Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Crime (Historical)]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Davies0571370977|title=Havana Sleeping|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Hector, a night watchman is murdered at work. There's nothing unusual about that – it happens all the time. The reason being that this is Havana halfway through the 19th century; a place of intrigue, political posturing (and worse) as pro- and antiLock-slavery conflicts cause bubbles under the surface of society. It's a place where an apparently lowly British civil servant like George Backhouse can be posted to influential positions. It's a place where the Americans don't trust the British, the British don't trust the Americans and everyone fears what the Spanish may do. Meanwhile a courtesan named Leonarda just wants to find out why the man she loved died.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980451</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kate Mosse|title=The Taxidermist's Daughter|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=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>}} {{newreview|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 once-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 WinterIndian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery|author=Sara Sheridan|rating=4.5

|summary=In June 1945 two school students are shot dead in Moscow. These aren't just any school students; they attended Josef Stalin School 801Life has changed dramatically for Mirabelle, our favourite fifties sleuth, since the academy that taught Stalin's own children war, and not always for the current educational establishment of choice better. When she first settled in Brighton she was alone, rudderless and secretly grieving for Jack, the offspring of many government and army grandeeslover who died before he could leave his wife. Why did they die? Did the seemingly innocent Fatal Romantics Club have anything As time went by she found in herself an ability to do with it? For the children the club is a way of living their love of Pushkin's literature but solve crimes, made friends including an ebullient and determined young woman called Vesta who refused to others it seems let a little different. Stalin himself is determined to have it investigated and thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what Stalin wantsshe wanted, Stalin gets no matter how wide and even found consolation in the ultimate spider's web arms of suspicion is cast and no matter whom it catchesa rather charming policeman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099580330</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laura Wilson1912374439|title=The RiotCourier|author=Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)

|summary=In July 1946 two schoolboys found Nazi-occupied Oslo, 1942. There, I've given the body of game away. For in a woman on book that centres around a bombsite in north London. Itmurder, I's a while before she's identified as Lillian Frobisherve told you who did it – the Nazis, surely? Well, but that produces more problems. Lillian was - apparently - certainly has to remain to be seen in this volume, which splits its time between one of war, when a respectably married young woman but the encounter on the bomb site had been sexual sees her father arrested, and their store condemned as Jewish and almost certainly consensual. And why was rushes to her husband best friend to help – not aware 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 his wife was missing? His position looks female victim, even worse when it emerges that the body was lying on an expensive mackintosh sold in the store where though she and he's lived together with their baby as a doorman. But young family, except he was Lillian quite as respectable as she would thought by all to have had everyone think?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722060</amazonuk>died in the War…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786075431|title=The TournamentMrs Mohr Goes Missing|author=Matthew ReillyMaryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)

|summary=Michael Reilly is somewhat Meet Zofia. A socially climbing wife of a guilty pleasure of mine; medical professor, she's intent on making herself known as a charitable lady, and keen on her husband progressing yet through his novels are hi-octane adventures that are often as ludicrous as they are sublimeesteemed career. In 1890s Cracow, life is pretty good, but she knows it could always be better. ‘The Tournament’ 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 departure from his action packed Scarecrow and Jack West thrillers; instead creating an alternative history for our own Queen Elizabeth Iroof over their heads. Why One such was Mrs Mohr, although she such a formidable leader whose reluctance was rich enough to marry keep private lodgings and dislike of the Catholics were only part of staff in her make-up? charitable home. I say ''was'', for she has vanished. Reilly poses a hypothetical tale about a 13 year old Bess going Only due to Constantinople to watch Zofia's help does she get found, dead and in a tournament of place the world’s greatest chess playersnear-lame woman could never reach by herself. Here she will Just who could be embroiled killing people in a murder mystery alongside her tutor Roger Ascham.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409134229</amazonuk>charity home, and to what end? And why does Zofia feel the need to make a name for herself by answering those questions?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786893762|title=The Return of Sherlock HolmesThings in Jars|author=Arthur Conan DoyleJess Kidd|rating=4.5

|summary=I'm 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 sure which found in time. Hardly original themes for a private eye thriller. And yet . . . take another look. This detective is cheekier of a woman, and the BBC – either riffing on setting is Victorian London, with all the Conan Doyle originals rich and colourful paradoxes of that era: technical and scientific progress jostling for their own modern takes on Sherlock Holmes, or producing new editions of space beside superstition and a fascination with the original stories bizarre and novels 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 their young stars on a widow's cap and stout, shiny boots, but the fronttobacco she smokes in her pipe (my dear, purely what an utterly ''fast'' thing for a lady to tie do!) is mixed with a few sales down nugget of what something, well, let's say recreational, created by her chemist friend Prudhoe. The fact that it's actually meant to cure bronchial problems is now out of copyrightby the by. Certainly I think the latter Her housemaid, being seven-foot-tall, is also somewhat remarkable. And then, of course, there's the greater crimeghost. Ruby Doyle, given the results on screenworld-famous tattooed boxer (deceased) accompanies Bridie all through her investigation, and it's clear he has a soft spot for the number of determined 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 largewoman. StillIf he really exists, anything to forcefeed classics to a new audience…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849907609</amazonuk>that is.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=The City of Strangers0349414327|authortitle=Michael Russell|rating=5|genre=Crime A Snapshot of Murder (HistoricalKate Shackleton Mysteries)|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 Shankill. There 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>}} {{newreview|title=Sherlock: His Last Bow|author=Arthur Conan DoyleFrances Brody|rating=4.5

|summary=''The End''. I got told off Even detectives need a break and for writing those two simple words at Kate Shackleton, photography gives her the end of a short story I wrote at school, aged about elevenmental relaxation which she needs. If it is When the endlocal Photographic Society proposed an outing, I think Kate was keen to take the teacher was sayingopportunity to visit Haworth and Stanbury, not least because the deeds of the Brontë Parsonage are being handed over so that it should can become a museum and her parents will be obvious. If it isn't, there's still no way for the words are necessaryevent. But at least I'm not alone. Conan DoyleWhat could be better than seeing her family, witnessing a momentous event and having 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 opportunity to keep bees near Eastbourne? Beyond take photographs of the pale, Sir – bring him back. You donsetting for ''Wuthering Heights''t like the labour of proving your genius invention to be such a genius? ToughNothing could go wrong. 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 Or could it being the last ones, though.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849907617</amazonuk>?

{{newreview|title=The Bones of Paris|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 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 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 Move 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|rating=3.5|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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749015454</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Lovegrove Hermit|author=Rosemary Craddock|rating=3|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)|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 Sleep|rating=4.5|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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972515</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Dyslexia Friendly Reviews]]