Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Crime (Historical)]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sara Sheridan0571370977|title= British Bulldog |rating= 5|genre= Crime (Historical)|summary= As a decade, the fifties doesn't attract much attention from authors and scriptwriters - it's dull and grey in comparison with the vivid horrors of war and the colourful extravagance of the sixties. But World War II left a long shadow, and this, the fourth instalment in this excellent series, takes us deep into past life of exThe Lock-intelligence agent Mirabelle Bevan, and the sorrow and the blighted love she has so desperately fought to hide from public gaze soon becomes hopelessly entangled with present deaths and danger. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973252</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Antonia Hodgson|title=The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=A few months after we left Tom in the 1720s we return to find him living in sin and love with Kitty. Or it would be sin if they ever get round to the bed bit. Just as he promised underworld gang leader James Fleet, Tom has taken in James' son Sam to train him in the ways of being a gentleman. All seems to be going well in that department until Tom receives a visit from an old enemy and a brush with the country's ultimate power. Then both collide to create fear and an offer that Tom isn't able to refuse, no matter how hard he tries.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444775456</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewUp|author=M J Carter|title=The Infidel StainJohn Banville

|summary= London, 1841. Newly returned from India, Jeremiah Blake It's six months since the dramatic events which we read about in [[April in Spain by John Banville|April in Spain]] and William Avery find life Dr Quirke is now back in Victorian England difficult to settle into, having left a disconnected country travelled by pony Dublin and trapliving (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 returned to one in this has made the already strained relationship between them more difficult. They're brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the grip body of railway mania. When a series of murders occuryoung, Jewish scholar, all connected to the pressRosa Jacobs, Avery and Blake find themselves back is found in actiona lock-up. But with connections between the murdered and those seeking revolution At first, it looked as though she'd gassed herself but Quirke is a race against time to find the killer before he strikes againconvinced that it was murder rather than suicide. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241146259</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew Pearl1529337968|title=The Last BookaneerIn Place of Fear|author=Catriona McPherson|rating=3.5

|summary=Bookaneer Fergins makes It's July 1948 and Helen Crowther is due to start work as a decent living in 19th century London. However his business acquaintance Davenport has a plan to aid his prosperity. Hot literary property Robert Louis Stevenson qualified medical almoner the following morning - on the day that the NHS is dying on Upolo, a Samoan island, having just written his final potential masterpieceborn. Therefore all Davenport has She'll be working for Dr Deuchar and Dr Strasser in their GP surgery and her job will be to do is to steal it, bringing it back to publishing glory and selfhelp patients with those non-aggrandisementmedical problems which affect their health. The only problems are hardest part of the job will be to persuade people that the enabling legal loophole is about to close services she offers really are free and hethat they don's not t have to do anything to qualify for them. Some of the only one with his eye on that particular prizeproblems will require delicate handling but Helen has a problem of her own which might give her some insight. And Fergins? He's going too, whether he wants to or notHer marriage has never been consummated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846556198</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jane Thynne 057136358X|title=A War of FlowersApril in Spain|author=John Banville

|summary=A War Terry Tice was a hitman, although he didn't think of Flowers is the third himself in those terms. He saw what he did as ''a matter of Jane Thynnemaking things tidy's thoroughly researched and beautifully written novels of Nazi Berlin from '. I couldn't resist the female point thought that he was an extreme version of viewMarie Kondo. Reading them is an immersive experience; He enjoyed his job, something which occurred to him when he was in Burma with the army ''where he got the joy chance to kill a lot of the book is in location, description, commentlittle yellow fellows and had a fine old time''. The action does not rush but He was spending a lot of time with Percy Antrobus - who couldn't understand why Terry didn't know the ending expertly pulls plot strings together and has purpose of a wow factor swizzle stick - surely he wouldn't drink champagne with bubbles in the ''morning''? It was after Percy's death that will leave he saw the reader eager for morebenefits of taking up a job in Spain. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471131904</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dan SimmonsB08Z8BMZ7H|title=The Fifth Heart|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=On a rainy night in March 1893 Henry James stands on a Paris bridge, about to end it all. Next to him sidles Sherlock Holmes, about to do the same. Instead Mystery of jumping, Holmes drags James off for a drink and decides that they will go to America to solve a 17-year-old murder case. The supposed victim, socialite Clover Adams, is believed to have committed suicide but that doesn't deter Sherlock. He's off, Henry James is going with him and that's that!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751560952</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewHealing|author=Jayne Anne Phillips|title=Quiet DellA P McGrath

|summary= Chicago – 1931We 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. Asta Eicher is The remuneration isn't high but the work gives the doctor a widow, with three children and a crippling sense feeling of loneliness. When Harry Powers asks her to marry him, she is delighted – virtue and hones his skills: Solon ''wants'' the new family soon leave in order to travel warriors to West Virginialive. They It's quite a spectacle: the magistri are never seen againthe charge hands and when we first see them, they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes to make them look more impressive. Back in Chicago, Emily Thornhill is one of The sagitarii are the few women journalists in Chicago, archers and is sent to investigate the disappearance, trying to establish what happened beastiarii are the condemned criminals who are going to fight for their lives with the familywild animals. As she becomes ever deeper involved with the investigation Today, Emily begins to discover things she never expected – both about it's the case, and herselfcrocodiles. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099590255</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip Kerr1529337925|title=The Lady from Zagreb|rating=4|genre=Crime Mirror Dance (HistoricalDandy Gilver)|summary=The Lady from Zagreb begins and ends in 1956. Series detective Bernie Gunther is enduring a 'subtle kind of punishment' as he watches and re-watches beautiful Dahlia Dresner, a woman he has loved and lost. This is the tenth of the novels that began with the publication of the Berlin Noir trilogy (in the early 1990s) and within a few pages the action has catapulted back to the summer of 1942 and the heartland location, Nazi Berlin. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782065814</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Barbara Cleverly|title=Enter Pale DeathCatriona McPherson|rating=34.5

|summary=''Death by Misadventure''.' This is It was the official verdict August Bank Holiday weekend and, as so often happened, it was cold enough to have the fire lit and Bunty the cause of death of Lady Lavinia Truelove, trampled Dalmation wasn't inclined to death by a notoriously ill-tempered horse, which she foolishly tried leave it to approach keep Dandy Gilver warm on the sofa. The thought of work was almost cheering when Dandy took the call from Sandy Bissett in its stallDundee. The horse panicked and reacted badly, resulting in She was the publisher of a gruesome magazine and had been told that the man running the Punch and bloody attack, witnessed by Judy show in the local park had used copies of two boys from the villageof her cartoon characters - Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to drum up some local interest in his show. Most people would dismiss Sandy Bissett's request was simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the event as a tragic accident, but detective Joe Sandilands suspects that this could be coldman about infringement of copyright -blooded murder. Could his judgement and Dandy and Alex would be clouded by the fact that he has cheaper than employing a very personal axe solicitor to grind with do the 'grieving' widower, who has been showing increasing attentiveness to Dorcas, the girl he plans to marry?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1616954086</amazonuk>same job.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)B08LKT7HSR|title=Enter the Saint|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=When you think of thrillers written by a man Murder in his early twenties there's a temptation to believe that the books might not be, well, top drawer, but that would be a mistake. The first of ''The Saint'' novels was published in 1928 when Leslie Charteris was just twenty one and this collection of stories is dated 1930. You might expect the rambunctious adventurer we meet, but not the subtleties of the slightly world-weary man of the world, all-knowing about the evils to which men Belltower (and womenA Miss Underhay Mystery) can sink, but they're all there. Admittedly the Saint is more boisterous and less subtle than he will become - but that speaks more about the later works than this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00OS74GQU</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Antonin Varenne and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=Loser's Corner|rating=4|genre=Thrillers|summary=Meet Georges Crozat. He's a policeman in Paris, who boxes on the side. After a bout that leads to an almost embarrassing victory, he is made two offers – one from a clearly corrupt man behind the scenes in the sport, who seems to offer a few thrown fights for Georges, then some kind of status as assistant – training, guiding, profiteering; the other comes from a man known always as ''the Pakistani'' (or an unkind abbreviation of that), who has a friend of a friend who wants someone to do an enemy a mischief with their fists. Georges doesn't take too long to choose the latter. In alternating chapters, however, we're in the 1950s, and a rookie to the forces, Pascal Verini, is being shipped out to Algeria to work on the civil war causing the republic to break away and become independent from France. Like Georges, he finds his situation one which also causes what may be misguided violence, even if he has a very different attitude to it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052276</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=G M Best |title=The Barchster MurdersHelena Dixon

|summary=Anthony Trollope was very taken with Barchester when he first visited In December 1933 the city, but pausing to look out at a pleasant view he remains of Elowed Underhay were discovered in the body cellar of Thomas Rider, a bedesman at Hiram's Hospitalthe Glass Bottle Public House. At first it Ezekiel Hamett was suspected that Trollope might have been sought in connection with the murderer murder of Elowed and his half- for this was no natural deathbrother, Denzil Hammett, but a stabbing - but once he proved that he whose body was a professional man there on business also discovered. Kitty Underhay's long search for the first timeher mother, he found himself drawn into the investigationwho disappeared in June 1916 was over. There is a secret which Now she's determined that the warden, the Reverend Septimus Harding has hidden man responsible for well over a decade and it looks as though Rider might have been murdered her murder will be brought to prevent the secret coming outjustice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910208086</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rory ClementsStephen Clarke|title=The Queen's ManSpy Who Inspired Me

|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=Elizabethan England - This is a murkyspoof spy story, dirty world full of religious strife 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 violent, short lives. Queen Elizabeth sits on who works for the thronesecret service, but her seat is by no means safe - her first cousin, Mary, Queen in the planning side of Scotsthings more than the active service. Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, is locked and the pair end up stranded in Sheffield Castle. Unable Normandy, with Margaux on a desperate mission to leaveunearth traitors in the resistance network, but by no means unable and Lemming desperately trying to plot and scheme keep up with her supporters, Mary wishes to reclaim what she believes is rightfully hers - the throne. But even she cannot be prepared for the dark twists and new plots that arise.!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848548486</amazonuk>2952163855

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=L C Tyler0349423083|title=A Cruel Necessity Death and the Brewery Queen (A John Grey Historical MysteryKate Shackleton Mysteries)|author=Frances Brody

|summary=Essex 1657: CromwellKate Shackleton runs her investigation agency from Batswing Cottage, ably assisted by Jim Sykes, who lives in Woodhouse and her housekeeper, Mrs Sugden. She's Republic is 8 years oldbeen approached by William Lofthouse of the Barleycorn Brewery in Masham. While John Grey sleeps off a good night of drink under the eaves of a cottageSomething 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 Royalist spy is murdered down the roadtrip to Germany before long. A trainee lawyer, John also enjoys James went to see what the science of investigation continental brewers were doing and so starts looking for clues that will lead him what changes Barleycorn might need to the murderermake. Although itWilliam is worried that James is perhaps enjoying himself a little bit ''too''s not easy: strange happenings occurred that night and Grey much or is having trouble persuading others of what going to bring back a German bride but he saw. Meanwhile 'd like the business to be ship-shape before his mother has the perfect match for himnephew returns. Unfortunately their ideas of perfection differ somewhat!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472115031</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=C J Sansom0241433568|title=Lamentation (Matthew Shardlake)Eight Detectives|author=Alex Pavesi|rating=4.5

|summary=The reign of It's 1930 and Megan and Henry VIII is drawing to a closeare staying with Bunny at his house in Spain. It's heresy unbearably hot and Bunny drank too much at lunch: he's going to speculate on the death of the king, but obvious to anyone who sees the bloated man who can barely walk that have a rest and then he cannot have much longer. Matthew Shardlake is still drawn wants to the queen - Catherine Parr as was - but he'd prefer talk to avoid court politics particularly when there's someone as suggestible Megan and changeable as Henry on the throneabout something serious. Ultimately though he Only it never gets that far: when Bunny doesn't feel emerge after his siesta his guests find that he has much choice when he's summoned to Whitehall Palacebeen murdered. It seems How can that the queen has a problem which could put her life have happened? There's no one else in danger - along with the lives house, so one of all those who are seen as her supportersthem must be the killer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230744192</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1473682401|title=Murder at the BrightwellThe Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver)|author=Ashley WeaverCatriona McPherson

|summary=It probably helps 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 be a fan of Agatha ChristieMallory Dunnoch. They're now married and Mallory is having twins. It probably helps to absolutely adore When they arrive no one can doubt the sheer selfish indulgence charms of Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and style of the 1930sher brother, Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. It probably helps to just accept the There are two drawbacks: they're noisy and they'rich'' as being completely divorced from real lifere staying with Dandy and Hugh. It definitely helps if you're happy Dandy and her detective partner, Alec Osborne, had not taken up the chance to take your crime as look into a puzzleproblem at the Cramond ferry when it was offered to them twice before, rather than as heart-rending, gut-wrenching rendition but suddenly the possibility of being out of realitythe house at Gilverton seems irresistible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749017317</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=Queen The Honjin Murders|rating=4|genre=Crime|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 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 Heartsthe peculiar about it.|isbn=1782275002}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B07XLM3SM6|title=Murder at the Dolphin Hotel|author=Rhys BowenHelena Dixon|rating=24

|summary=Lady Georgiana RannochElowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, 35th in line for the British throne, may know how care of her grandmother. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to navigate upper class societyher and the conclusion was that she was dead, but mainly because there aren't many acceptable career choices for a penniless almost royalwas no evidence to suggest otherwise. So Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her mothergrandmother 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, famous actress Claire Daniels, invites 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 a transatlantic cruise, Georgie is looking forwards things ''and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to living take charge of security at the highlife and relaxing for a whilehotel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00M4ZGVBG</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Davies0349423067|title=Havana SleepingThe Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)|author=Frances Brody

|summary=In the London of World War One there is From Christmas to Easter a man amongst the masses cowering train ran from Leeds City Station to King's Cross, arriving before dawn so that the nightly Zeppelin raids who knows death a lot more than manyforced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Garden. He is grieving for his nephewIn early March 1929, lost to the killing fields one of France; he is pining for his wife, evacuated to the country; and he is both grieving and pining for a past where he porters who was more active, more demonstrably brave and verifiably useful – a past whose main constituent part has also gone to unloading the boxes discovered the countryside, to be body of a beekeeper near Brighton. That man is Dr Watson, stripped naked and the other, with no means of course, is Sherlock Holmesidentification. Here they're reunited at Scotland Yard hit a dead end and called on the behest services of Mycroft, for three individual deaths provide a thorn Kate Shackleton in the side of his secret operations, hope that her knowledge and only Holmes can pluck it out with his singular talents. But when the evidence connections in Yorkshire would give them the case so often revolves around mysterious photographs claiming lead they needed. Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child and could not come to be of people's souls, there is a hint terms with the fact that this new modern age is she was now a step too far for woman experienced in dealing with murder. He was reluctant to give her all the information which the once-retired sleuthing friendspolice held.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781160023</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1472127110|title=The First HorsemanIndian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery|author=DK WilsonSara Sheridan

|summary=British author Derek Wilson is one with a tremendously long bibliography as a HistorianLife 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 as secretly grieving for Jack, the lover who died before he could leave his wife. As time went by she found in herself an author of fiction. He brings all of that ability to '''The First Horseman'''solve crimes, a resounding success that blends fact made friends including an ebullient and fiction determined young woman called Vesta who refused to create let a grippinglittle thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what she wanted, fast moving Tudor crime story that educates as well as fascinates, moving from and even found consolation in the merchants arms of Cheapside to the whores of Southwark, and mixing with figures such as Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIIIa rather charming policeman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751550361</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=CC Humphreys1912374439|title=PlagueThe Courier|author=Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)|rating=3.5

|summary=Highwayman Captain William Coke stops Nazi-occupied Oslo, 1942. There, I've given the game away. For in a book that centres around a carriage murder, I've told you who did it – the Nazis, surely? Well, that certainly has to remain to be seen in the line this volume, which splits its time between one of his chosen career war, when a young woman sees her father arrested, and their store condemned as Jewish and soon discovers he's rushes to her best friend to help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, and the first to have assailed itlate 1960s, when great consternation is being felt. The driver In this timeline, a maverick agent is dead and all those within back in town, one who might have been brutally skewered. He flees the scene but unfortunately leaves fingered for murdering that female victim, even though she and he lived together with their baby as a pistol behind. This is young family, except he was thought by all thief-taker Pitman needs to arouse his interest and attempt to track the Captain down with a noose have died in mind. Meanwhile 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780891423</amazonuk>War…

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Hamilton1786075431|title=StalemateMrs Mohr Goes Missing|ratingauthor=5|genre=Crime Maryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Historicaltranslator)|summary=In the summer of 1930 Walter Bruce was told that he had an incurable illness. With 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 colleagues. The 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178132204X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=The Marathon Conspiracy|author=Gary Corby

|summary=Nicolaos has Meet Zofia. A socially climbing wife of a medical professor, she's intent on making herself known as a lot charitable lady, and keen on her husband progressing yet through his mindesteemed career. His wedding In 1890s Cracow, life is only a few weeks away and he still has no real means of supporting a wife and family. The investigating gamepretty good, but she knows it seemscould always be better. Meanwhile, doesnother people't pay too well. So when his patron Pericles asks him s life could certainly be better – cholera is nearing the city due to investigate the murder lack of a young childhygiene, Nico is and many people have to fall on charity and almshouses to keep a little reticentroof over their heads. One such was Mrs Mohr, especially since he is still waiting although she was rich enough to be paid keep private lodgings and staff in her charitable home. I say ''was'', for his previous assignmentshe has vanished. Deciding that he can Only due to Zofia't afford to be pickys help does she get found, Nico accepts dead and in a case which will see him, amongst other things, fending off street thugs, diving for treasure place the near-lame woman could never reach by herself. Just who could be killing people in a sacred springcharity home, going on a bear hunt, rescuing a pair of fighting cocks and consulting to what end? And why does Zofia feel the need to make 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>name for herself by answering those questions?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley McKay1786893762|title=Friend and Foe (A Hew Cullan Mystery)Things in Jars|author=Jess Kidd

|summary=1583 A child has gone missing. The detective asked to take on the case is still struggling with the shame and King James VI of Scotland 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 paranoid a woman, andthe setting is Victorian London, after with all the events rich and colourful paradoxes of that era: technical and scientific progress jostling for space beside superstition and a fascination with the Ruthven raid bizarre and the year downright hideous. And before, who can blame him? Surely this wonyou't affect humble academic lawyer Hew Cullen? Oh but it willre more than a couple of pages in, eventually causing you realise just how much more turmoil unusual our heroine is than even he is used toyou expected. Back at Bridie Devine may dress in half-mourning, with a widow's cap and stout, shiny boots, but the beginning though, while Hew continuestobacco she smokes in her pipe (my dear, unaware of whatan utterly ''fast's ' thing for a lady to comedo!) is mixed with a nugget of something, he has more pressing domestic worries thatwell, for oncelet's say recreational, doncreated by her chemist friend Prudhoe. The fact that it't affect his herbalist sister Meg or his doctor brothers actually meant to cure bronchial problems is by the by. Her housemaid, being seven-infoot-law Gilestall, is also somewhat remarkable. IndeedAnd then, of course, this time there's the concern is the love of Hewghost. Ruby Doyle, world-famous tattooed boxer (deceased) accompanies Bridie all through her investigation, and it's own heartclear he has a soft spot for the determined young woman. If he really exists, that is.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972175</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=The Axeman's Jazz0349414327|authortitle= Ray Celestin|rating=4|genre=Crime A Snapshot of Murder (HistoricalKate Shackleton Mysteries)|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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144725886X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Sherlock Holmes: Gods of War|author=James LovegroveFrances Brody

|summary=The year is 1913 Even detectives need a break and for Kate Shackleton, photography gives her the storm clouds of war are gathering ominously on the horizonmental relaxation which she needs. Most people dread When the inevitablelocal Photographic Society proposed an outing, but there are individuals who stand Kate was keen to gain from take the oncoming conflict opportunity to visit Haworth and will stop at nothing to facilitate their plansStanbury, even if that means murder. However, it would take a very brave (or naïve) criminal to commit such an atrocity in not least because the neighbourhood deeds of Mr Sherlock Holmes, even if he is supposed to be enjoying his retirement. When the Brontë Parsonage are being handed over so that it comes to investigating mysterious activity, Holmes can't resist the lure of the chase and soon the game is afoot!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781165432</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Marco Malvaldi and Howard Curtis (translator)|title=The Art of Killing Well|rating=4.5|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 become a few days rest museum and possibly a boar hunt in her parents will be there for the Tuscan hillsevent. What could be better? Wellthan seeing her family, his stay would have been improved had witnessing a body not been discovered in momentous event and having the locked cellar opportunity to take photographs 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 hesetting for '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. HeWuthering Heights'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 ? Nothing could go to the last person survivingwrong. 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 Or could 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>?