicity in Whitbysister who was ill. The timing was good too - Mrs Sugden She was going reluctant to visit her cousin leave Kitty in Scarborough charge - and Kitty could not understand why. She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and Jim Sykes was taking his family to Robin Hoodthe naval college on the edge of town before - and she's Baydone every job in the hotel. Perfect! Well, it would And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been except for a couple roped in to keep an eye on things ''and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of things..security at the hotel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349406588</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Francis Duncan0349423067|title= Behold A Fair Woman|rating= 3|genre= Crime The Body on the Train (HistoricalKate Shackleton Mysteries)|summary= Mordecai Tremaine is in need of a holiday. According to the blurb ''the island of Moulin d'Or seems to be just the destination'' – except the island isn't called that. Moulin d'Or is the district in the north west of the unnamed Channel Isle to which our hero has been invited by some friends of less than a year's standing: an unlikely start in itself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784704849</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=J D Davies|title=Death's Bright Angel (Matthew Quinton’s Journals 6)Frances Brody|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Captain Sir Matthew Quinton of King Charles II's navy sets out for another day at work. He and his men are charged with helping to subdue the Dutch town of Westerschelling. It's only afterwards that the true consequences hit him, along with some other consequences that are and will be open to conjecture4. For the year is 1666 and London is about to face a disaster that will be discussed and theorised over for centuries… Fire!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910400467</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Antonia Hodgson|title=A Death at Fountains Abbey (Thomas Hawkins 3)|rating=5

|summary=John Aislabie thinks that Thomas Hawkins has arrived at Aislabie's country mansion From Christmas to Easter a train ran from Leeds City Station to investigate murder threats. ThatKing's part of Cross, arriving before dawn so that the forced rhubarb it but Thomas' main reason is carried could be taken to carry out a command from Queen Caroline connected to the recent South Sea Bubble scandalCovent Garden. The command was phrased nicely enoughIn early March 1929, but one of the sinister intent porters who was clear: Tom's failure or refusal unloading the boxes discovered the body of a man, stripped naked and with no means loss of Kitty, identification. Scotland Yard hit a dead end and called on the services of Kate Shackleton in the person he loves most hope that her knowledge and connections in Yorkshire would give them the worldlead they needed. Those Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child and could not come to terms with the fact that she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murder threats are a little concerning though…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473615097</amazonuk>. He was reluctant to give her all the information which the police held.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anna Mazzola1472127110|title=The UnseeingIndian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery|author=Sara Sheridan|rating=4.5

|summary=1837: Sarah Gale is found guilty of aiding and abetting James Greenwood in Life has changed dramatically for Mirabelle, our favourite fifties sleuth, since the murder of Hannahwar, his fiancée. It's particularly gruesome as the body was brutally dismembered and left in various locations around London. Bound not always for the gallows better. When she first settled in Brighton she was alone, rudderless and fearing secretly grieving for Jack, the future of her young son Georgelover who died before he could leave his wife. As time went by she found in herself an ability to solve crimes, Sarah petitions for mercy from the Home Office made friends including an ebullient and, as determined young woman called Vesta who refused to let a resultlittle thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what she wanted, the Home Secretary appoints barrister Edmund Fleetwood to re-investigate the case. Edmund approaches it with an open mind but nothing prepares him for what he'll discover and not just even found consolation in the professional realmarms of a rather charming policeman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472234731</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= William Sutton1912374439|title= Lawless and the Flowers of SinThe Courier|ratingauthor= 4|genre= Crime Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (Historicaltranslator)|summaryrating= Much of this book centres on, as we are accustomed to in tales of Victorian London, dastardly deeds done on a foggy night. Indeed the fog runs thick through this novel, draping the seedy events in a soupy broth of vice. Our hero, Lawless, rather ironically, is that most rare of birds, an honest detective, although as we learn he, himself, is not without his vices. What becomes clear however is that he is something of a social crusader when his eyes are opened to the misery and degradation faced by 'fallen' women. At its heart, the Flowers of Sin is a detective story, with Lawless given an impossible task to complete alongside solving a seemingly impossible crime. Along the way he meets a rag tag bunch of misfits who help, hurt and hinder our hero. There is romance and intrigue along the way as well as a sensational public trial, murder and episodes of mayhem3. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785650114</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Cecilia Ekback|title=In the Month of the Midnight Sun|rating=5

|summary=1856Nazi-occupied Oslo, Blackasen Village1942. There, I've given the game away. For in a book that centres around a murder, Sweden: A Lapp sits surrounded by three dead bodies I've told you who did it – the vicarNazis, surely? Well, that certainly has to remain to be seen in this volume, a constable and which splits its time between one other. The murders coincide with the arrival of Magnus Lillewar, when a geologist sent by the Swedish government young woman sees her father arrested, and their store condemned as Jewish and rushes to her best friend to map help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, and the mountain that gives the village its namelate 1960s, when great consternation is being felt. Magnus doesn't realise what he's walking into as up till now he thought his main problem was his sister-In this timeline, a maverick agent is back in-lawtown, brought with him at his wife's father's, (the Minister one who might have been fingered for State's)murdering that female victim, insistence. The events that will take place will cause them both sleepless nights even though she and he lived together with their baby as a real chance that neither will live young family, except he was thought by all to go home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444789937</amazonuk>have died in the War…

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Susanna Gregory1786075431|title=A Grave Concern: The Twenty Second Chronicle of Matthew BartholomewMrs Mohr Goes Missing|author=Maryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)|rating=43.5

|summary=Chancellor Tynkell was kindlyMeet Zofia. A socially climbing wife of a medical professor, she's intent on making herself known as a charitable lady, but ineffectual and everyone was stunned by keen on her husband progressing yet through his murderesteemed career. In 1890s Cracow, not least because life is pretty good, but she knows it happened very publicly - on top of the church towercould always be better. Meanwhile, in a high wind with a lot of other people watching. Then 's life could certainly be better – cholera is nearing the murderer disappeared. Some city due to lack of hygiene, and many people saw a black cloak being blown along have to the marshes outside Cambridge fall on charity and swore that it almshouses to keep a roof over their heads. One such was the devil's workMrs Mohr, but physician Matthew Bartholomew although she was rich enough to keep private lodgings and Brother Michael knew better and were determined to prove itstaff in her charitable home. These are not BartholomewI say ''s only problems though: a was'barber surgeon' (free shave or haircut with every treatment) recently arrived from Nottingham is causing problems rather than curing illnesses, for she has vanished. His sister is struggling Only due to get her husbandZofia's tomb built by the mason help does she commissioned to do get found, dead and in a place the work: like builders everywhere throughout the ages he keeps moving from job to job and near-lame woman could never finishing anyreach by herself. Then Brother Michael is offered Just who could be killing people in a charity home, and to what end? And why does Zofia feel the need to make a Bishopric - in Rochester.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751549797</amazonuk>name for herself by answering those questions?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Bonnie MacBird1786893762|title= Art Things in the Blood: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure|rating= 4|genre= Crime (Historical) |summary= It's the winter of 1888 and Sherlock Holmes is languishing. After a devastating result concerning the mysterious Ripper investigation, Holmes can find no solace and falls back in to his troublesome relationship with cocaine. Not even his good friend Doctor Watson can cheer him – that is until an encoded letter arrives from Paris from a young French cabaret star who claims her son has vanished. Intrigued, Holmes explores the case only to uncover that the disappearance of a young boy is only the tip of the iceberg. Journeying to Paris and then to the Lancashire countryside, Holmes and Watson become involved in a dangerous investigation, concerning a prized stolen statue, child slavery, and murder – but who is the culprit behind it all?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000812969X</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewJars|author=CC Humphreys|title=FireJess Kidd

|summary=Puritan/former Roundhead Pitman A child has gone missing. The detective asked to take on the case is still struggling with the shame and former highwayman/Cavalier Captain William Coke have formed frustration left by a deep respect previous case, where the child was not found in time. Hardly original themes for each othera private eye thriller. And yet . . . Their first mission was to track down take another look. This detective is a woman, and the Fifth Monarchistssetting is Victorian London, an organisation out to avenge those who were found guilty with all the rich and colourful paradoxes of that era: technical and hanged scientific progress jostling for signing Charles Ispace beside superstition and a fascination with the bizarre and the downright hideous. And before you're more than a couple of pages in, you realise just how much more unusual our heroine is than you expected. Bridie Devine may dress in half-mourning, with a widow's death warrant. That was thencap and stout, during the Great Plague. A mere year latershiny boots, the Plague has lessened but the Fifth Monarchists are backtobacco she smokes in her pipe (my dear, taking Pitmanwhat an utterly ''fast'' thing for a lady to do!) is mixed with a nugget of something, well, let's and Cokesay recreational, created by her chemist friend Prudhoe. The fact that it's interventions personallyactually meant to cure bronchial problems is by the by. We therefore find our heroes defending themselvesHer housemaid, their familiesbeing seven-foot-tall, is also somewhat remarkable. And then, of course, there's the monarchghost. Ruby Doyle, world-famous tattooed boxer (deceased) accompanies Bridie all through her investigation, andit's clear he has a soft spot for the determined young woman. If he really exists, on top of that, a new disaster is about to hit the capital. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780891458</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Indrek Hargla and Christopher Moseley (translator)0349414327|title= Apothecary Melchior and the Ghost A Snapshot of Rataskaevu Street|rating= 5|genre= Crime Murder (HistoricalKate Shackleton Mysteries)|summary=In fifteenth century Tallinn religion and superstition sit side by side. In the midst of this is scientifically-minded apothecary Melchior Wakenstede, known for his curiosity, logical thinking, and ability to solve murders. There are rumours of a ghost a few doors down from Melchior on Rataskaevu Street, though he's not as ready to believe in it as some of his neighbours. When several people die after saying they'd seen the ghost, Melchior can't resist looking for the connection between them and trying to discover the truth behind the tales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0720618452</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jennifer Donnelly|title=These Shallow GravesFrances Brody|rating=34.5

|summary=Jennifer Donnelly wrote one of my all-time favourite booksEven detectives need a break and for Kate Shackleton, ''A Gathering Light''photography gives her the mental relaxation which she needs. When the local Photographic Society proposed an outing, so I Kate was very excited keen to read her latest novel take the opportunity to visit Haworth and see how Stanbury, not least because the deeds of the Brontë Parsonage are being handed over so that it comparedcan become a museum and her parents will be there for the event. Like ''A Gathering Light'' What could be better than seeing her family, ''These Shallow Graves'' is witnessing a historical novel with a murder mystery at its heart momentous event and a feisty heroine who challenges having the standards opportunity to take photographs of the daysetting for ''Wuthering Heights''? Nothing could go wrong. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471405176</amazonuk> Or could it?