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

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[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
 
[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=CC Humphreys
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|isbn=0571370977
|title=Plague
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|title=The Lock-Up
|rating=5
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|author=John Banville
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Highwayman Captain William Coke stops a carriage in the line of his chosen career and soon discovers he's not the first to have assailed it.  The driver is dead and all those within have been brutally skeweredHe flees the scene but unfortunately leaves a pistol behind.  This is all thief-taker Pitman needs to arouse his interest and attempt to track the Captain down with a noose in mindMeanwhile nature has an equally random mode of death that's soon to be let loose on London.  This is 1665 and the Great Plague is about to begin.
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|summary=It's six months since the dramatic events which we read about in [[April in Spain by John Banville|April in Spain]] and Dr Quirke is now back in Dublin and living (if somewhat uneasily) with his daughter, Phoebe.  The worst of his grief is over but he irrationally blames DI St John Strafford for what happened and this has made the already strained relationship between them more difficultThey're brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the body of a young, Jewish scholar, Rosa Jacobs, is found in a lock-upAt first, it looked as though she'd gassed herself but Quirke is convinced that it was murder rather than suicide.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780891423</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529337968
|author=Alan Hamilton
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|title=In Place of Fear
|title=Stalemate
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|author=Catriona McPherson
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=In the summer of 1930 Walter Bruce was told that he had an incurable illnessWith nursing care and an easier job he might have a few more years to live - but without them he had a matter of months.  The solution would seem straightforward but Bruce had a wife - and she demanded to be ''kept'' and was far too selfish to be his nurse.  Life ''might'' have continued much as it was, but Bruce discovered that his wife had been deceiving him about her age and background - and with ''two'' of his business colleaguesThe solution was obvious: he would devise the perfect murder and then live out his final years in comfort.  Bruce was a chess player and he approached the problem much as he would a game of chess - but even the best plans rarely survive contact with reality.
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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 bornShe'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 themSome 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>178132204X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=057136358X
|title=The Marathon Conspiracy
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|title=April in Spain
|author=Gary Corby
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|author=John Banville
|rating=3.5
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|rating=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)
 
|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-in-law Giles. Indeed, this time the concern is the love of Hew's own heart.
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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>1846972175</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08Z8BMZ7H
|title=The Axeman's Jazz
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|title=The Mystery of Healing
|author= Ray Celestin
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|author=A P McGrath
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Based on a true story, ''The Axeman's Jazz'' is scriptwriter Ray Celestin's debut novel. It tells of a serial killer in New Orleans in 1919 - the Axeman - who torments the city and has everyone talking; it seems that everyone has their theories and yet no meaningful leads are presenting themselves, as the police and citizens of New Orleans begin to despair of ever catching the killer.
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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>144725886X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529337925
|title=Sherlock Holmes: Gods of War
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|title=The Mirror Dance (Dandy Gilver)
|author=James Lovegrove
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|author=Catriona McPherson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|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 plans, even if that means murder. However, it would take a very brave (or naïve) criminal to commit such an atrocity in the neighbourhood 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 is afoot!
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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>1781165432</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08LKT7HSR
|author=Marco Malvaldi and Howard Curtis (translator)
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|title=Murder in the Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery)
|title=The Art of Killing Well
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|author=Helena Dixon
|rating=4.5
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|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Pellegrino Artusi has travelled 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 bonus.  He'd have the opportunity to discover the secrets of the Barone's kitchen and the chance of a few days rest and possibly a boar hunt in the Tuscan hills.  What could be better?  Well, 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 that he will have to become involved.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052942</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=MRC Kasasian
 
|title=The Curse Of The House Of Foskett (The Gower Street Detective Series)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Personal (not private!) detective Sidney Grice is still smarting because he's thought to have sent an innocent man to the gallows.  It's also hit him in the pocket as work has dried up as a result.  He's therefore pleased and intrigued when he's visited by a potential client who wants him to look into the Last Death Club, a group of people who have each put £2,000 in the kitty, the sum of which will go to the last person surviving.  Unfortunately they seem to be dying quicker than planned and rather unnaturally.  Sidney is about to accept the case when his client drops dead in Grice's study in front of him and his ward and assistant March Middleton.  It may not improve his reputation any, but his attention has been piqued; he'll take the case anyway.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781853258</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=An Appetite for Violets
 
|author=Martine Bailey
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Biddy 'Obedience' Leigh is the under-cook at Mawton Hall, but although she is passionate about cooking, her dearest wish is to marry her young man. The date is set for her to leave the Hall for married life and she is looking forward to it. But the master of the house surprises everyone when he gets himself a very young wife – and Biddy’s world is rapidly changed. Lady Carinna takes a shine to Biddy, and when Biddy proves herself to be resourceful and entrepreneurial, her fate is sealed.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444768727</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sharon Penman
 
|title=Prince of Darkness
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=1193: Justin de Quincy, bastard son of the Bishop of Chester and loyal to Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, steers clear of Eleanor's youngest son John at all costs.  After all, John's henchman did try to murder himHowever there's a plot afoot to frame John for a crime he didn’t commit (for a change), bringing with it somewhat of a dilemma for Justin.  As much as he hates John, de Quincy realises that getting to the bottom of the plot is in the interests of the Queen and EnglandSo Justin's course is set, no matter what it costs and no matter which hornets' nests it disturbs.
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|summary=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 discoveredKitty Underhay's long search for her mother, who disappeared in June 1916 was overNow she's determined that the man responsible for her murder will be brought to justice.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781857083</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Stephen Clarke
|author=Bruce Crowther
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|title=The Spy Who Inspired Me
|title=Harlem Nocturne
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
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|genre=General Fiction
|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 YorkThe 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 spineRight 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.
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|summary=This is a spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond.  Or Ian FlemingBut 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 serviceLemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, and the pair end up stranded in Normandy, with Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to keep up with her!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1490960821</amazonuk>
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|isbn=2952163855
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0349423083
|author=Andrew Hughes
+
|title=Death and the Brewery Queen (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
|title=The Convictions of John Delahunt
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|author=Frances Brody
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=As John Delahunt sits in a cell for the condemned writing an account of his life, we go through it with him.  It all begins as he witnesses a fracas between his fellow students and the police after a visit to one of the fine hostelries Victorian Dublin has to offerIn this way John's brought to the attention of 'The Department', a pro-British intelligence unit based in 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 him.
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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 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 makeWilliam is worried that James is perhaps enjoying himself a little bit ''too'' much or is going to bring back a German bride but he'd like the business to be ship-shape before his nephew returns.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781620148</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241433568
|author=Simon Sebag Montefiore
+
|title=Eight Detectives
|title=One Night in Winter
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|author=Alex Pavesi
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=In June 1945 two school students are shot dead 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 of choice for the offspring of many government and army grandeesWhy did they die?  Did the seemingly innocent Fatal Romantics Club have anything to do with it?  For the children the club is a way of living their love of Pushkin's literature but to others it seems a little different.  Stalin himself is determined 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 catches.
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|summary=It's 1930 and Megan and Henry are staying with Bunny at his house in SpainIt's unbearably hot and Bunny drank too much at lunch: he's going to have a rest and then he wants to talk to Megan and Henry about something serious.  Only it never gets that far: when Bunny doesn't emerge after his siesta his guests find that he's been murderedHow can that have happened?  There's no one else in the house, so one of them must be the killer.
|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 stabbedThere’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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1473682401
|author=James Scott
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|title=The Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver)
|title=The Kept
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|author=Catriona McPherson
|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 Killing
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=In July 1946 two schoolboys found the body of a woman on a bombsite in north LondonIt's a while before she's identified as Lillian Frobisher, but that produces more problemsLillian was - apparently - a respectably married woman but the encounter on the bomb site had been sexual and almost certainly consensualAnd why was 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?
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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 DunnochThey'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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722060</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)
|title=The Tournament
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|title=The Honjin Murders
|author=Matthew Reilly
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|rating=4
|rating=3.5
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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 marriageWhat 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=Michael Reilly is somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine; his novels are hi-octane adventures that are often as ludicrous as they are sublime‘The Tournament’ is a departure from his action packed Scarecrow and Jack West thrillers; instead creating an alternative history for our own Queen Elizabeth I.  Why was she such a formidable leader whose reluctance to marry and dislike of the Catholics were only part of her make-up?  Reilly poses a hypothetical tale about a 13 year old Bess going to Constantinople to watch a tournament of the world’s greatest chess playersHere she will be embroiled in a murder mystery alongside her tutor Roger Ascham.
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|isbn=1782275002
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409134229</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Return of Sherlock Holmes
 
|author=Arthur Conan Doyle
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=I'm still not sure which is cheekier of the BBC either riffing on the Conan Doyle originals for their own modern takes on  Sherlock Holmes, or producing new editions of the original stories and novels with their young stars on the front, purely to tie a few sales down of what is now out of copyrightCertainly I think the latter is the greater crime, given the results on screen, 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 of school must be quite large.  Still, anything to forcefeed classics to a new audience…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849907609</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The City of Strangers
 
|author=Michael Russell
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=In the spring of 1939 The Irish Times reported that Mrs Letitia Harris, aged 53 had gone missing from her home in Dublin.  Her car was found the following morning on a cliff top near ShankillThere were bloodstains in the car, and a blood-stained hatchet in the shed back in Dublin, blood too in the flowerbed.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847563473</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B07XLM3SM6
|title=Sherlock: His Last Bow
+
|title=Murder at the Dolphin Hotel
|author=Arthur Conan Doyle
+
|author=Helena Dixon
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=''The End''.  I got told off for writing those two simple words at the end of a short story I wrote at school, aged about elevenIf it is the end, I think the teacher was saying, it should be obvious.  If it isn't, there's still no way the words are necessaryBut at least I'm not alone.  Conan Doyle, the south coast Doctor turned entertainer extraordinaire with all his output, was told off for the way he finished thingsHolmes dead?  Sorry, not allowed, Mr DoyleHolmes retired to keep bees near Eastbourne?  Beyond the pale, Sir – bring him back.  You don't like the labour of proving your genius invention to be such a genius?  Tough.  And so we come to 'His Last Bow', which Watson tells us is the final, final, ending story with which to conclude, and a few others.  He wasn't exactly correct about it being the last ones, though.
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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 grandmotherA 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 otherwiseKitty 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>1849907617</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0349423067
|title=The Bones of Paris
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|title=The Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
|author=Laurie R King
+
|author=Frances Brody
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=It is 1929 and Harris Stuyvesant has now left the Bureau of Investigation and England behind him and is working as a Private Investigator in EuropeAn American, whom Stuyvesant had met, has gone missing and Stuyvesant is approached by her Uncle and her Mother to find her.  The missing girl, Pip Crosby, was involved with a group of artists in the Montparnasse and Montmartre areas of the cityMany of them seem to have known her, but few have seen her in some time.
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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 neededKate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child and could not come to terms with the fact that she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murderHe was reluctant to give her all the information which the police held.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749015357</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Essie Fox
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|isbn=1472127110
|title=The Goddess and the Thief
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|title=Indian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery
|rating=4
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|author=Sara Sheridan
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Alice Willoughby may only be a child but she feels at one with India, the country in which she was born and where her father works for the East India Company. The sights, the smells and the tales of the Indian gods told by Mini, her Indian ayah all contribute to it being home, despite the sub-continent having made her motherless.  Therefore imagine her disgust when she's left in the hands of her Aunt Mercy (a counterfeit medium) in drab, dirty Victorian London.  Life isn't easy anymore but it takes on a new turn when she meets the mysterious Mr Tilsbury.  He has a plan for her that includes the theft of the Koh-I-Noor diamond, Her Majesty's pride and joy.
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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>1409146197</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1912374439
|title=Touchstone
+
|title=The Courier
|author=Laurie R King
+
|author=Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Laurie R King may be best known for her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series, but she has also written a number of other novels, a couple of which feature detective Harris Stuyvesant.  With the publication of the second in this series, the first ''Touchstone'', originally published in 2008, has been republished, allowing those readers new to Stuyvesant, or even to King herself, to become properly acquainted.
+
|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>0749015454</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1786075431
|title=The Lovegrove Hermit
+
|title=Mrs Mohr Goes Missing
|author=Rosemary Craddock
+
|author=Maryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)
|rating=3
+
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Charlotte Tyler is delighted to receive an invitation to Lovegrove Priory, home of eccentric Gothic novelist Amelia Denby. The priory is surrounded by acres of picturesque parkland and Denby even has a hermit living in the grounds in his own private retreat. However, when the hermit, Brother Caspar, is found dead in an apparent suicide, it is up to Charlotte and her new friend Colonel Hartley to piece together the clues and unmask the murderer.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719811066</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Luck of the Vails
 
|author=E F Benson
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary='The sequestered village of Vail lies in a wrinkle of the great Wiltshire downs, and is traversed by the Bath Road.' Of course the big inn is called 'The Vail Arms' and about a mile from the village is 'the big house'.   Benson doesn't name the house – indeed it wouldn't have needed a nameLocally it would just be known as the big house, and any local delivery person would know where to deposit any attached to Lord Vail.
+
|summary=Meet Zofia.  A socially climbing wife of a medical professor, she's intent on making herself known as a charitable lady, and keen on her husband progressing yet through his esteemed career.  In 1890s Cracow, life is pretty good, but she knows it could always be better.  Meanwhile, other people's life could certainly be better – cholera is nearing the city due to lack of hygiene, and many people have to fall on charity and almshouses to keep a roof over their heads.  One such was Mrs Mohr, although she was rich enough to keep private lodgings and staff in her charitable 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 herselfJust 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>0099572435</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1786893762
|author=David Ashton
+
|title=Things in Jars
|title=Nor Will He Sleep
+
|author=Jess Kidd
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Two opposing Edinburgh university student gangs are full of high jinks the night that Agnes Carnegie is found dead. Daniel Drummond, one of the merry-makers, is a prime suspect as he had an altercation with her and uses a silver cane that matches the murder weapon. Nothing is a foregone conclusion though and so dour, wily Inspector James McLevy of the Leith police is determined to uncover the truth. Meanwhile Robert Louis Stevenson is in town for his father's funeral and renews his acquaintance with McLevy which is rather fortuitous when we consider what lies ahead.
+
|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>1846972515</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0349414327
|author=MRC Kasasian
+
|title=A Snapshot of Murder (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
|title=The Mangle Street Murders
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=March Middleton's father dies, and she becomes a 20-something alone; not a good status for a Victorian woman.  She therefore moves in with her guardian, Sidney Grice, personal (not private!) detective.  Although, as Sidney 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 for 'revenge' on the wall.  Everyone says he did it apart from Ashby, of course.  Therefore Grice teams up with Inspector Pound of the Yard to solve the conundrum and March is there to help, whether Sidney wants her to or not.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781851840</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
 
|author=Frances Brody
 
|author=Frances Brody
|title=Murder on a Summer's Day: (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=It was Kate Shackleton's cousin in the India Office who sought her help to find Maharajah Narayan who had gone out hunting on the Bolton Abbey Estate and not returned, although his horse - a flighty Arab - returned riderless.  The following morning a body was found - but this proved to be one of the grooms who had accompanied Narayan earlier in the day.  Had he slipped jumping across the Strid and drowned?  The jump across the river Wharfe looked tempting and people were warned of the dangers, but it was known that young men regularly crossed that way rather than walking to the wooden bridge or the stepping stones.  Later in the day Narayan's body was found.  He'd been shot through the heart and a clumsy attempt had been made to hide the body - but only Kate Shackleton believed that there was foul play.  The authorities seemed determined that what had happened would be written off as 'a tragic accident'.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034940058X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Hannah Kent
 
|title=Burial Rites
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Fridrik, Agnes and Sigridur are accused of murdering two men one Icelandic night in 1829 before setting fire to their homeNow 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 priestHer version seems to be a little different from what everyone else concluded, predictably… Or perhaps not so predictably.
+
|summary=Even detectives need a break and for Kate Shackleton, photography gives her the mental relaxation which she needsWhen 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447233166</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Dyslexia Friendly Reviews]]
|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 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>
 
}}
 

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

057136358X.jpg

Review of

April in Spain by John Banville

5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

The Mystery of Healing by A P McGrath

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

The Mirror Dance (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

It was the August Bank Holiday weekend and, as so often happened, it was cold enough to have the fire lit and Bunty the Dalmation wasn't inclined to leave it to keep Dandy Gilver warm on the sofa. The thought of work was almost cheering when Dandy took the call from Sandy Bissett in Dundee. She was the publisher of a magazine and had been told that the man running the Punch and Judy show in the local park had used copies of two of her cartoon characters - Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to drum up some local interest in his show. Sandy Bissett's request was simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the man about infringement of copyright - and Dandy and Alex would be cheaper than employing a solicitor to do the same job. Full Review

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Review of

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

3.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

In December 1933 the remains of Elowed Underhay were discovered in the cellar of the Glass Bottle Public House. Ezekiel Hamett was sought in connection with the murder of Elowed and his half-brother, Denzil Hammett, whose body was also discovered. Kitty Underhay's long search for her mother, who disappeared in June 1916 was over. Now she's determined that the man responsible for her murder will be brought to justice. Full Review

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Review of

The Spy Who Inspired Me by Stephen Clarke

4star.jpg General Fiction

This is a spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. But it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 'likes the ladies' and who works for the secret service, but in the planning side of things more than the active service. Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, and the pair end up stranded in Normandy, with Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to keep up with her! Full Review

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi

5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

The Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Those who were with us at the end of A Step So Grave will remember that Donald was engaged to Mallory Dunnoch. They're now married and Mallory is having twins. When they arrive no one can doubt the charms of Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and her brother, Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. There are two drawbacks: they're noisy and they're staying with Dandy and Hugh. Dandy and her detective partner, Alec Osborne, had not taken up the chance to look into a problem at the Cramond ferry when it was offered to them twice before, but suddenly the possibility of being out of the house at Gilverton seems irresistible. Full Review

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Review of

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

4star.jpg Crime

To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'. For those who need more, here is the extra background – we're in rural Japan in the 1930s. The oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, although the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thing. Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annexe before the sun rises on their marriage. What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has a lot of the peculiar about it. Full Review

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Review of

Murder at the Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care of her grandmother. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and the conclusion was that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was ill. She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand why. She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotel. And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things and why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the hotel. Full Review

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

From Christmas to Easter a train ran from Leeds City Station to King's Cross, arriving before dawn so that the forced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Garden. In early March 1929, one of the porters who was unloading the boxes discovered the body of a man, stripped naked and with no means of identification. Scotland Yard hit a dead end and called on the services of Kate Shackleton in the hope that her knowledge and connections in Yorkshire would give them the lead they needed. Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child and could not come to terms with the fact that she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murder. He was reluctant to give her all the information which the police held. Full Review

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Review of

Indian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery by Sara Sheridan

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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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

1786075431.jpg

Review of

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

3.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

1786893762.jpg

Review of

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

0349414327.jpg

Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

Move on to Newest Dyslexia Friendly Reviews