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[[Category:New Reviews|Crime (Historical)]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=The Marathon Conspiracy0571370977|authortitle=Gary Corby|rating=3.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Nicolaos has a lot on his mind. His wedding is only a few weeks away and he still has no real means of supporting a wife and family. The investigating game, it seems, doesn't pay too well. So when his patron Pericles asks him to investigate the murder of a young child, Nico is a little reticent, especially since he is still waiting to be paid for his previous assignment. Deciding that he can't afford to be picky, Nico accepts a case which will see him, amongst other things, fending off street thugs, diving for treasure in a sacred spring, going on a bear hunt, rescuing a pair of fighting cocks and consulting a strange priestess who has a habit of running around the woods naked...At least he can't complain that his work is boring.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>161695387X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Shirley McKay|title=Friend and Foe (A Hew Cullan Mystery)|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=1583 and King James VI of Scotland is paranoid and, after the events of the Ruthven raid the year before, who can blame him? Surely this won't affect humble academic lawyer Hew Cullen? Oh but it will, eventually causing more turmoil than even he is used to. Back at the beginning though, while Hew continues, unaware of what's to come, he has more pressing domestic worries that, for once, don't affect his herbalist sister Meg or his doctor brother-inLock-law Giles. Indeed, this time the concern is the love of Hew's own heart.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972175</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Axeman's JazzUp|author= Ray CelestinJohn Banville

|summary=Based on a true story, ''The AxemanIt's Jazz'' is scriptwriter Ray Celestin's debut novel. It tells of a serial killer six months since the dramatic events which we read about in [[April in New Orleans Spain by John Banville|April in 1919 - the Axeman - who torments the city Spain]] and has everyone talking; it seems that everyone has their theories Dr Quirke is now back in Dublin and yet no meaningful leads are presenting themselves, as the police and citizens of New Orleans begin to despair of ever catching the killer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144725886X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Sherlock Holmes: Gods of War|author=James Lovegrove|rating=4.5|genre=Crime living (Historicalif somewhat uneasily)|summary=The year is 1913 and the storm clouds of war are gathering ominously on the horizon. Most people dread the inevitable, but there are individuals who stand to gain from the oncoming conflict and will stop at nothing to facilitate their planswith his daughter, even if that means murderPhoebe. However, it would take a very brave (or naïve) criminal to commit such an atrocity in the neighbourhood The worst of Mr Sherlock Holmes, even if he is supposed to be enjoying his retirement. When it comes to investigating mysterious activity, Holmes can't resist the lure of the chase and soon the game grief is afoot!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781165432</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Marco Malvaldi over but he irrationally blames DI St John Strafford for what happened and Howard Curtis (translator)|title=The Art of Killing Well|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Pellegrino Artusi this has travelled made the length and breadth of Italy researching his masterpiece ''The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well'' and the chance to visit the home - or rather the castle - of the seventh Barone di Roccapendente was a double bonusalready strained relationship between them more difficult. HeThey'd have re brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the opportunity to discover the secrets of the Barone's kitchen and the chance body of a few days rest and possibly young, Jewish scholar, Rosa Jacobs, is found in a boar hunt in the Tuscan hillslock-up. What could be better? WellAt first, his stay would have been improved had a body not been discovered in the locked cellar of the castle. The cast of aristocratic suspects baffles the local police inspector and Artusi realises it looked as though she'd gassed herself but Quirke is convinced that he will have to become involvedit was murder rather than suicide.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052942</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=MRC Kasasian1529337968|title=The Curse Of The House Of Foskett (The Gower Street Detective Series)In Place of Fear|author=Catriona McPherson

|summary=Personal (not private!) detective Sidney Grice is still smarting because heIt's thought July 1948 and Helen Crowther is due to have sent an innocent man to the gallows. It's also hit him in the pocket as start work has dried up as a resultqualified medical almoner the following morning - on the day that the NHS is born. HeShe's therefore pleased ll be working for Dr Deuchar and Dr Strasser in their GP surgery and intrigued when he's visited by a potential client who wants him her job will be to look into the Last Death Club, a group help patients with those non-medical problems which affect their health. The hardest part of people who have each put £2,000 in the kitty, the sum of which job will go be to persuade people that the last person surviving. Unfortunately services she offers really are free and that they seem don't have to be dying quicker than planned and rather unnaturallydo anything to qualify for them. Sidney is about to accept Some of the case when his client drops dead in Grice's study in front problems will require delicate handling but Helen has a problem of him and his ward and assistant March Middletonher own which might give her some insight. It may not improve his reputation any, but his attention Her marriage has never been piqued; he'll take the case anywayconsummated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781853258</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=057136358X|title=An Appetite for VioletsApril in Spain|author=Martine BaileyJohn Banville

|summary=Biddy 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''Obedience. I couldn' Leigh is t resist the under-cook at Mawton Hall, but although she is passionate about cookingthought that he was an extreme version of Marie Kondo. He enjoyed his job, her dearest wish is something which occurred to marry her young man. The date is set for her him when he was in Burma with the army ''where he got the chance to leave kill a lot of the Hall for married life little yellow fellows and she is looking forward to ithad a fine old time''. But He was spending a lot of time with Percy Antrobus - who couldn't understand why Terry didn't know the master purpose of a swizzle stick - surely he wouldn't drink champagne with bubbles in the house surprises everyone when ''morning''? It was after Percy's death that he gets himself a very young wife – and Biddy’s world is rapidly changed. Lady Carinna takes saw the benefits of taking up a shine to Biddy, and when Biddy proves herself to be resourceful and entrepreneurial, her fate is sealedjob in Spain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444768727</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sharon PenmanB08Z8BMZ7H|title=Prince The Mystery of DarknessHealing|author=A P McGrath

|summary=1193: Justin de Quincy, bastard son We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the Bishop of Chester common era and loyal to Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, steers clear of Eleanorhe's youngest son John the physician on duty at all coststhe munus - the games put on for the amusement of the populace. After all, JohnThe remuneration isn't high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and hones his skills: Solon ''wants''s henchman did try the warriors to murder himlive. However thereIt's quite a plot afoot spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see them, they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes to frame John for a crime he didn’t commit (for a change), bringing with it somewhat of a dilemma for Justinmake them look more impressive. As much as he hates John, de Quincy realises that getting to The sagitarii are the bottom of archers and the plot is in beastiarii are the interests of condemned criminals who are going to fight for their lives with the Queen and Englandwild animals. So Justin's course is setToday, no matter what it costs and no matter which hornets' nests it disturbss the crocodiles.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781857083</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bruce Crowther1529337925|title=Harlem Nocturne|rating=4|genre=Crime The Mirror Dance (HistoricalDandy Gilver)|summary=Just before the beginning of the Second World War and half a world away from Europe the World's Fair is taking place in New York. The British king and queen are expected and there's a Joe Louis title fight on the horizon. Daniel Leland lives in Harlem. He used to be with the NYPD but was retired after he was shot by robbers: the bullet is still in his body and perilously close to his spine. Right now he makes his living as a small-time private detective, but business seems to be looking up when he's offered an investigation - and a very large retainer - by a manufacturer who might be suffering espionage. Before long there's a murder to add into the equation too.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1490960821</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Andrew Hughes|title=The Convictions of John DelahuntCatriona McPherson

|summary=As John Delahunt sits in a cell for It was the condemned writing an account of his lifeAugust Bank Holiday weekend and, as so often happened, we go through it with himwas 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. It all begins as he witnesses She was the publisher of a fracas between his fellow students magazine and had been told that the man running the Punch and Judy show in the police after a visit to one local park had used copies of two of the fine hostelries Victorian Dublin has her cartoon characters - Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to offerdrum up some local interest in his show. In this way John Sandy Bissett's brought request was simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the attention man about infringement of 'The Department', copyright - and Dandy and Alex would be cheaper than employing a pro-British intelligence unit based in solicitor to do the notorious Dublin Castle. John agrees to help them not realising this is never going to be an agreement he can back away from, no matter how hard he tries and no matter how much it costs himsame job.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781620148</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Sebag MontefioreB08LKT7HSR|title=One Night Murder in Winterthe Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery)|author=Helena Dixon|rating=3.5

|summary=In June 1945 two school students are shot dead December 1933 the remains of Elowed Underhay were discovered in Moscow. These aren't just any school students; they attended Josef Stalin School 801, the academy that taught Stalin's own children and the current educational establishment cellar of choice for the offspring of many government and army grandeesGlass Bottle Public House. Why did they die? Did the seemingly innocent Fatal Romantics Club have anything to do Ezekiel Hamett was sought in connection with it? For the children the club is a way murder of living their love of PushkinElowed and his half-brother, Denzil Hammett, whose body was also discovered. Kitty Underhay's literature but to others it seems a little differentlong search for her mother, who disappeared in June 1916 was over. Stalin himself is Now she's determined that the man responsible for her murder will be brought to have it investigated and what Stalin wants, Stalin gets no matter how wide the ultimate spider's web of suspicion is cast and no matter whom it catchesjustice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099580330</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Laura Wilson|title=The Riot|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=DI Stratton has moved to a new posting and Notting Hill is fresh territory to him, but he’s going to have to get to know it fast when a rent collector is stabbed. There’s a sense of loss from the people who knew the man - he was inclined to help if he could and with landlords wanting to oust rent-controlled tenants so that they could put ‘coloured’ people or prostitutes in their place (higher rents, you see) any help was welcome. Added to this there are increasing numbers of street fights involving teddy boys. It’s 1958 - and there’s a heatwave.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782063080</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=James ScottStephen Clarke|title=The Kept|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Elspeth and her 12 year old son Caleb have been beset by one of the worst types of tragedy. As a result, fuelled by Caleb's need for revenge and Elspeth's motherly love, they set out on a journey that brings them to the small Lake Erie town of Watersbridge. With their new setting comes a greater understanding of their past which is a mixed blessing that must be met head on before they have to face their future.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091944503</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sian Busby|title=A Commonplace KillingSpy Who Inspired Me

|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=In July 1946 two schoolboys found the body of This is a woman on a bombsite in north Londonspoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. ItBut it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 's a while before shelikes the ladies's identified as Lillian Frobisherand who works for the secret service, but that produces in the planning side of things more problemsthan the active service. Lillian was - apparently - Lemming finds himself put on a respectably married woman but mission with a female spy called Margaux, and the encounter pair end up stranded in Normandy, with Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the bomb site had been sexual resistance network, and almost certainly consensual. And why was Lemming desperately trying to keep up with her husband not aware that his wife was missing? His position looks even worse when it emerges that the body was lying on an expensive mackintosh sold in the store where he's a doorman. But was Lillian quite as respectable as she would have had everyone think?!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780722060</amazonuk>2952163855

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0349423083|title=The TournamentDeath and the Brewery Queen (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)|author=Matthew ReillyFrances Brody|rating=34.5

|summary=Michael Reilly is somewhat 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 a guilty pleasure of mine; his novels are hi-octane adventures that are often as ludicrous as they are sublimethe Barleycorn Brewery in Masham. ‘The Tournament’ Something is a departure from going wrong with his business and he'd like Kate to look into it discreetly: he's hoping that his action packed Scarecrow nephew and Jack West thrillers; instead creating an alternative history for our own Queen Elizabeth Iright-hand man, James Lofthouse, will be back from a trip to Germany before long. Why was she such a formidable leader whose reluctance James went to marry and dislike of see what the Catholics continental brewers were only part of her doing and what changes Barleycorn might need to make-up? . Reilly poses William is worried that James is perhaps enjoying himself a hypothetical tale about a 13 year old Bess little bit ''too'' much or is going to Constantinople to watch bring back a tournament of German bride but he'd like the world’s greatest chess players. Here she will business to be embroiled in a murder mystery alongside her tutor Roger Aschamship-shape before his nephew returns.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409134229</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0241433568|title=The Return of Sherlock HolmesEight Detectives|author=Arthur Conan DoyleAlex Pavesi

|summary=IIt'm still not sure which is cheekier of the BBC – either riffing on the Conan Doyle originals for their own modern takes on s 1930 and Megan and Henry are staying with Bunny at his house in Spain. Sherlock Holmes, or producing new editions of the original stories It's unbearably hot and novels with their young stars on the front, purely Bunny drank too much at lunch: he's going to tie have a few sales down of what is now out of copyrightrest 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. Certainly I think the latter is the greater crime, given How can that have happened? There's no one else in the results on screenhouse, for the number of young people picking up these classics for the first time on the basis of the TV and finding something quite against the grain of what they've ever read outside so one of school them must be quite largethe killer. Still, anything to forcefeed classics to a new audience…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849907609</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1473682401|title=The City of StrangersTurning Tide (Dandy Gilver)|author=Michael RussellCatriona McPherson|rating=54

|summary=In Those who were with us at the spring end of 1939 The Irish Times reported [[A Step So Grave (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson|A Step So Grave]] will remember that Mrs Letitia Harris, aged 53 had gone missing from her home in DublinDonald was engaged to Mallory Dunnoch. They're now married and Mallory is having twins. Her car was found When they arrive no one can doubt the following morning on a cliff top near Shankillcharms of Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and her brother, Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. There were bloodstains in 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 car, and chance to look into a blood-stained hatchet in problem at the shed back in DublinCramond ferry when it was offered to them twice before, blood too in but suddenly the possibility of being out of the flowerbedhouse at Gilverton seems irresistible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847563473</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Sherlock: His Last BowSeishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|authortitle=Arthur Conan DoyleThe Honjin Murders

|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery'The Endis enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'. I got told off for writing For those two simple words at who need more, here is the extra background – we're in rural Japan in the end of a short story I wrote at school, aged about eleven1930s. If it The oldest son of an esteemed family is the endbelatedly getting married, I think although the teacher was sayingwhole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it should be obviousbeing arranged at great haste. If it isn'tShe only has an uncle representing her family, there's still no way the words are necessaryfor one thing. But at least I'm not alone. Conan DoyleEither way, the south coast Doctor turned entertainer extraordinaire with all his outputcelebrations have gone ahead as planned, was told off only for the way he finished things. Holmes dead? Sorry, not allowed, Mr Doyle. Holmes retired wedded couple to be slashed to keep bees near Eastbourne? Beyond death in their private annexe before the pale, Sir – bring him backsun rises on their marriage. You don't like What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the labour neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of proving your genius invention to be such a genius? Tough. And so we come to 'His Last Bow', which Watson tells us is traditional musical instrument at the time of the final, final, ending story with which to concludecrime, and this case has a few others. He wasn't exactly correct lot of the peculiar about it being the last ones, though.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849907617</amazonuk>1782275002

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B07XLM3SM6|title=The Bones of ParisMurder at the Dolphin Hotel|author=Laurie R KingHelena Dixon

|summary=It is 1929 and Harris Stuyvesant has now left Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the Bureau care of Investigation and England behind him and is working as a Private Investigator in Europeher grandmother. An American, whom Stuyvesant A great deal of money had metbeen 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 gone missing come to terms with this and Stuyvesant is approached by in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her Uncle and grandmother when her Mother grandmother had to leave to find look after hersister who was ill. The missing girl, Pip Crosby, She was involved reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand why. She's always coped with a group the mix of artists in holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the Montparnasse edge of town before - and Montmartre areas of she's done every job in the cityhotel. Many of them seem to have known And she particularly cannot understand why her, but few grandmother's friends have seen her been roped in some timeto keep an eye on things ''and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the hotel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749015357</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Essie Fox0349423067|title=The Goddess and Body on the ThiefTrain (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)|author=Frances Brody|rating=4.5

|summary=Alice Willoughby may only 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 a child but she feels at taken to Covent Garden. In early March 1929, one with India, of the country in which she porters who was born unloading the boxes discovered the body of a man, stripped naked and where her father works for the East India Companywith no means of identification. The sights, the smells Scotland Yard hit a dead end and called on the tales services of Kate Shackleton in the Indian gods told by Mini, hope that her Indian ayah all contribute to it being home, despite knowledge and connections in Yorkshire would give them the sub-continent having made her motherlesslead they needed. Therefore imagine Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her disgust when as a child and could not come to terms with the fact that she's left in the hands of her Aunt Mercy (was now a counterfeit medium) woman experienced in drab, dirty Victorian London. Life isn't easy anymore but it takes on a new turn when she meets the mysterious Mr Tilsburydealing with murder. He has a plan for was reluctant to give her that includes all the theft of information which the Koh-I-Noor diamond, Her Majesty's pride and joypolice held.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409146197</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1472127110|title=TouchstoneIndian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery|author=Laurie R KingSara Sheridan|rating=34.5

|summary=Laurie R King may be best known Life has changed dramatically for her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes seriesMirabelle, but she has also written a number of other novelsour favourite fifties sleuth, a couple of which feature detective Harris Stuyvesant. With the publication of since the second in this serieswar, and not always for the better. When she first ''Touchstone'', originally published settled in 2008Brighton she was alone, has been republishedrudderless and secretly grieving for Jack, allowing those readers new the lover who died before he could leave his wife. As time went by she found in herself an ability to Stuyvesantsolve crimes, or even made friends including an ebullient and determined young woman called Vesta who refused to King herselflet a little thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what she wanted, to become properly acquaintedand even found consolation in the arms of a rather charming policeman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749015454</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1912374439|title=The Lovegrove HermitCourier|author=Rosemary CraddockKjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)|rating=3.5

|summary=Charlotte Tyler is delighted to receive an invitation to Lovegrove PrioryNazi-occupied Oslo, home of eccentric Gothic novelist Amelia Denby1942. The priory is surrounded by acres of picturesque parkland and Denby even has a hermit living in There, I've given the grounds game away. For in his own private retreat. Howevera book that centres around a murder, when I've told you who did it – the hermitNazis, Brother Casparsurely? Well, is found dead that certainly has to remain to be seen in an apparent suicidethis volume, which splits its time between one of war, when a young woman sees her father arrested, it is up and their store condemned as Jewish and rushes to Charlotte and her new best friend Colonel Hartley to piece together help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, and the clues 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 unmask he lived together with their baby as a young family, except he was thought by all to have died in the murderer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719811066</amazonuk>War…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786075431|title=The Luck of the VailsMrs Mohr Goes Missing|author=E F BensonMaryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)|rating=3.5

|summary=Meet Zofia. A socially climbing wife of a medical professor, she'The sequestered village of Vail lies in s intent on making herself known as a wrinkle of the great Wiltshire downscharitable 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 traversed by nearing the Bath Roadcity 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.' Of course the big inn is called I say 'The Vail Arms' and about a mile from the village is was'the big house', for she has vanished. Benson doesn Only due to Zofia't name s help does she get found, dead and in a place the house – indeed it wouldn't have needed a namenear-lame woman could never reach by herself. Locally it would just Just who could be known as the big housekilling people in a charity home, and any local delivery person would know where to deposit any attached what end? And why does Zofia feel the need to Lord Vail.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099572435</amazonuk>make a name for herself by answering those questions?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Ashton1786893762|title=Nor Will He SleepThings in Jars|author=Jess Kidd

|summary=Two opposing Edinburgh university student gangs are full of high jinks the night that Agnes Carnegie is found deadA child has gone missing. Daniel Drummond, one of The detective asked to take on the merry-makers, case is a prime suspect as he had an altercation still struggling with her the shame and uses frustration left by a silver cane that matches previous case, where the murder weaponchild was not found in time. Hardly original themes for a private eye thriller. And yet . . . take another look. Nothing This detective is a foregone conclusion though woman, and so dourthe setting is Victorian London, wily Inspector James McLevy with all the rich and colourful paradoxes of that era: technical and scientific progress jostling for space beside superstition and a fascination with the Leith police is determined to uncover bizarre and the truthdownright hideous. Meanwhile Robert Louis Stevenson 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 town for his fatherhalf-mourning, with a widow's funeral cap and renews his acquaintance 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 McLevy which is rather fortuitous when we consider what lies aheada nugget of something, well, let's say recreational, created by her chemist friend Prudhoe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972515</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=MRC Kasasian|title=The Mangle Street Murders|rating=5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=March Middletonfact that it's father diesactually meant to cure bronchial problems is by the by. Her housemaid, and she becomes a 20being seven-foot-something alone; not a good status for a Victorian womantall, is also somewhat remarkable. She therefore moves in with her guardianAnd then, of course, Sidney Gricethere's the ghost. Ruby Doyle, personal world-famous tattooed boxer (not private!deceased) detective. Althoughaccompanies Bridie all through her investigation, as Sidney and it's clear he has a case to solve, March may as well be invisible. Grice has been employed by shopkeeper William Ashby who has savagely murdered his own wife by stabbing her 40 times and leaving the Italian word soft spot for 'revenge' on the walldetermined young woman. Everyone says If he did it apart from Ashbyreally exists, of course. Therefore Grice teams up with Inspector Pound of the Yard to solve the conundrum and March that is there to help, whether Sidney wants her to or not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781851840</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0349414327|title=A Snapshot of Murder (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)

|summary=FridrikEven detectives need a break and for Kate Shackleton, Agnes and Sigridur are accused of murdering two men one Icelandic night in 1829 before setting fire to their homephotography gives her the mental relaxation which she needs. Now Agnes awaits executionWhen the local Photographic Society proposed an outing, Kate was keen to take the opportunity to visit Haworth and Stanbury, imprisoned in not least because the farm deeds of the Brontë Parsonage are being handed over so that it can become a lowly local museum and her parents will be there for the event. What could be better than seeing her family who, rumour has it, wouldn't be too great witnessing a loss if momentous event and having the prisoner becomes dangerous. Margrit Jonsdottir (opportunity to take photographs of the farmersetting for 's wife) doesn't feel threatened and sets the shocked, malnourished Agnes to work. Wuthering Heights''? Gradually Agnes reveals the events of that night to Margrit and Toti, a young priestNothing could go wrong. Her version seems to be a little different from what everyone else concluded, predictably… Or perhaps not so predictably.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447233166</amazonuk>could it?

{{newreview|author= Daniel Woodrell|title=The Maid's Version|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 Move on 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=[[Newest 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 GamesReviews]], 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>}}