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

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[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
 
[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Crime (Historical)]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Crime (Historical)]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
==Crime (historical)==
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0571370977
{{newreview
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|title=The Lock-Up
|author=Kate Williams
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|author=John Banville
|title=The Pleasures of Men
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Catherine Sorgeiul is a woman with burdens. Living with her uncle in London’s East End during the reign of Queen Victoria, hers is a life that seems empty – yet in fact is full of things she is trying to push away.   
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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-up.  At first, it looked as though she'd gassed herself but Quirke is convinced that it was murder rather than suicide.
 
 
Filling her days has become a problem, so when a series of grisly murders begins, Catherine is drawn to the mystery of the Man of Crows in a way that seems bound to change her life.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951399</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529337968
|author=Ben Pastor
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|title=In Place of Fear
|title=Liar Moon
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|author=Catriona McPherson
|rating=4
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Near Verona, northern Italy, autumn 1943: Captain Martin Bora is a German military policeman, known to have conducted previous murder investigations. He is asked to look into the death of one Vittorio Lisi, a prominent local fascist who was run over in his wheelchair on his own estate by a car. The number one suspect is his widow Claretta.
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904738826</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=057136358X
|author=Gerry O'Hara
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|title=April in Spain
|title=Sherlock Holmes and The Affair In Transylvania
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|author=John Banville
|rating=3.5
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=I normally start reviews with a brief plot summary, but it seems almost besides the point to do so for a book entitled 'Sherlock Holmes and the Affair in Transylvania'. From those seven words, the reader will have no doubt guessed that this is a Holmes meets Dracula story, and so we may as well move straight on to the burning question – is it any good?
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920369</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08Z8BMZ7H
|author=D E Meredith
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|title=The Mystery of Healing
|title=The Devil's Ribbon
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|author=A P McGrath
|rating=4.5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=In the London of 1858, the Irish are the poorest of the poor, despised and feared by the English. They were forced to emigrate from their fatherland because of the famine which decimated the population, and now the majority of them live in filthy, germ-ridden rookeries. Cholera is killing them off in their hundreds, and blame for their terrible conditions is laid squarely at the feet of their English masters, together with  those Irishmen who have so far forgotten their home that they cooperate with the oppressors. And as the hottest summer on record drags on, and the tenth anniversary of the potato blight and its horrific consequences approach, the mood in the slums is ripe for violence and murder.
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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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0312557698</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Thomas Bruce Wheeler
 
|title=The London of Sherlock Holmes - Over 400 Computer Generated Street Level Photos
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Should I trust a book that has a typo on the FRONT cover?  Would I purchase a book that practically says, as its first words, the e-book version is better than this paper thing? This, despite setting up very much the wrong impression, is a gateway into the world of Sherlock Holmes - but does, as I say, blatantly show itself up as flawed, while the electronic version could count as a very worthwhile app for the Conan Doyle buff.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780922094</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529337925
|author=Andrew Lane
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|title=The Mirror Dance (Dandy Gilver)
|title=Young Sherlock Holmes: Fire Storm
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|author=Catriona McPherson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle has authorised Andrew Lane to write a series of books about the early years of Sherlock Holmes, and if this book is typical then they made an excellent choice. Through these stories we see the development of the complex and sometimes contradictory aspects of Sherlock's personality, set in the context of the most thrilling adventures and courageous acts of derring-do a young person could desire.  
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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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230758509</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08LKT7HSR
|author=Anthony Hays
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|title=Murder in the Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery)
|title=The Killing Way
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|author=Helena Dixon
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Post-Roman invasion and Great Britain shows the signs of a beleagured nationAnd straight away Hays gives us an historical flavour - Saxons, Picts and names such as 'Ambrosius Aurelianus' are mentioned early on in the book.
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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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857890050</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Stephen Clarke
|author=Guy Adams
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|title=The Spy Who Inspired Me
|title=Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 +
|genre=General Fiction
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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!
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|isbn=2952163855
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0349423083
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|title=Death and the Brewery Queen (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
 +
|author=Frances Brody
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=A body is discovered in London.  The young gentleman concerned, a Mr Hilary De Montfort, had enjoyed a good life:  no money problems for example and as far as anyone can ascertain, no enemies eitherThe motive is therefore fuzzy at bestThe state of his body when it was discovered was bizarre  - it looked as if he'd been hurled from a great height, even although he'd been discovered in an open space around Grosvenor SquareAnd in the words of Dr Watson himself (it is he who narrates in the main) ' ... as varied as our capital might be, it will always be found wanting of mountain ranges.'
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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 longJames 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857682822</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241433568
|author=Tracy Revels
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|title=Eight Detectives
|title=Shadowblood: A Novel Of Sherlock Holmes
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|author=Alex Pavesi
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=For those picking up a Tracy Revels novel for the first time, she writes Sherlock Holmes fiction with the twist that Holmes is a supernatural being, coming from the Shadows. In the hugely enjoyable romp [[Shadowfall: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes by Tracy Revels|Shadowfall]], Watson discovered this, and was plunged headlong into an adventure involving Titania, Spring-Heeled Jack, voodoo, and various other dark and mysterious beings. That one ended with the good doctor losing his memory of the story – but I was always hoping that was merely a temporary measure, and indeed, it’s not long here before he starts to recall Holmes’ true nature.
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|summary=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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920474</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1473682401
|author=John O'Connell
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|title=The Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver)
|title=The Baskerville Legacy: A Novel
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|author=Catriona McPherson
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=
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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 HughDandy 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.
1900, and a man on a ship coming back from the Boer War to edit the Daily Express meets one of his heroes in the form of Arthur Conan DoyleWith similar experiences and interests yet different enough to bounce off each other they take up the idea of collaborating on a plotWhen they do fix on time to do so, it leads to literary prospects, which lead to a week's research together on Dartmoor, which leads to ''The Hound of the Baskervilles''.  But perhaps in a way that only one of them intended.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595465</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)
|author=Dicky Neely and Paul R Spiring (Editor)
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|title=The Honjin Murders
|title=The Case of the Grave Accusation: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure
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|rating=4
|rating=3
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|genre=Crime
|genre=Crime (Historical)
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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 thingEither 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.
|summary=Much in the way that legend says that King Arthur will return when his country needs him, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson have returned because an accusation has been made against their creator, Sir Arthur Conan DoyleThe charge is that the great man plagiarised ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' from his great friend Bertram Fletcher Robinson and then went on to commit adultery, blackmail and murder in order to conceal what he had doneHolmes' rooms in Baker Street have not changed a great deal – if one can overlook the addition of a desktop computer and better plumbing – but it's not long before the pair are off to Dartmoor to discover the truth.
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|isbn=1782275002
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908218819</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B07XLM3SM6
|author=John Buchan
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|title=Murder at the Dolphin Hotel
|title=The Thirty-nine Steps
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|author=Helena Dixon
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Ask anyone about 'The Thrity-nine Steps' and I guarantee they'll be able to tell you it's a spy story with Richard Hannay at its heartMost people will be able to tell you how it startsBut when you ask, 'Yes, but what ARE the 39 Steps?most people will falter.
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|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 illShe was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand whyShe'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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971985</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0349423067
|author=Tracy Revels
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|title=The Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
|title=Shadowfall: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes
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|author=Frances Brody
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=You remember Sherlock Holmes, yes? Deerstalker, pipe, leetle grey cells… (Oh, sorry, that was Poirot, but same kind of deductive ability), naked winged-woman on, or at least floating above, the sofa in Baker Street… wait a minute? Seriously?
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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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908218258</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Gerard Kelly
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|isbn=1472127110
|title=The Outstanding Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes
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|title=Indian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery
|rating=4
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|author=Sara Sheridan
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=I'll spare people the details of Holmes and Watson as crime-solvers – I'm assuming anyone likely to pick this one up is probably familiar with the Victorian duo. This is generally very faithful to the Arthur Conan Doyle originals and the best stories in this set of thirteen sound authentic enough to take their place alongside some of the canon.
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|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>1908218673</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1912374439
|author=Kate Workman
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|title=The Courier
|title=Rendezvous at the Populaire : A Novel of Sherlock Holmes
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|author=Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=After chasing his arch-enemy Moriarty without success on a cold night in November 1882, Sherlock Holmes is left maimed and unable to walk without the use of a cane. Despondent, he decides to give up his career as a detective – but is talked into taking an extra special case, as a Madame Giry comes across the Channel to beg his help with the mysterious 'ghost' which is terrorising the Opera Populaire…
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|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>1908218703</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1786075431
|author=Carole Bugge
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|title=Mrs Mohr Goes Missing
|title=The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Star of India
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|author=Maryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=A woman with a distinguished scent about her appears flustered at a concert recital.  A famous landlady gets kidnapped while on an innocent holiday to the west countryA malformed, brilliant modern-day alchemist gets murderedThere is only one person, who famously went over a certain Alpine waterfall, who could piece all this and more into a threat to the Royalty and Empire itselfBut there is also only one person, who famously seemed to have stayed dead in going over the same Alpine waterfall, with the strength of mind to put the whole game into play.
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|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 careerIn 1890s Cracow, life is pretty good, but she knows it could always be betterMeanwhile, 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 homeI 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857681214</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1786893762
|author=Philip Jose Farmer
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|title=Things in Jars
|title=The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Peerless Peer
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|author=Jess Kidd
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=It's World War One, and Britain has got wind of some brilliant scientific research, that has created a new bacterial weapon capable of wiping out the world's supply of sauerkraut.  But a dastardly German has stolen the formula.  Before he can give a variant based on boiled meat, cabbage and potatoes to the kaiser, his most recent nemesis - Sherlock Holmes, no less - must be brought out of beekeeping retirement.  Cue an adventure and a half, as he and Watson take to the skies for the first time in their hectic lives, end up in darkest Africa, and encounter a certain yodelling, long-haired nobleman, more than up to the name of King of the Jungle...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857681206</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rory Clements
 
|title=John Shakespeare: Prince
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=This is the third in the excellent Elizabethan murder mystery series, featuring John Shakespeare, brother of Will. An inexplicable murder is linked to a much deeper plot of political dimensions, leading Shakespeare into danger and tragedy. A series of bombings, which appear to be targeting the immigrant population causes huge unrest and fear, and leads to the uncovering of further political dimensions.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848544251</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Anne Perry
 
|title=Betrayal at Lisson Grove
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=After recently reading Perry's  [[Acceptable Loss by Anne Perry|Acceptable Loss]] and thoroughly enjoying it, I was looking forward to reading this book and hoping it would be as good as read.  The novel opens with Pitt, Special Branch, in the midst of frenzied action trying to catch a suspect.  Suspected of murder,  it's imperative that he's caught. They weave between crowds, duck through alleys, but their best efforts are simply not good enough.  The man is not caught.  He's free to strike again.  This all makes for a good, old-fashioned chase as Pitt makes up his mind to board a ferry for France, believing that's where the suspect could be heading.  Pitt is extremely thorough and meticulous in all matters of policing but this may very well bode ill later on in the story.  We learn of deep unrest in parts of the world:  Europe and Ireland in particular.  And Perry is good at giving her readers a little palatable history here and there, to keep us all in the loop.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075537682X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Anne Perry
 
|title=Acceptable Loss
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=I must admit to not taking to the rather stylized  front cover and nor did I take to the title. I got the initial impression that this novel was going to be all about heaving bosoms and manly men without too much substance.  Was I right though?  I gave a bit of a sigh as I started on chapter one.  Straight away we meet two of the central characters, Mr and Mrs Monk. Mrs Monk (Hester) seems to have brought a local street urchin into her lovely home. All sounds a bit odd and also a bit intriguing.  Perry back-tracks a little for the benefit of her readers and lets us know how this situation has come about. The boy is street-wise but he's also now desperate for a warm, safe bed and regular meals if he's lucky. He's had a dreadful life up till now and has somehow survived a terrible ordeal - and yes, you could say that it's the stuff of nightmares. I loved his name - Scuff and I automatically called him Scruff in my head, every time.
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|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755376846</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0349414327
|author=Alan Bradley
+
|title=A Snapshot of Murder (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
|title=A Red Herring Without Mustard
+
|author=Frances Brody
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Eleven year old Flavia is the youngest daughter of the de Luce family and she doesn't get on all that well with her elder sisters, Feely (Ophelia) and Daffy (Daphne)It could be rather lonely for her as her father is an eccentric stamp collector and her mother died in the Himalayas some ten years before, but she has her faithful bicycle, Gladys, for company and when she's not doing some sleuthing she's tinkering in her laboratory, where she has enough chemicals and poisons to give the modern-day Health and Safety person a heart attack.
+
|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>0752897152</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Dyslexia Friendly Reviews]]
|author=Cassandra Clark
 
|title=Abbess of Meaux: The Law of Angels
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=A widow who remarried in the Middle Ages became, once again, subject to her husband, and many women of independent means preferred, therefore, the greater financial freedom afforded by taking the veil. After the death of her husband Hildegard joins the Cistercians, one of the richest and most powerful groups in Europe at the time, and sets out to found a small convent near her childhood home. Chance leads her to investigate the death of several men whose bodies she finds on her way, and in each subsequent book in the series she finds herself yet again risking her life to investigate and solve crimes.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074900942X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Robert Dinsdale
 
|title=Three Miles
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Captain Abraham Matthews is so desperate to catch the villainous Albie Crowe and bring the youngster to justice that some people would say he was obsessed. After six months, Matthews has finally tracked down his prey, and captures him just three miles from the police station. But with Albie's boys trying to rescue him, other men without Abraham's moral compass more interested in vengeance than justice, and the Luftwaffe dropping bombs on Leeds, this is set to be the longest three miles of either of their lives...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057126025X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ben Pastor
 
|title=Lumen
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Cracow, Poland, October 1939: The Germans have recently occupied Poland and are seeking to establish their authority. Captain Martin Bora of the Wehrmacht (the German army) has just arrived in the city from the battlefield to take up a posting to Intelligence. His boss asks Bora to drive him to a convent every day to see the renowned Abbess, rumoured to have mystic and healing powers. A few days later, though, she is found shot dead in the grounds of her convent. Bora is asked to investigate and report back. He proceeds to investigate who shot her and why, but as his investigation continues, there are more questions for Bora and the reader. Where does this case fit in with the priorities of the occupying forces?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904738664</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Frank Tallis
 
|title=Death and the Maiden
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Just to clear the confusion out of the way, this book has nothing to do with the novel of the [[Death and the Maiden by Gladys Mitchell|same name]] by Gladys Mitchell.  Both take their name from an early Schubert piece, in which Death entices the Maiden to leave the world of men.  The maiden resists.  It was a common enough theme at the time: the death of beauty.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846053579</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=C J Sansom
 
|title=Dark Fire
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=1540 was the hottest summer of the sixteenth century but Matthew Shardlake was doing his best to hold his legal practice together, which was made more difficult by the fact that he believed himself to be out of favour with Thomas Cromwell.  He tried to keep a low profile but when he defended the accused in a most unpopular case – that of a girl accused of brutally murdering her cousin – he found that the king's chief minister had a new assignment for him.  Unless he could solve Cromwell's problem his client was likely to die a slow and nasty death.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330450786</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 13:45, 25 March 2023

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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