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[[Category:New Reviews|Crime (Historical)]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreview|author=Kate Mosse|title=The Taxidermist's Daughter|rating=5|genre=Historical FictionFrontpage|summaryisbn=Connie is the daughter of once renowned taxidermist Crowley Gifford. Times have changed though. Crowley may once have been famous with his own museum proudly exhibiting intricately prepared bird and animal tableaux but he's now addled by alcohol and deep melancholy, leaving Connie to continue the art in much reduced circumstances. A decade before Connie (then aged 10) had an accident that robbed her of her memory. The past refuses to stay hidden though, returning with a vengeance and explaining the shell that Crowley has become. 'A vengeance' isn't a throwaway choice of words either – its return will upturn all that Connie has believed and even threaten her life and the lives of all those whom she holds dear.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409153754</amazonuk>}} {{newreview0571370977|title=Sherlock Holmes - The Spirit Box|author=George Mann|rating=3.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=In the London of World War One there is a man amongst the masses cowering from the nightly Zeppelin raids who knows death a lot more than many. He is grieving for his nephew, lost to the killing fields of France; he is pining for his wife, evacuated to the country; and he is both grieving and pining for a past where he was more active, more demonstrably brave and verifiably useful – a past whose main constituent part has also gone to the countryside, to be a beekeeper near Brighton. That man is Dr Watson, and the other, of course, is Sherlock Holmes. Here they're reunited at the behest of Mycroft, for three individual deaths provide a thorn in the side of his secret operations, and only Holmes can pluck it out with his singular talents. But when the evidence in the case so often revolves around mysterious photographs claiming to be of people's souls, there is a hint that this new modern age is a step too far for the onceLock-retired sleuthing friends.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781160023</amazonuk>}}  {{newreview|title=The First HorsemanUp|author=DK WilsonJohn Banville|rating=4.5

|summary=British author Derek Wilson 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 one now back in Dublin and living (if somewhat uneasily) with a tremendously long bibliography as a Historianhis daughter, Phoebe. The worst of his grief is over but he irrationally blames DI St John Strafford for what happened and as an author of fictionthis has made the already strained relationship between them more difficult. He brings all They're brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the body of that to '''The First Horseman'''a young, a resounding success that blends fact and fiction to create a grippingJewish scholar, fast moving Tudor crime story that educates as well as fascinatesRosa Jacobs, moving from the merchants of Cheapside to the whores of Southwarkis found in a lock-up. At first, and mixing with figures such it looked as Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIIIthough she'd gassed herself but Quirke is convinced that it was murder rather than suicide.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751550361</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=CC Humphreys1529337968|title=PlagueIn Place of Fear|author=Catriona McPherson

|summary=Highwayman Captain William Coke stops It's July 1948 and Helen Crowther is due to start work as a carriage in qualified medical almoner the following morning - on the line of his chosen career and soon discovers he's not day that the first to have assailed itNHS is born. The driver is dead She'll be working for Dr Deuchar and Dr Strasser in their GP surgery and all her job will be to help patients with those within have been brutally skewerednon-medical problems which affect their health. He flees The hardest part of the scene but unfortunately leaves a pistol behind. This is all thief-taker Pitman needs job will be to arouse his interest persuade people that the services she offers really are free and attempt that they don't have to do anything to track the Captain down with a noose in mindqualify for them. Meanwhile nature Some of the problems will require delicate handling but Helen has an equally random mode a problem of death that's soon to be let loose on Londonher own which might give her some insight. This is 1665 and the Great Plague is about to beginHer marriage has never been consummated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780891423</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Hamilton057136358X|title=StalemateApril in Spain|author=John Banville

|summary=In the summer of 1930 Walter Bruce Terry Tice was told that a hitman, although he had an incurable illnessdidn't think of himself in those terms. With nursing care and an easier job He saw what he might have a few more years to live - but without them he had did as ''a matter of monthsmaking things tidy''. The solution would seem straightforward but Bruce had a wife - and she demanded to be I couldn''kept'' and t resist the thought that he was far too selfish to be his nursean extreme version of Marie Kondo. Life ''might'' have continued much as it wasHe enjoyed his job, but Bruce discovered that his wife had been deceiving something which occurred to him about her age and background - and when he was in Burma with the army ''twowhere he got the chance to kill a lot of the little yellow fellows and had a fine old time'' of his business colleagues. The solution He was obvious: 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 would devise wouldn't drink champagne with bubbles in the perfect murder and then live out his final years in comfort. ''morning''? Bruce It was a chess player and after Percy's death that he approached saw the problem much as he would benefits of taking up a game of chess - but even the best plans rarely survive contact with realityjob in Spain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178132204X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08Z8BMZ7H|title=The Marathon ConspiracyMystery of Healing|author=Gary CorbyA P McGrath|rating=3.54

|summary=Nicolaos has a lot on his mind. His wedding is only a few weeks away We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era and he still has no real means 's the physician on duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of supporting a wife and familythe populace. The investigating game, it seems, doesnremuneration isn't pay too well. So when high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and hones his patron Pericles asks him to investigate skills: Solon ''wants'' the murder of a young child, Nico is a little reticent, especially since he is still waiting warriors to be paid for his previous assignmentlive. Deciding that he can It't afford to be picky, Nico accepts s quite a case which will spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see himthem, 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 they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes to make them look more impressive. The sagitarii are the archers and consulting a strange priestess the beastiarii are the condemned criminals who has a habit of running around are going to fight for their lives with the woods nakedwild animals...At least he can Today, it't complain that his work is borings the crocodiles.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>161695387X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley McKay1529337925|title=Friend and Foe The Mirror Dance (A Hew Cullan MysteryDandy Gilver)|author=Catriona McPherson

|summary=1583 and King James VI of Scotland is paranoid It was the August Bank Holiday weekend and, after as so often happened, it was cold enough to have the events of the Ruthven raid fire lit and Bunty the year before, who can blame him? Surely this wonDalmation wasn't affect humble academic lawyer Hew Cullen? Oh but inclined to leave it will, eventually causing more turmoil than even he is used tokeep Dandy Gilver warm on the sofa. The thought of work was almost cheering when Dandy took the call from Sandy Bissett in Dundee. Back at She was the beginning though, while Hew continues, unaware publisher of what's to come, he has more pressing domestic worries a magazine and had been told that, for once, don't affect his herbalist 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 Meg or his doctor brotherFreckle -to drum up some local interest in-law Gileshis show. Indeed, this time Sandy Bissett's request was simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the concern is man about infringement of copyright - and Dandy and Alex would be cheaper than employing a solicitor to do the love of Hew's own heartsame job.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972175</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08LKT7HSR|title=The Axeman's JazzMurder in the Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery)|author= Ray CelestinHelena Dixon|rating=43.5

|summary=Based on a true story, ''The Axeman's Jazz'' is scriptwriter Ray Celestin's debut novel. It tells In December 1933 the remains of a serial killer Elowed Underhay were discovered in New Orleans the cellar of the Glass Bottle Public House. Ezekiel Hamett was sought in 1919 - connection with the Axeman murder of Elowed and his half- brother, Denzil Hammett, whose body was also discovered. Kitty Underhay's long search for her mother, who torments the city and has everyone talking; it seems disappeared in June 1916 was over. Now she's determined that everyone has their theories and yet no meaningful leads are presenting themselves, as the police and citizens of New Orleans begin man responsible for her murder will be brought to despair of ever catching the killerjustice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144725886X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Sherlock Holmes: Gods of WarStephen Clarke|authortitle=James LovegroveThe Spy Who Inspired Me|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=The year This is 1913 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 storm clouds planning side of war are gathering ominously on things more than the horizonactive service. Most people dread the inevitable Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, but there are individuals who stand to gain from and the oncoming conflict and will stop at nothing to facilitate their planspair end up stranded in Normandy, even if that means murder. However, it would take with Margaux on a very brave (or naïve) criminal desperate mission to commit such an atrocity unearth traitors in the neighbourhood of Mr Sherlock Holmesresistance network, even if he is supposed to be enjoying his retirement. When it comes and Lemming desperately trying to investigating mysterious activity, Holmes can't resist the lure of the chase and soon the game is afootkeep up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781165432</amazonuk>2952163855

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0349423083|authortitle=Marco Malvaldi Death and Howard Curtis the Brewery Queen (translatorKate Shackleton Mysteries)|titleauthor=The Art of Killing WellFrances Brody

|summary=Pellegrino Artusi has travelled the length Kate Shackleton runs her investigation agency from Batswing Cottage, ably assisted by Jim Sykes, who lives in Woodhouse and breadth of Italy researching his masterpiece her housekeeper, Mrs Sugden. She''The Science s been approached by William Lofthouse 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 bonusBarleycorn Brewery in Masham. HeSomething is going wrong with his business and he'd have the opportunity like Kate to discover the secrets of the Baronelook into it discreetly: he's kitchen hoping that his nephew and the chance of right-hand man, James Lofthouse, will be back from a few days rest and possibly a boar hunt in the Tuscan hillstrip to Germany before long. What could be better? Well, his stay would have been improved had a body not been discovered in James went to see what the locked cellar of the castlecontinental brewers were doing and what changes Barleycorn might need to make. The cast of aristocratic suspects baffles the local police inspector and Artusi realises 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 will have 'd like the business to become involvedbe ship-shape before his nephew returns.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052942</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=MRC Kasasian0241433568|title=The Curse Of The House Of Foskett (The Gower Street Detective Series)Eight Detectives|author=Alex Pavesi

|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 1930 and Megan and Henry are staying with Bunny at his house in the pocket as work has dried up as a resultSpain. HeIt's therefore pleased unbearably hot and intrigued when Bunny drank too much at lunch: he's visited by going to have a potential client who rest and then he 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 talk to be dying quicker than planned Megan and rather unnaturallyHenry about something serious. Sidney is about to accept the case Only it never gets that far: when Bunny doesn't emerge after his siesta his client drops dead in Griceguests find that he's study in front of him and his ward and assistant March Middletonbeen murdered. It may not improve his reputation anyHow can that have happened? There's no one else in the house, but his attention has been piqued; he'll take so one of them must be the case anywaykiller.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781853258</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1473682401|title=An Appetite for VioletsThe Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver)|author=Martine BaileyCatriona McPherson|rating=54

|summary=Biddy 'Obedience' Leigh is Those who were with us at the under-cook at Mawton Hall, but although she is passionate about cooking, her dearest wish is end of [[A Step So Grave (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson|A Step So Grave]] will remember that Donald was engaged to marry her young manMallory Dunnoch. The date is set for her to leave the Hall for They're now married life and she Mallory is looking forward to ithaving twins. But When they arrive no one can doubt the master charms of the house surprises everyone when he gets himself a very young wife – Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and her brother, Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. There are two drawbacks: they're noisy and they're staying with Dandy and Biddy’s world is rapidly changedHugh. Lady Carinna takes Dandy and her detective partner, Alec Osborne, had not taken up the chance to look into a shine to Biddy, and problem at the Cramond ferry when Biddy proves herself it was offered to be resourceful and entrepreneurialthem twice before, her fate is sealedbut suddenly the possibility of being out of the house at Gilverton seems irresistible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444768727</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sharon PenmanSeishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=Prince of DarknessThe Honjin Murders

|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=1193: Justin de QuincyTo many readers, bastard son of the Bishop of Chester and loyal phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, steers clear of Eleanorread; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good's youngest son John at all costs. After allFor those who need more, Johnhere is the extra background – we's henchman did try to murder himre in rural Japan in the 1930s. However there's a plot afoot to frame John for a crime he didn’t commit (for a change)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, bringing what with it somewhat of a dilemma being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, for Justinone thing. As much Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as he hates Johnplanned, de Quincy realises that getting only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annexe before the bottom sun rises on their marriage. What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the plot is in neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the interests time of the Queen and England. So Justin's course is setcrime, no matter what it costs and no matter which hornets' nests this case has a lot of the peculiar about it disturbs.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781857083</amazonuk>1782275002

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bruce CrowtherB07XLM3SM6|title=Harlem NocturneMurder at the Dolphin Hotel|author=Helena Dixon

|summary=Just before Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the beginning care of the Second World War and half a world away from Europe the World's Fair is taking place in New Yorkher grandmother. The British king and queen are expected 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's a Joe Louis title fight on the horizonwas no evidence to suggest otherwise. Daniel Leland lives in Harlem. He used Kitty has come to be terms with this and in 1933 she was running the NYPD but Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was retired after he ill. She was shot by robbers: the bullet is still reluctant to leave Kitty in his body charge - and perilously close to his spineKitty could not understand why. Right now he makes his living as a small-time private detective, but business seems to be looking up when heShe's offered an investigation always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and a very large retainer - by a manufacturer who might be suffering espionageshe's done every job in the hotel. Before long thereAnd she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's a murder friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things ''and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to add into take charge of security at the equation toohotel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1490960821</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Hughes0349423067|title=The Convictions of John DelahuntBody on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)|author=Frances Brody

|summary=As John Delahunt sits in From Christmas to Easter a cell for 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 condemned writing an account body of his lifea man, we go through it stripped naked and with himno means of identification. It all begins as he witnesses Scotland Yard hit a fracas between his fellow students dead end and called on the police after a visit to one services of Kate Shackleton in the fine hostelries Victorian Dublin has to offerhope that her knowledge and connections in Yorkshire would give them the lead they needed. In this way John's brought Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child and could not come to terms with the attention of 'The Department', fact that she was now a pro-British intelligence unit based woman experienced in the notorious Dublin Castledealing with murder. John agrees He was reluctant 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 himgive her all the information which the police held.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781620148</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Sebag Montefiore1472127110|title=One Night in Winter|rating=5|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 grandees. Why 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 Indian Summer: 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099580330</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMirabelle Bevan Mystery|author=Laura Wilson|title=The RiotSara Sheridan|rating=34.5|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>}} {{newreview|author=James Scott|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 Killing|rating=4

|summary=In July 1946 two schoolboys found Life has changed dramatically for Mirabelle, our favourite fifties sleuth, since the war, and not always for the body of a woman on a bombsite better. When she first settled in north LondonBrighton she was alone, rudderless and secretly grieving for Jack, the lover who died before he could leave his wife. It's 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 while before little thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what she's identified as Lillian Frobisherwanted, but that produces more problems. Lillian was - apparently - a respectably married woman but the encounter on the bomb site had been sexual and almost certainly consensual. And 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 found consolation in the store where he's arms of a doormanrather charming policeman. But was Lillian quite as respectable as she would have had everyone think?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722060</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1912374439|title=The TournamentCourier|author=Matthew ReillyKjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)

|summary=Michael Reilly is somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine; his novels are hiNazi-octane adventures that are often as ludicrous as they are sublimeoccupied Oslo, 1942. ‘The Tournament’ is a departure from his action packed Scarecrow and Jack West thrillers; instead creating an alternative history for our own Queen Elizabeth There, 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 've given the world’s greatest chess playersgame away. Here she will be embroiled For in a book that centres around a murder mystery alongside her tutor Roger Ascham.|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 ve told you who did it – either riffing on the Conan Doyle originals for their own modern takes on Sherlock HolmesNazis, or producing new editions of the original stories and novels with their young stars on the frontsurely? Well, purely that certainly has to remain to tie a few sales down of what is now out be seen in this volume, which splits its time between one of copyright. Certainly I think the latter is the greater crimewar, given the results on screenwhen a young woman sees her father arrested, 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 their store condemned as Jewish and rushes to forcefeed classics her best friend to a new audience…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849907609</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The City of Strangers|author=Michael Russell|rating=5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=In help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, and the spring of 1939 The Irish Times reported that Mrs Letitia Harrislate 1960s, aged 53 had gone missing from her home in Dublinwhen great consternation is being felt. Her car was found the following morning on In this timeline, a cliff top near Shankill. There were bloodstains maverick agent is back in the cartown, one who might have been fingered for murdering that female victim, even though she and he lived together with their baby as a blood-stained hatchet in the shed back in Dublinyoung family, blood too except he was thought by all to have died in the flowerbed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847563473</amazonuk>War…

 {{newreview|title=Sherlock: His Last Bow|author=Arthur Conan DoyleFrontpage|ratingisbn=4|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 eleven. If 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 necessary. But 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 things. Holmes dead? Sorry, not allowed, Mr Doyle. Holmes 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849907617</amazonuk>}} {{newreview1786075431|title=The Bones of ParisMrs Mohr Goes Missing|author=Laurie R King|rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=It is 1929 and Harris Stuyvesant has now left the Bureau of Investigation and England behind him Maryla Szymiczkova and is working as a Private Investigator in Europe. An 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 city. Many of them seem to have known her, but few have seen her in some time.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749015357</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Essie Fox|title=The Goddess and the Thief|rating=4|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 subAntonia Lloyd-continent having made her motherless. Therefore imagine her disgust when she's left in the hands of her Aunt Mercy Jones (a counterfeit mediumtranslator) 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409146197</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Touchstone|author=Laurie R King

|summary=Laurie R King may be best Meet Zofia. A socially climbing wife of a medical professor, she's intent on making herself known for as a charitable lady, and keen on her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes serieshusband progressing yet through his esteemed career. In 1890s Cracow, life is pretty good, but she has also written a number knows it could always be better. Meanwhile, other people's life could certainly be better – cholera is nearing the city due to lack of other novelshygiene, and many people have to fall on charity and almshouses to keep a couple of which feature detective Harris Stuyvesantroof over their heads. With the publication of the second One such was Mrs Mohr, although she was rich enough to keep private lodgings and staff in this series, the first her charitable home. I say ''Touchstonewas'', originally published in 2008, for she has been republished, allowing those readers new vanished. Only due to StuyvesantZofia's help does she get found, or even to King 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 become properly acquainted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749015454</amazonuk>what end? And why does Zofia feel the need to make a name for herself by answering those questions?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786893762|title=The Lovegrove HermitThings in Jars|author=Rosemary CraddockJess Kidd|rating=34.5

|summary=Charlotte Tyler is delighted to receive an invitation to Lovegrove Priory, home of eccentric Gothic novelist Amelia DenbyA child has gone missing. The priory detective asked to take on the case is surrounded still struggling with the shame and frustration left by acres of picturesque parkland and Denby even has a hermit living in previous case, where the grounds child was not found in his own time. Hardly original themes for a private retreateye thriller. And yet . . . take another look. HoweverThis detective is a woman, when and the hermitsetting is Victorian London, Brother Casparwith 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 found dead 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 apparent suicideutterly ''fast'' thing for a lady to do!) is mixed with a nugget of something, well, let's say recreational, it is up to Charlotte and created by her new chemist friend Colonel Hartley Prudhoe. The fact that it's actually meant to piece together cure bronchial problems is by the by. Her housemaid, being seven-foot-tall, is also somewhat remarkable. And then, of course, there's the clues ghost. Ruby Doyle, world-famous tattooed boxer (deceased) accompanies Bridie all through her investigation, and unmask it's clear he has a soft spot for the murdererdetermined young woman. If he really exists, that is.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719811066</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=The Luck of the Vails0349414327|authortitle=E F Benson|rating=5|genre=Crime A Snapshot of Murder (HistoricalKate Shackleton Mysteries)|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 name. Locally it would just be known as the big house, and any local delivery person would know where to deposit any attached to Lord Vail.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099572435</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Ashton|title=Nor Will He SleepFrances Brody

|summary=Two opposing Edinburgh university student gangs are full of high jinks Even detectives need a break and for Kate Shackleton, photography gives her the night that Agnes Carnegie is found deadmental relaxation which she needs. Daniel DrummondWhen the local Photographic Society proposed an outing, Kate was keen to take the opportunity to visit Haworth and Stanbury, one not least because the deeds of the merry-makers, is Brontë Parsonage are being handed over so that it can become a prime suspect as he had an altercation with museum and her and uses a silver cane that matches parents will be there for the murder weaponevent. Nothing is What could be better than seeing her family, witnessing a foregone conclusion though momentous event and so dour, wily Inspector James McLevy of having the Leith police is determined opportunity to uncover take photographs of the truth. Meanwhile Robert Louis Stevenson is in town setting for his father's funeral and renews his acquaintance with McLevy which is rather fortuitous when we consider what lies ahead'Wuthering Heights''? Nothing could go wrong.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972515</amazonuk> Or could it?

{{newreview|author=MRC Kasasian|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' Move 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>}}[[Newest Dyslexia Friendly Reviews]]