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[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Crime (Historical)]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Brody0571370977|title=Murder on a Summer's Day: (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)The Lock-Up|author=John Banville|rating=54
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=It was Kate Shackleton's cousin 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 the India Office who sought her help to find Maharajah Narayan who had gone out hunting on the Bolton Abbey Estate Dublin and not returnedliving (if somewhat uneasily) with his daughter, although his horse - a flighty Arab - returned riderlessPhoebe. The following morning a body was found - worst of his grief is over but he irrationally blames DI St John Strafford for what happened and this proved to be one of has made the grooms who had accompanied Narayan earlier in the dayalready strained relationship between them more difficult. Had he slipped jumping across They're brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the Strid and drowned? The jump across the river Wharfe looked tempting and people were warned body of the dangersa young, Jewish scholar, Rosa Jacobs, but it was known that young men regularly crossed that way rather than walking to the wooden bridge or the stepping stones. Later is found in the day Narayan's body was founda lock-up. HeAt first, it looked as though she'd been shot through the heart and a clumsy attempt had been made to hide the body - gassed herself but only Kate Shackleton believed Quirke is convinced that there it was foul playmurder rather than suicide. The authorities seemed determined that what had happened would be written off as 'a tragic accident'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034940058X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hannah Kent1529337968|title=Burial Rites|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Fridrik, Agnes and Sigridur are accused In Place of murdering two men one Icelandic night in 1829 before setting fire to their home. Now Agnes awaits execution, imprisoned in the farm of a lowly local family who, rumour has it, wouldn't be too great a loss if the prisoner becomes dangerous. Margrit Jonsdottir (the farmer's wife) doesn't feel threatened and sets the shocked, malnourished Agnes to work. Gradually Agnes reveals the events of that night to Margrit and Toti, a young priest. Her version seems to be a little different from what everyone else concluded, predictably… Or perhaps not so predictably.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447233166</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFear|author= Daniel Woodrell|title=The Maid's VersionCatriona McPherson
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= Life may be tough in the Missouri town where Alma grew up but at least she has a job. She learns and experiences a lot as maid to the wealthy Glencross family, but many of the experiences aren't the sort she'd like to relive. To top it all off, in 1929 the Arbor, a local dance club, explodes into flames killing 42 people including Alma's younger sister Ruby. The cause remains a mystery as factions are blamed or viewed suspiciously. However Alma knows the truth, a truth that remains secret until decades later during a visit from her grandson.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444732838</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|title=Heroes (Most Wanted)
|author=Anne Perry
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
|summary=Trench warfare has widely been acknowledged as one of the most soul destroying forms of combat. It broke men physically and mentally. Death seemed inevitable for many, and life was so horrible that at times it must have come as release. So what is one more death among the multitudes? To Chaplain Joseph Reavely every death counts, but he can not let this one go. Morton was not killed by enemy fire - he was murdered and Joseph will not rest until justice is done. It sounds pretty straight forward, but there is far more to it than this and justice is truly poetic in this case.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842995103</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Bruce Macbain
|title=The Bull Slayer
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Years after we left him in [[Roman Games (Plinius Secundus) by Bruce Macbain|Roman Games]], Pliny the Younger has become Roman Governor of Bithynia. Not the most hospitable of regions, its Greek residents regard the Romans with hatred; an emotion that, in many cases, is reciprocated by the Romans. No matter how bad this is though, it gets worse when a high ranking official dies mysteriously. Could it have anything to do with the religious sect of Mithras? Possibly but it's not Pliny's only dilemma; at home his beloved young wife Calpurnia is acting somewhat oddly.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781850798</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Frances Brody
|title=Murder In The Afternoon: (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Kate ShackletonIt's business as a private investigator July 1948 and Helen Crowther is beginning due to attract interest but when there's start work as a loud banging on qualified medical almoner the door very early one following morning she soon learns - on the truth of the old adage day that when family comes in, money doesn't. The visitor ''looks'' familiar but Kate can't quite place where she's seen the woman before. Eventually it emerges that Mary Jane Armstrong NHS is Kate's sisterborn. Kate was adopted as a baby She'll be working for Dr Deuchar and Dr Strasser in their GP surgery and knew nothing of her natural family but Mary Jane needs job will be to helppatients with those non-medical problems which affect their health. Her children had taken food for their father at The hardest part of the job will be to persuade people that the quarry where he worked services she offers really are free and ten-year-old Harriet reported finding her father dead on the floor that they don't have to do anything to qualify for them. Some of the hut, problems will require delicate handling but when searchers returned to the quarry there was no sign of Helen has a body or problem of Ethan Armstrong eitherher own which might give her some insight. Local opinion said that her husband had abandoned them, but Mary Jane believed her daughterHer marriage has never been consummated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954876</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Loupas057136358X|title=The Second DuchessApril in Spain|author=John Banville
|rating=5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Elizabeth LoupasTerry Tice was a hitman, it seems, was not the first author to be inspired by the intrigue and scandal although he didn't think of the renaissance court himself in those terms. He saw what he did as ''a matter of Ferreramaking things tidy''. The poem I couldn'My Last Duchess' by Robert Browning, first published in 1842 is an elegiac account reflecting t resist the popular view thought that Duke Alfonso d’Este murdered his first wife Lucrezia de Medici because he was an extreme version of her unfaithfulnessMarie Kondo. Loupas explores some 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 themes raised in the poem little yellow fellows and cleverly combines elements had a fine old time''. He was spending a lot of Browning’s work time with true historical accounts to create an appealing murderPercy Antrobus - who couldn't understand why Terry didn't know the purpose of a swizzle stick -mystery set against surely he wouldn't drink champagne with bubbles in the ''morning''? It was after Percy's death that he saw the sumptuous backdrop benefits of renaissance Italytaking up a job in Spain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848093837</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances BrodyB08Z8BMZ7H|title=The Mystery of Healing|author=A Medal for Murder: (Kate Shackleton Mysteries) P McGrath|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=When a pawnbroker was unceremoniously robbed We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of valuable items which the common era and he was holding 's the physician on behalf duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of clients he first called the police populace. The remuneration isn't high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and then Kate Shackleton when hones his skills: Solon ''wants'' the police seemed warriors to be getting nowherelive. It wasn't just s quite a spectacle: the crime which had been committed, but magistri are the pledges had sentimental value to many of Moony's clients charge hands and he was worried about how when we first see them, they would feel when the jewellry couldn't be returned and what re sprinkling gold dust onto the impact would be on lions''his'' reputationmanes to make them look more impressive. He wanted The sagitarii are the pieces back - but most of all he wanted Kate Shackleton archers and her assistant Jim Sykes to visit the clients and discuss beastiarii are the situation condemned criminals who are going to fight for their lives with themthe wild animals. Simple? NoToday, it's the crocodiles.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749941928</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Brody1529337925|title=Dying In The Wool: Mirror Dance (Kate Shackleton MysteriesDandy Gilver) |author=Catriona McPherson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Kate Shackleton had gained something of a reputation for solving mysteries It was the August Bank Holiday weekend and, as so often happened, it was cold enough to have the fire lit and there were plenty of those at Bunty the Dalmation wasn't inclined to leave it to keep Dandy Gilver warm on the end sofa. The thought of work was almost cheering when Dandy took the Great Warcall from Sandy Bissett in Dundee. She tracked down men who were then reunited with their families was the publisher of a magazine and even those who had no wish to be found been told that the man running the Punch and were not reunited. She Judy show in the local park had used copies of two of her own reasons for doing this cartoon characters - it made Rosie Cheek and her feel more positive about her own situationsister Freckle - to drum up some local interest in his show. Her husband Gerald Sandy Bissett's request was posted ''missing, presumed dead'' in simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the last year man about infringement of the war copyright - and Dandy and it was Alex would be cheaper than employing a solicitor to do the one mystery she couldn't solve, no matter how she tried. But her successes in other areas led to her first professional investigationsame job.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749941871</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen GallagherB08LKT7HSR|title=The Bedlam DetectiveMurder in the Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery)|author=Helena Dixon|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Authors like to claim that writing is hard work. In a way, that’s true – there are a really astonishing number December 1933 the remains of words Elowed Underhay were discovered in a book, and it’s often very difficult to wrangle them from your head into coherent sentences on a pagethe cellar of the Glass Bottle Public House. At Ezekiel Hamett was sought in connection with the same timemurder of Elowed and his half-brother, thoughDenzil Hammett, whose body was also discovered. Kitty Underhay's long search for her mother, who disappeared in June 1916 was over. Now she'hard'' should not s determined that the man responsible for her murder will be the same as ''boring''. It’s sad to come across authors who don’t enjoy the process of writing, and it’s so easy brought to tell when you’re reading a piece of work by a writer who was actually having fun when they wrote itjustice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091950120</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edney SilvestreStephen Clarke|title=If I Close My Eyes NowThe Spy Who Inspired Me
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=12th April 1961This 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 radio news is full of Yuri Gagarinladies's first earth orbit and two boys who'd had ambitions to be Tarzanworks for the secret service, to be engineersbut in the planning side of things more than the active service. Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, or medical scientists curing all diseasesand the pair end up stranded in Normandy, suddenly had a new possibility: maybe they could be astronauts. 'Brasilia had been inaugurated less than with Margaux on a year earlier, but whichever of us got desperate mission to be president was going to transfer unearth traitors in the capital back resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to Rio. We were twelve. It was a different country. A different world.'keep up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857521322</amazonuk>2952163855
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sax Rohmer0349423083|title=Fu-Manchu - Daughter of Fu-Manchu|rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Fu Manchu is dead (or is he?) but his evil genius lives on, in Death and the form of his daughter! New narrator Greville is sent to fetch Dr Petrie Brewery Queen (narrator of the first three booksKate Shackleton Mysteries) to come to an archaeological dig where Greville's chief Barton, an old friend of Petrie's, lies dead. (Or does he?) From there, the pair, along with Nayland Smith and Superintendent Weymouth, are plunged into a death-defying adventure.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857686062</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=GK Chesterton|title=The Complete Father Brown StoriesFrances Brody
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Having read many 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 Father Brown short stories beforeBarleycorn 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, and after really enjoying the recent screen versionJames Lofthouse, I jumped at will be back from a trip to Germany before long. James went to see what the chance continental brewers were doing and what changes Barleycorn might need to get hold of this TV tie-in omnibusmake. The William is worried that James is perhaps enjoying himself a little cleric who has such bit ''too'' much or is going to bring back a mild manner, German bride but a keen knowledge of human evil, is one of my favourite detectives, and it was a pleasure he'd like the business to be able to read this complete collection of ship-shape before his storiesnephew returns.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849906467</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Sheridan0241433568|title=London Calling: a Mirabelle Bevan MysteryEight Detectives|author=Alex Pavesi
|rating=5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Mirabelle Bevan is an intriguing characterIt's 1930 and Megan and Henry are staying with Bunny at his house in Spain. Warm, resourceful It's unbearably hot and extremely clever, she spent her war years in intelligence (though not active duty) Bunny drank too much at lunch: he's going to have a rest and then, as the war ended and her long-time lover died, she withdrew he wants to talk to the coast Megan and the dubious joys of running a debt-collection agencyHenry about something serious. Accidentally getting involved in solving a major crime with her vibrant young companion Vesta Only it never gets her noticed, however, and it isnthat far: when Bunny doesn't long before she finds herself knee-deep in another mystery. A childhood friend flees London and an accusation of murder to beg Vesta and her employer to help him prove emerge after his siesta his innocenceguests find that he's been murdered. This leads How can that have happened? There's no one else in the intrepid pair into the world house, so one of smoky, music-filled basements and the black market, where they encounter criminals from all across them must be the social spectrumkiller.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972434</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jacqueline Jacques1473682401|title=The Colours of CorruptionTurning Tide (Dandy Gilver)|author=Catriona McPherson
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Mary, an impoverished cleaner, is witness 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 a murderMallory Dunnoch. Archie They're now married and Mallory is having twins. When they arrive no one can doubt the charms of the first artists to work Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and her brother, Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. There are two drawbacks: they're noisy and they're staying with the police Dandy and creates a picture of the man she says she sawHugh. Taken by Dandy and her looks he persuades Mary detective partner, Alec Osborne, had not taken up the chance to sit for look into a portraitproblem at the Cramond ferry when it was offered to them twice before, but suddenly the man who buys possibility of being out of the portraitwould rather buy Mary herself..house at Gilverton seems irresistible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784531</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrew Taylor|title=The Scent of Death|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=It’s hard to explain why Andrew Taylor’s novels are so chilling. They’re ghost stories that often lack ghosts, crime novels in which the crime itself feels at a remove from the rest of the action. But that’s really the secret of their power: while in most thrillers, the bogeyman is a single entity, easy to pinpoint Seishi Yokomizo and therefore easy to excise from the rest of the healthy fictional world, things are never so simple in the universes Taylor creates. What is frightening in an Andrew Taylor novel? Everything.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007213514</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=George Mann Louise Heal Kawai (Editortranslator)|title=Encounters of Sherlock Holmes|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Sherlock Holmes remains an enduring icon of English literature; perhaps as popular today as he was back in the late 1800s, maybe even more so with the advent of TV and film adaptations of his adventures. Indeed, such is the lasting appeal of the character that since the death of Conan Doyle there have been literally hundreds of works published, picking up where the original stories left off. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781160031</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Matthew Pearl|title=The TechnologistsHonjin Murders
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=The year To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is 1868 and Boston is under threat from an evil genius who seems enough to have make the uncanny ability book one to manipulate matter itselfread; 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 city 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 already experienced two attacks; 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 chaos wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annexe before the harbour when sun rises on their marriage. What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the navigation instruments went awry neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the eerie spectacle in time of the commercial quarter when every item crime, this case has a lot of glass, including windows, eyeglasses, clocks and watches spontaneously meltedthe peculiar about it. But are these attacks a prelude to something greater?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099512769</amazonuk>1782275002
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James P BlaylockB07XLM3SM6|title=The Aylesford SkullMurder at the Dolphin Hotel|author=Helena Dixon
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Langdon St. IvesElowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, renowned scientist and adventurerKitty, returns home from in the hubbub care of her grandmother. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and grime of Victorian London the conclusion was that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to his tranquil residence terms with this and in rural Aylesford where he lives 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with his wife Alice 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 their two young childrenKitty could not understand why. Weary She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the city, having survived a devastating explosion naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotel. And she particularly vicious attempt cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on his life, he is hoping for some repose things ''and a chance '' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to work quietly on his latest project; a dirigible airshiptake charge of security at the hotel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857689797</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Gallagher0349423067|title=The Kingdom of BonesBody on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)|author=Frances Brody|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary='If you like this sort of thing…' reads From Christmas to Easter a line train ran from Stephen GallagherLeeds City Station to King's 'The Kingdom of Bones'Cross, 'then here comes arriving before dawn so that the kind forced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Garden. In early March 1929, one of thing you’ll like'. It’s describing the opening music for porters who was unloading the boxes discovered the body of a theatrical numberman, but it’s an almost perfect tagline for ''The Kingdom stripped naked and with no means of Bones'' itselfidentification. If you like Victorians, vaudeville Scotland Yard hit a dead end and villainy, if you like prize-fighting called on the services of Kate Shackleton in the hope that her knowledge and police chases and possession by connections in Yorkshire would give them the Devil, then here comes 'The Kingdom of Bones'lead they needed. It’s Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child and could not come to terms with the kind of thing fact that you’re really going she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murder. He was reluctant to likegive her all the information which the police held.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091950139</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dashiell Hammett1472127110|title=The Return of the Thin ManIndian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery|author=Sara Sheridan|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=I've recently been discovering Life has changed dramatically for Mirabelle, our favourite fifties sleuth, since the original works of Raymond Chandler whichwar, like many people, I'd only really known from and not always for the Hollywood renditionsbetter. A naturalWhen she first settled in Brighton she was alone, if backwardsrudderless and secretly grieving for Jack, progression from there was clearly the lover who died before he could leave his wife. As time went by she found in herself an ability to the writer that Chandler solve crimes, made friends including an ebullient and determined young woman called 'the ace performer'Vesta who refused to let a little thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what she wanted, the man 'who did over and over again what only even found consolation in the best writers ever do at all'arms of a rather charming policeman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800208</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Essie Fox1912374439|title=Elijah's MermaidThe Courier|author=Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Author Augustus Lamb receives Nazi-occupied Oslo, 1942. There, I've given the game away. For in a shocking letter from his publisher 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 old rushes to her best friend Frederick Hall. Hall has discovered Lamb's small grandchildrento help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, Lily and Elijahthe late 1960s, in a London home for foundlingswhen great consternation is being felt. Lamb's son Gabriel had died after In this timeline, a socially unacceptable liaison with beautiful Italian Isabella maverick agent is back in town, one who subsequently disappeared. Delighted beyond words at Hall's discoverymight have been fingered for murdering that female victim, Augustus adopts the twinseven though she and he lived together with their baby as a young family, raising them except he was thought by all to have died in his Herefordshire country home, Kingsland House. There the children grow, happy and loved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409123340</amazonuk>War…
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Carnac1786075431|title=The Autobiography of Jack the RipperMrs Mohr Goes Missing|author=Maryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=The Meet Zofia. A socially climbing wife of a medical professor, she''Autobiography'' presents itself s intent on making herself known as the Ripper’s story told from a charitable lady, and keen on her husband progressing yet through his own perspectiveesteemed career. In 1890s Cracow, life is pretty good, but she knows it could always be better. The son Meanwhile, other people's life could certainly be better – cholera is nearing the city due to lack of an impoverished doctorhygiene, young Carnac has and many people have to fall on charity and almshouses to keep a childhood obsession with blood which a series of unfortunate events morphs into a full-blown desire roof over their heads. One such was Mrs Mohr, although she was rich enough to slit human throatskeep private lodgings and staff in her charitable home. It’s the typical Victorian coming-of-age story (from birth I say ''was'', for she has vanished. Only due to schoolZofia's help does she get found, then first love dead and finally adulthood) with in a twistplace the near-lame woman could never reach by herself. Just who could be killing people in a charity home, in that and to what end? And why does Zofia feel the path Carnac’s on leads him need to become not make a responsible adult but the most famous murderer of the nineteenth century.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552165395</amazonuk>name for herself by answering those questions?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kylie Fitzpatrick1786893762|title=The Silver ThreadThings in Jars|author=Jess Kidd
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=It's 1840 A child has gone missing. The detective asked to take on the case is still struggling with the shame and Rhia Mahoneyfrustration left by a previous case, daughter of an Irish merchant specialising where the child was not found in local linen, has time. Hardly original themes for a comfortable lifeprivate eye thriller. And yet . . . take another look. All that changesThis detective is a woman, howeverand the setting is Victorian London, as her father's warehouse burns down, taking his faltering business with it, ensuring Rhia must make her own way in all the rich and colourful paradoxes of that era: technical and scientific progress jostling for space beside superstition and a fascination with the world. Via family connections she comes to England bizarre and the home of Quaker widow Antonia Blakedownright hideous. The idea is that Antonia will protect Rhia whilst she seeks And before you're more than a position as governess couple of pages in bustling, alien Londonyou realise just how much more unusual our heroine is than you expected. But rather than residing Bridie Devine may dress in half-mourning, with a sanctuarywidow's cap and stout, shiny boots, but the tobacco she smokes in her problems worsen as shepipe (my dear, what an utterly ''fast''s enveloped in thing for a mystery leading lady to transportation despite do!) is mixed with a nugget of something, well, let's say recreational, created by her innocencechemist friend Prudhoe. The only things holding her life together are 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 letters she writes to ghost. Ruby Doyle, world-famous tattooed boxer (deceased) accompanies Bridie all through her dearly departed grandmotherinvestigation, her artistic skill and it's clear he has a determination to discover who wants her gonesoft spot for the determined young woman. If he really exists, that is.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800127</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Davies0349414327|title=The Year After|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Captain Tom Allen is home from World War I. Whilst waiting to be demobbed, he receives an invitation to attend the annual Christmas house-party at Hannesford Court, the stately home A Snapshot of Sir Robert and Lady Stansbury. He used to look forward to it before joining up and so decides to attend again, but everything has changed. The Stansbury's heir, Harry, and son-in-law, Oliver, were killed and second son, Reggie Stansbury, remains in a nursing home with no legs and dwindling self-respect. Whilst coming to terms with the devastating realisation that he's one of the very few men in their set to return alive and entire, Tom remembers pre-war Hannesford and the night when his friend Professor Schmidt died at such a gathering. Everyone believes it was unsuspicious but gradually things are coming to light that hint of hidden secrets. Along with her Ladyship's former companion, Anne Murder (who has issues of her ownKate Shackleton Mysteries), Tom decides to investigate as truths are exhumed, making him doubt whether those happier times were as idyllic as he remembers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980443</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Karen Engelmann|title=The Stockholm Octavo|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=As a Customs and Excise 'Sekretaire' in 18th century Stockholm, Emil Larsson has all he needs: professional respect, a bachelor's lifestyle and a table at Mrs Sparrow's gaming house whenever he fancies his luck. Contrastingly, his superiors at work feel he's missing a certain something. In order to climb further up the career ladder (maybe even to maintain his current position) Emil needs to marry. His manager believes this so fervently that there's a deadline for the wedding. Emil panics but Mrs Sparrow offers to lay an 'Octavo', a fortune-telling spread of eight cards to guide him to the eight people who will ensure his success. However, not all goes to plan as, over the eight nights it takes to complete the Octavo, it becomes apparent that the prediction isn't for Emil's future, but has become an Octavo to save the whole of Sweden.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444742698</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bruce Macbain|title=Roman Games (Plinius Secundus)|rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Sextus Ingentius Verpa isn't the most popular person in Rome. He may be a high ranking politician with the Emperor Domitian's ear but this also means he's a spy, ambitious and not always using his power and position for good. When Verpa is discovered, unceremoniously and repeatedly stabbed in his well-guarded bedroom, there are many who sigh with relief. However, the murderer must still be found and so Domitian appoints Gaius Plinius Secundus (or Pliny the Younger as history will dub him) to investigate. Pliny isn't a natural but reluctantly takes on the task because Domitian says so; Pliny has no choice. Domitian also says that the culprit must be found before the end of the Roman Games, giving Pliny 15 days. Over these 15 pressurised days he'll dig into Rome's filthy underbelly of cults, prostitution and other things he wasn't expecting, including practically adopting his own, personal rude poet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800364</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maureen Jennings|title=Vices of My Blood: Murdoch MysteriesFrances Brody
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=William Murdoch has at last been promoted to full detectiveEven detectives need a break and for Kate Shackleton, and continues to solve cases with his usual mix of dogged determination and flairphotography gives her the mental relaxation which she needs. Toronto at When the end of local Photographic Society proposed an outing, Kate was keen to take the nineteenth century is marked by a huge divide between the rich opportunity to visit Haworth and the poorStanbury, and not least because the fact that many deeds of the latter group Brontë Parsonage are utterly destitute leads to all manner of crimes, great being handed over so that it can become a museum and small.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857689924</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Kerr|title=Fell her parents will be there for the Angels|rating=3event.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Cecilia had had more surnames What could be better than was usual for seeing her family, witnessing a young woman in momentous event and having the late nineteenth century. She was born Henderson but married Robert Castello and quickly came opportunity to realise that he was an adulterer with a drink problem. A womantake photographs of the setting for ''Wuthering Heights's place was thought to be with her husband - even by Cecilia's wealthy parents - but they recognised that forcing her to ? Nothing could go back to him could be problematicalwrong. As a compromise she was sent to Malvern to take a water cure and Or could it was there that she came into contact with Dr James Gully. He was a good deal older than Cecilia but a relationship developed between the two - affection on Cecilia's part (probably the most of which she was capable) and love on his.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709098383</amazonuk>?
}}
{{newreview|author=Graeme Kent|title=One Blood|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Sergeant Kella is being sent from his native Malaita Move on to another part of the Solomon Islands to investigate logging sabotage there. In the same district, his friend Sister Conchita has assumed reluctant control of a mission with three elderly sisters living there who are rather set in their ways, to say the least. Then a body turns up in the church… is this related to the sabotage? And how does the wartime history of John F Kennedy, vying to become the new President of the USA, fit in to all of this?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013411</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Dyslexia Friendly Reviews]]

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