Difference between revisions of "Newest Crime (Historical) Reviews"

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[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
 
[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= J Jefferson Farjeon
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|isbn=0571370977
|title= Seven Dead
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|title=The Lock-Up
|rating= 4
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|author=John Banville
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Ted Lyte was petty criminal, but not usually the housebreaking type. He lacked the courage. However, needs must, and whilst feeling down on his luck he decided to try his chances at an isolated house with a shuttered window. ''...he might find a bit of alright behind those shutters! Wot abart it?'' Ted does indeed find something interesting behind the shutters, but it definitely isn't what he'd hoped. In a locked room he finds seven dead bodies; six men and a woman. Fleeing the house in horror, he is pursued and caught by a passing yachtsman, Thomas Hazeldean, who also happens to be a journalist. Fascinated by Ted's story (and a possible scoop), Hazeldean decides to investigate this curious case and its assortment of odd clues, including a portrait shot through the heart, an old cricket ball and a mysterious note written by one of the victims.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356886</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Susanna Gregory
 
|title=The Habit of Murder: The Twenty Third Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=It was 1360 and Michaelhouse was in dire financial straits: they could last a little longer but not that longThen it seemed that a lifeline might have been thrown to them when they heard that the wealthy Elizabeth de Burgh of the Suffolk town of Clare was dead and it was possible that The Lady, as she was known, had left them a legacyIt seemed that the best thing to do was to go to Clare to claim the money (or to try and prove that it had been ''intended'' and should therefore be paid) with all haste.  The real mission could be concealed behind the bald statement that they were there to attend the funeral.  Matthew Bartholomew was one of the contingent from Michaelhouse.
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|summary=It's six months since the dramatic events which we read about in [[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 this has made the already strained relationship between them more difficultThey're brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the body of a young, Jewish scholar, Rosa Jacobs, is found in a lock-upAt first, it looked as though she'd gassed herself but Quirke is convinced that it was murder rather than suicide.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751562637</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess
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|isbn=1529337968
|title= The Painted Queen: an Amelia Peabody Mystery
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|title=In Place of Fear
|rating= 4
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|author=Catriona McPherson
|genre= Crime (Historical)
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|rating=5
|summary= Amelia Peabody is a no-nonsense lady who endures all manner of murder attempts, kidnappings and sundry other crimes while on various archaeological digs in Egypt with equanimity and composure. She is either revered or feared (or both) by villains, museum curators, family and workmen alike for her caustic tongue and the steel-reinforced parasol she brandishes at the first sign of danger. And yet, once the evil-doers have been locked up, precious objects returned to their owners and all injuries bandaged, she still insists on all the decorum of the English abroad: formal dress for dinner and only the politest and least contentious topics for dinner-table conversation.  
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|genre=Crime (Historical)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472126823</amazonuk>
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|summary=It's July 1948 and Helen Crowther is due to start work as a qualified medical almoner the following morning - on the day that the NHS is born. She'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 job will be to persuade people that the services she offers really are free and that they don't have to do anything to qualify for them.  Some of the problems will require delicate handling but Helen has a problem of her own which might give her some insight.  Her marriage has never been consummated.
 
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}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Sara Sheridan
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|isbn=057136358X
|title= Operation Goodwood: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery
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|title=April in Spain
|rating= 5
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|author=John Banville
|genre= Crime (Historical)
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|rating=5
|summary= In this, the fifth novel in the Mirabelle Bevan Mystery series, we have reached 1955. There is less emphasis on rationing now: time has moved on from the post-war privations we saw in our first encounter with Mirabelle and her warm, cheery companion Vesta in 1951, a time when tearing a stocking was a disaster of the first order. Various types of prejudice are still rife, however, and Sara Sheridan is a real expert at dropping in that small, lightly sketched detail which tells us we are still in a Britain overshadowed by the aftermath of conflict. A woman who walks alone into a bar will not be served; the British Empire is still front-page news, and the colour of a person's skin is still an almost insurmountable barrier to equality of opportunity.  
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|genre=Crime (Historical)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472122364</amazonuk>
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|summary=Terry Tice was a hitman, although he didn't think of himself in those terms. He saw what he did as ''a matter of making things tidy''.  I couldn't resist the thought that he was an extreme version of Marie Kondo. He enjoyed his job, something which occurred to him when he was in Burma with the army ''where he got the chance to kill a lot of the little yellow fellows and had a fine old time''. He was spending a lot of time with Percy Antrobus - who couldn't understand why Terry didn't know the purpose of a swizzle stick - surely he wouldn't drink champagne with bubbles in the ''morning''?  It was after Percy's death that he saw the benefits of taking up a job in Spain.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= M J Tjia
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|isbn=B08Z8BMZ7H
|title= She Be Damned
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|title=The Mystery of Healing
|rating= 4
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|author=A P McGrath
|genre= Crime (Historical)
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|rating=4
|summary= London, 1863: prostitutes in the Waterloo area are turning up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removed. When another girl goes missing, fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest victim. The police are at a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detective, Heloise Chancey, to investigate. With the assistance of her trusty Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen, Heloise inches closer to the truth. But when Amah is implicated in the brutal plot, Heloise must reconsider whom she can trust, before the killer strikes again.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178507931X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=H B Lyle
 
|title=The Irregular: A Different Class of Spy
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=London 1909: Revolution is spreading throughout Russia and Europe.  Meanwhile Britain, a land growing accustomed to peace, is becoming a magnet for spies and disruption.  Vernon Kell, Head of War Office Counter-Intelligence, knows that the country's equilibrium depends on the discovery and disposal of the growing number of foreign spy networksUnfortunately his masters in government can't see what he can and Kell's own agents are being killed off too fast for him to collect evidenceThat's when he meets WigginsThis is a man with a superlative background: trained by Sherlock Holmes and, years back, a star of Holmes' child Irregulars. Now Kell is getting somewhere… Let battle commence!
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|summary=We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era and he's the physician on duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of the populaceThe remuneration isn't high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and hones his skills: Solon ''wants'' the warriors to liveIt's quite a spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see them, they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes to make them look more impressiveThe sagitarii are the archers and the beastiarii are the condemned criminals who are going to fight for their lives with the wild animals.  Today, it's the crocodiles.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147365534X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Jane Menczer
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|isbn=1529337925
|title= An Unlikely Agent
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|title=The Mirror Dance (Dandy Gilver)
|rating= 4
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|author=Catriona McPherson
|genre= Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=London, 1905. Margaret Trant lives with her ailing, irascible mother in a dreary boarding house in St John's Wood. The pair have fallen on hard times, with only Margaret's meagre salary from a ramshackle import-export company keeping them afloat.When a stranger on the tram hands her a newspaper open at the recruitment page, Margaret spots an advertisement that promises to 'open new horizons beyond your wildest dreams!'. After a gruelling interview, she finds herself in a new position as a secretary in a dingy backstreet shop.But all is not as it seems; she is in fact working for a highly secret branch of the intelligence service, Bureau 8, whose mission is to track down and neutralise a ruthless band of anarchists known as the Scorpions.Margaret's guilty love of detective fiction scarcely prepares her for the reality of true criminality, and her journey of self-discovery forms the heart of this remarkable novel, as she discovers in herself resourcefulness, courage, independence and the first stirrings of love.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973805</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Andrew Wilson
 
|title= A Talent for Murder
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|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 about the mystery, and it really drives the story forward. Agatha is ambushed by a strange man at the train station; she is given a proposition that confuses her and secretly intrigues her. Indeed, for this man wants her to commit a murder.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471148211</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Martin Edwards (editor)
 
|title= Continental Crimes
 
|rating= 4
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=It's not clear whether the short story has gone out of fashion, relegated to the pages of certain types of women's magazines, or whether the magazines in which the format still holds its own are themselves not as high-profile as once they might have beenPerhaps they never were, perhaps we only know about them in retrospectWhatever the truth of that it would seem that the golden age of the short story, coincided delightfully with the golden age of crime.
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|summary=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 inclined to leave it to keep Dandy Gilver warm on the sofaThe thought of work was almost cheering when Dandy took the call from Sandy Bissett in DundeeShe was the publisher of a magazine and had been told that the man running the Punch and Judy show in the local park had used copies of two of her cartoon characters - Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to drum up some local interest in his show.  Sandy Bissett's request was simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the man about infringement of copyright - and Dandy and Alex would be cheaper than employing a solicitor to do the same job.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356797</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Philip Kerr
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|isbn=B08LKT7HSR
|title= Prussian Blue: Bernie Gunther Thriller 12
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|title=Murder in the Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery)
|rating= 3.5
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|author=Helena Dixon
|genre= Crime (Historical) 
+
|rating=3.5
|summary= Bernie Gunther is not your typical hero. In 1939, he was stationed in Berlin as a police officer handling murder cases and occasionally doing work for some high-ranking Nazis. Although never a Nazi party member himself (he was a known member of the Social Democratic Party), he understood that the best thing he could do for himself at that time was to make himself indispensable to men like Reinhard Heydrich and Martin Bormann. So when he is assigned to solve a murder that has occurred at Hitler's Berghof in the Bavarian mountains, he knows that he needs to do it quickly and discreetly – not just for justice's sake, but for his own. He is given exactly one week to apprehend the suspect, and he hopes that with the help of his friend Friedrich Korsch, an investigator with the Krimialpolizei (or Kripo, for short) he just might get lucky. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784296481</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Alis Hawkins
 
|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 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>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gavin Scott
 
|title=The Age of Olympus (Duncan Forrester Mystery 2)
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Whilst part of an SOE mission to kidnap a German commander in Greece during the war, Duncan Forrester came across an ancient Cretan stone, which he hoped could lead to the deciphering of Linear BThe war is now officially over (although a lot of people are still fighting it, mentally if not physically) and Forrester has returned to Athens with his lover, Sophie Amfeldt-Laurvig, intent on getting the necessary permissions to go to Crete and retrieve the stone.  It was whilst they were in Athens that Forrester was the unwitting witness to the poisoning of a Greek poet and where he found himself pursued by a man wearing a maskStrange as all this might seem, Forrester is convinced that the poet was not the intended victim: it should have been a general who has been approached to lead ELAS, the military arm of the Greek communistsHe's the sort of charismatic man who could sway a lot of people to follow him adn that would mean certain war.
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|summary=In December 1933 the remains of Elowed Underhay were discovered in the cellar of the Glass Bottle Public HouseEzekiel Hamett was sought in connection with the murder of Elowed and his half-brother, Denzil Hammett, whose body was also discoveredKitty Underhay's long search for her mother, who disappeared in June 1916 was overNow she's determined that the man responsible for her murder will be brought to justice.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783297824</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alan Kennedy
+
|author=Stephen Clarke
|title=A Time to Tell Lies
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|title=The Spy Who Inspired Me
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
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|genre=General Fiction
|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 (Justine's fourth) and all goes horribly awry. Alex ends up in custody at the Gendarmerie, facing a German who knows he has a false passport.
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|summary=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 the secret service, but in the planning side of things more than the active service.  Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, and the pair end up stranded in Normandy, with Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to keep up with her!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993202322</amazonuk>
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|isbn=2952163855
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Lois Austen-Leigh
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|isbn=0349423083
|title= The Incredible Crime
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|title=Death and the Brewery Queen (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
|rating= 4.5
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|author=Frances Brody
|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 Road
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=''Sergeant Bowman wasn't just a hard man, he was something else: a dangerous man.''  If, indeed, there was someone who was ideal for a suicide mission, it was himWorking as a soldier for the East India Company in the rural, remote, outlaw hotbeds of Asia in the 1850s, he's tasked with taking a boat of unknown prospects up the Irrawaddy to try and combat local warlord Pagan MinIt doesn't go well – to start with, he's supposed to run the rule over ruffians saved from the gallows, but can't command them until he's forced his way to having the knowledge of the mission he needs first, only for all hell to break looseBut 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…
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|summary=Kate Shackleton runs her investigation agency from Batswing Cottage, ably assisted by Jim Sykes, who lives in Woodhouse and her housekeeper, Mrs SugdenShe's been approached by William Lofthouse of the Barleycorn Brewery in MashamSomething is going wrong with his business and he'd like Kate to look into it discreetly: he's hoping that his nephew and right-hand man, James Lofthouse, will be back from a trip to Germany before long.  James went to see what the continental brewers were doing and what changes Barleycorn might need to makeWilliam is worried that James is perhaps enjoying himself a little bit ''too'' much or is going to bring back a German bride but he'd like the business to be ship-shape before his nephew returns.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857053744</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Rory Clements
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|isbn=0241433568
|title=Corpus
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|title=Eight Detectives
 +
|author=Alex Pavesi
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=A suicidal overdose and the murder of upper class Cecil Langley and his wife are two events that may be unconnectedHowever this is England in 1936, a magnet for opposing forces and their first moves in preparation for the coming conflict, assisted or prevented by a royal crisis (depending on which side you're on)Cambridge history professor Tom Wilde may fall into the middle of this accidentally to begin with but his curiosity has been piqued enough to ensure he's not walking away.
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|summary=It's 1930 and Megan and Henry are staying with Bunny at his house in SpainIt's unbearably hot and Bunny drank too much at lunch: he's going to have a rest and then he wants to talk to Megan and Henry about something seriousOnly it never gets that far: when Bunny doesn't emerge after his siesta his guests find that he's been murdered.  How can that have happened?  There's no one else in the house, so one of them must be the killer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762613</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ian Ross
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|isbn=1473682401
|title=The Mask of Command (Twilight of Empire)
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|title=The Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver)
|rating=5
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|author=Catriona McPherson
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|rating=4
|summary= Warning: spoilers ahead for previous books in the series.  
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|genre=Crime (Historical)
305AD: Castus Aurelius, following the death of his predecessor, has been promoted to commander (or vir perfecctissiums) of the Roman forces at the RhineHe's also been ordered to take Crispus, Constantine's son and heir, for the character-building experience.  That complicates matters as when Castus isn't 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.
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|summary=Those who were with us at the 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 charms of Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and her brother, Edward Hugh Lachlan GilverThere are two drawbacks: they're noisy and they're staying with Dandy and Hugh.  Dandy and her detective partner, Alec Osborne, had not taken up the chance to look into a problem at the Cramond ferry when it was offered to them twice before, but suddenly the possibility of being out of the house at Gilverton seems irresistible.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784975257</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Graham Hurley
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|author=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)
|title=Finisterre
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|title=The Honjin Murders
|rating=5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|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 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.
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|summary=To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'.  For those who need more, here is the extra background – we're in rural Japan in the 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 celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annexe before the sun rises on their marriage.  What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has a lot of the peculiar about it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784977810</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1782275002
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Shirley McKay
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|isbn=B07XLM3SM6
|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)
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|title=Murder at the Dolphin Hotel
 +
|author=Helena Dixon
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 +
|summary=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 was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise.  Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was ill.  She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand why.  She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotel.  And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things ''and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the hotel.
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}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=0349423067
 +
|title=The Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
 +
|author=Frances Brody
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=A lot of crime happens in St Andrews during 1588 and therefore in the life of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen tooAs we travel through the year with him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother in law Giles and his sister Meg, the wise woman, we also encounter some of his most interesting casesIn fact there's one to match each of the year's big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas and Yule.
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|summary=From Christmas to Easter a train ran from Leeds City Station to King's Cross, arriving before dawn so that the forced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Garden. In early March 1929, one of the porters who was unloading the boxes discovered the body of a man, stripped naked and with no means of identificationScotland Yard hit a dead end and called on the services of Kate Shackleton in the hope that her knowledge and connections in Yorkshire would give them the lead they needed.  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 murderHe was reluctant to give her all the information which the police held.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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|author= Erle Stanley Gardner
+
{{Frontpage
|title= The Knife Slipped
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|isbn=1472127110
|rating= 5
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|title=Indian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery
|genre= Crime
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|author=Sara Sheridan
|summary= Before we begin, I must confess. Confess that I am a hardboiled noir addict. Therefore, I approach each grisly tale of murder, private detectives and femme fatales with a sense of wonder but also scepticism. ''Surely'', I think ''this one can't be as good as the last, it must have flaws, poor characters and lack the necessary grit to be a true hardboiled noir masterpiece?'' so you can imagine my trepidation when opening the Knife Slipped. I was wrong, wonderfully wrong. This book for me is the essence of the hardboiled noir genre and E.S. Gardner is a marvel. 
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783299274</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Wray Delaney
 
|title=An Almond for a Parrot
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|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.
+
|summary=Life has changed dramatically for Mirabelle, our favourite fifties sleuth, since the war, and not always for the better. When she first settled in Brighton she was alone, rudderless and secretly grieving for Jack, the lover who died before he could leave his wife. As time went by she found in herself an ability to solve crimes, made friends including an ebullient and determined young woman called Vesta who refused to let a little thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what she wanted, and even found consolation in the arms of a rather charming policeman.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000818254X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=S G Maclean
+
|isbn=1912374439
|title=The Black Friar: Damian Seeker 2
+
|title=The Courier
|rating=5
+
|author=Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)
 +
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=When a dead monk is discovered walled into a disused monastery the local gossip is awash with remarks on the miracle of his well-preserved body all these years after the monastery was abandoned. Investigator and Captain of Cromwell's guard Damian Seeker has other ideas. This is a recent non-clergy death.  This is Carter Blyth, a man on such a secret mission that even Cromwell didn't know about it.  This will add complications to the already convoluted and dangerous path that Seeker will take to solve the crime, one of the complications being very close to home.
+
|summary=Nazi-occupied Oslo, 1942. There, I've given the game away. For in a book that centres around a murder, I've told you who did it the Nazis, surely? Well, that certainly has to remain to be seen in this volume, which splits its time between one of war, when a young woman sees her father arrested, and their store condemned as Jewish and rushes to her best friend to help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, and the late 1960s, when great consternation is being felt. In this timeline, a maverick agent is back in town, one who might have been fingered for murdering that female victim, even though she and he lived together with their baby as a young family, except he was thought by all to have died in the War…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782068449</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= M J Carter
+
|isbn=1786075431
|title=The Devil's Feast
+
|title=Mrs Mohr Goes Missing
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Maryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)
|genre= Crime (Historical)
+
|rating=3.5
|summary=London, the early 1840s: the newly-opened Reform Club is the focal point for the Liberal elite, where Whigs and Radicals can co-exist in harmony. Or such was the intention. With a celebrity chef in its up to the minute kitchen, however, the club seems to have more of a reputation for its dinners than its politics, and when a man dies horribly after eating one the Reform could have a problem on its hands. Particularly when it begins to look like murder. Luckily William Avery agrees to look into the matter with some urgency, but – as everyone keeps asking him – where on earth is his professional investigator friend Jeremiah Blake?
+
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241146364</amazonuk>
+
|summary=Meet Zofia.  A socially climbing wife of a medical professor, she's intent on making herself known as a charitable lady, and keen on her husband progressing yet through his esteemed career.  In 1890s Cracow, life is pretty good, but she knows it could always be better.  Meanwhile, other people's life could certainly be better – cholera is nearing the city due to lack of hygiene, and many people have to fall on charity and almshouses to keep a roof over their heads. One such was Mrs Mohr, although she was rich enough to keep private lodgings and staff in her charitable home. I say ''was'', for she has vanished.  Only due to Zofia's help does she get found, dead and in a place the near-lame woman could never reach by herself.  Just who could be killing people in a charity home, and to what end?  And why does Zofia feel the need to make a name for herself by answering those questions?
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= George Mann (Editor)
+
|isbn=1786893762
|title= Associates of Sherlock Holmes
+
|title=Things in Jars
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Jess Kidd
|genre= Crime (Historical)
+
|rating=4.5
|summary=The world-famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes needs no introduction; a redoubtable protagonist with an appeal that shows no sign of waning. ''Associates of Sherlock Holmes,'' however, moves the spotlight away from our hero and focuses on the exploits of some of the minor players who have featured in his adventures over the years. Here we get a chance to reacquaint ourselves with friends and foes alike, all keen to give their own, unique perspective of the indomitable investigator.
+
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783299304</amazonuk>
+
|summary=A child has gone missing. The detective asked to take on the case is still struggling with the shame and frustration left by a previous case, where the child was not found in time. Hardly original themes for a private eye thriller. And yet . . . take another look. This detective is a woman, and the setting is Victorian London, with all the rich and colourful paradoxes of that era: technical and scientific progress jostling for space 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 cap and stout, shiny boots, but the tobacco she smokes in her pipe (my dear, what an utterly ''fast'' thing for a lady to do!) is mixed with a nugget of something, well, let's say recreational, created by her chemist friend Prudhoe. The fact that it's actually meant to cure bronchial problems is by the by. Her housemaid, being seven-foot-tall, is also somewhat remarkable. And then, of course, there's the ghost. Ruby Doyle, world-famous tattooed boxer (deceased) accompanies Bridie all through her investigation, and it's clear he has a soft spot for the determined young woman. If he really exists, that is.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Lindsey Davis
+
|isbn=0349414327
|title= The Graveyard of the Hesperides
+
|title=A Snapshot of Murder (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
|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>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
 
|author=Frances Brody
 
|author=Frances Brody
|title=Death at the Seaside
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Kate Shackleton felt that she needed a holiday and since it was August when ''nothing'' ever happened, she decided that it was the ideal time to visit her friend Alma and goddaughter Felicity in WhitbyThe timing was good too - Mrs Sugden was going to visit her cousin in Scarborough and Jim Sykes was taking his family to Robin Hood's Bay.  Perfect!  Well, it would have been except for a couple of things...
+
|summary=Even detectives need a break and for Kate Shackleton, photography gives her the mental relaxation which she needs.  When the local Photographic Society proposed an outing, Kate was keen to take the opportunity to visit Haworth and Stanbury, not least because the deeds of the Brontë Parsonage are being handed over so that it can become a museum and her parents will be there for the eventWhat could be better than seeing her family, witnessing a momentous event and having the opportunity to take photographs of the setting for ''Wuthering Heights''?  Nothing could go wrong.  Or could it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349406588</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Francis Duncan
 
|title= Behold A Fair Woman
 
|rating= 3
 
|genre= Crime (Historical)
 
|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 thatMoulin 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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Dyslexia Friendly Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 13:45, 25 March 2023

0571370977.jpg

Review of

The Lock-Up by John Banville

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

It's six months since the dramatic events which we read about in 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 this has made the already strained relationship between them more difficult. They're brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the body of a young, Jewish scholar, Rosa Jacobs, is found in a lock-up. At first, it looked as though she'd gassed herself but Quirke is convinced that it was murder rather than suicide. Full Review

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Review of

In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson

5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

It's July 1948 and Helen Crowther is due to start work as a qualified medical almoner the following morning - on the day that the NHS is born. She'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 job will be to persuade people that the services she offers really are free and that they don't have to do anything to qualify for them. Some of the problems will require delicate handling but Helen has a problem of her own which might give her some insight. Her marriage has never been consummated. Full Review

057136358X.jpg

Review of

April in Spain by John Banville

5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Terry Tice was a hitman, although he didn't think of himself in those terms. He saw what he did as a matter of making things tidy. I couldn't resist the thought that he was an extreme version of Marie Kondo. He enjoyed his job, something which occurred to him when he was in Burma with the army where he got the chance to kill a lot of the little yellow fellows and had a fine old time. He was spending a lot of time with Percy Antrobus - who couldn't understand why Terry didn't know the purpose of a swizzle stick - surely he wouldn't drink champagne with bubbles in the morning? It was after Percy's death that he saw the benefits of taking up a job in Spain. Full Review

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Review of

The Mystery of Healing by A P McGrath

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era and he's the physician on duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of the populace. The remuneration isn't high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and hones his skills: Solon wants the warriors to live. It's quite a spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see them, they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes to make them look more impressive. The sagitarii are the archers and the beastiarii are the condemned criminals who are going to fight for their lives with the wild animals. Today, it's the crocodiles. Full Review

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Review of

The Mirror Dance (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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 inclined to leave it to keep Dandy Gilver warm on the sofa. The thought of work was almost cheering when Dandy took the call from Sandy Bissett in Dundee. She was the publisher of a magazine and had been told that the man running the Punch and Judy show in the local park had used copies of two of her cartoon characters - Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to drum up some local interest in his show. Sandy Bissett's request was simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the man about infringement of copyright - and Dandy and Alex would be cheaper than employing a solicitor to do the same job. Full Review

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Review of

Murder in the Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery) by Helena Dixon

3.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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 Elowed and his half-brother, Denzil Hammett, whose body was also discovered. Kitty Underhay's long search for her mother, who disappeared in June 1916 was over. Now she's determined that the man responsible for her murder will be brought to justice. Full Review

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Review of

The Spy Who Inspired Me by Stephen Clarke

4star.jpg General Fiction

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 the secret service, but in the planning side of things more than the active service. Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, and the pair end up stranded in Normandy, with Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to keep up with her! Full Review

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Review of

Death and the Brewery Queen (Kate Shackleton Mysteries) by Frances Brody

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Kate Shackleton runs her investigation agency from Batswing Cottage, ably assisted by Jim Sykes, who lives in Woodhouse and her housekeeper, Mrs Sugden. She's been approached by William Lofthouse of the Barleycorn Brewery in Masham. Something is going wrong with his business and he'd like Kate to look into it discreetly: he's hoping that his nephew and right-hand man, James Lofthouse, will be back from a trip to Germany before long. James went to see what the continental brewers were doing and what changes Barleycorn might need to make. William is worried that James is perhaps enjoying himself a little bit too much or is going to bring back a German bride but he'd like the business to be ship-shape before his nephew returns. Full Review

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Review of

Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi

5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

It's 1930 and Megan and Henry are staying with Bunny at his house in Spain. It's unbearably hot and Bunny drank too much at lunch: he's going to have a rest and then he wants to talk to Megan and Henry about something serious. Only it never gets that far: when Bunny doesn't emerge after his siesta his guests find that he's been murdered. How can that have happened? There's no one else in the house, so one of them must be the killer. Full Review

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Review of

The Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Those who were with us at the end of 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 charms of Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and her brother, Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. There are two drawbacks: they're noisy and they're staying with Dandy and Hugh. Dandy and her detective partner, Alec Osborne, had not taken up the chance to look into a problem at the Cramond ferry when it was offered to them twice before, but suddenly the possibility of being out of the house at Gilverton seems irresistible. Full Review

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Review of

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)

4star.jpg Crime

To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'. For those who need more, here is the extra background – we're in rural Japan in the 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 celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annexe before the sun rises on their marriage. What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has a lot of the peculiar about it. Full Review

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Review of

Murder at the Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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 was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was ill. She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand why. She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotel. And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things and why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the hotel. Full Review

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Review of

The Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries) by Frances Brody

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

From Christmas to Easter a train ran from Leeds City Station to King's Cross, arriving before dawn so that the forced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Garden. In early March 1929, one of the porters who was unloading the boxes discovered the body of a man, stripped naked and with no means of identification. Scotland Yard hit a dead end and called on the services of Kate Shackleton in the hope that her knowledge and connections in Yorkshire would give them the lead they needed. 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. He was reluctant to give her all the information which the police held. Full Review

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Review of

Indian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery by Sara Sheridan

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Life has changed dramatically for Mirabelle, our favourite fifties sleuth, since the war, and not always for the better. When she first settled in Brighton she was alone, rudderless and secretly grieving for Jack, the lover who died before he could leave his wife. As time went by she found in herself an ability to solve crimes, made friends including an ebullient and determined young woman called Vesta who refused to let a little thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what she wanted, and even found consolation in the arms of a rather charming policeman. Full Review

1912374439.jpg

Review of

The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)

3.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Nazi-occupied Oslo, 1942. There, I've given the game away. For in a book that centres around a murder, I've told you who did it – the Nazis, surely? Well, that certainly has to remain to be seen in this volume, which splits its time between one of war, when a young woman sees her father arrested, and their store condemned as Jewish and rushes to her best friend to help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, and the late 1960s, when great consternation is being felt. In this timeline, a maverick agent is back in town, one who might have been fingered for murdering that female victim, even though she and he lived together with their baby as a young family, except he was thought by all to have died in the War… Full Review

1786075431.jpg

Review of

Mrs Mohr Goes Missing by Maryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)

3.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Meet Zofia. A socially climbing wife of a medical professor, she's intent on making herself known as a charitable lady, and keen on her husband progressing yet through his esteemed career. In 1890s Cracow, life is pretty good, but she knows it could always be better. Meanwhile, other people's life could certainly be better – cholera is nearing the city due to lack of hygiene, and many people have to fall on charity and almshouses to keep a roof over their heads. One such was Mrs Mohr, although she was rich enough to keep private lodgings and staff in her charitable home. I say was, for she has vanished. Only due to Zofia's help does she get found, dead and in a place the near-lame woman could never reach by herself. Just who could be killing people in a charity home, and to what end? And why does Zofia feel the need to make a name for herself by answering those questions? Full Review

1786893762.jpg

Review of

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

A child has gone missing. The detective asked to take on the case is still struggling with the shame and frustration left by a previous case, where the child was not found in time. Hardly original themes for a private eye thriller. And yet . . . take another look. This detective is a woman, and the setting is Victorian London, with all the rich and colourful paradoxes of that era: technical and scientific progress jostling for space 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 cap and stout, shiny boots, but the tobacco she smokes in her pipe (my dear, what an utterly fast thing for a lady to do!) is mixed with a nugget of something, well, let's say recreational, created by her chemist friend Prudhoe. The fact that it's actually meant to cure bronchial problems is by the by. Her housemaid, being seven-foot-tall, is also somewhat remarkable. And then, of course, there's the ghost. Ruby Doyle, world-famous tattooed boxer (deceased) accompanies Bridie all through her investigation, and it's clear he has a soft spot for the determined young woman. If he really exists, that is. Full Review

0349414327.jpg

Review of

A Snapshot of Murder (Kate Shackleton Mysteries) by Frances Brody

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Even detectives need a break and for Kate Shackleton, photography gives her the mental relaxation which she needs. When the local Photographic Society proposed an outing, Kate was keen to take the opportunity to visit Haworth and Stanbury, not least because the deeds of the Brontë Parsonage are being handed over so that it can become a museum and her parents will be there for the event. What could be better than seeing her family, witnessing a momentous event and having the opportunity to take photographs of the setting for Wuthering Heights? Nothing could go wrong. Or could it? Full Review

Move on to Newest Dyslexia Friendly Reviews