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

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[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
 
[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Crime (Historical)]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Margery Allingham
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|isbn=0571370977
|title= Mystery Mile
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|title=The Lock-Up
|rating= 5
+
|author=John Banville
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary= On a transatlantic liner, an American points out Crowdy Lobbett and predicts that he will have been murdered within a fortnight.  Indeed he places a bet on it. It seems like a safe bet: retired Judge Lobbett has been the subject of four near misses so far: four attempts on his life that have misfired and killed someone close to him.  His children have persuaded him to take a trip to England in an attempt to keep him somewhat safer, for a while at least.
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|summary=It's six months since the dramatic events which we read about in [[April in Spain by John Banville|April in Spain]] and Dr Quirke is now back in Dublin and living (if somewhat uneasily) with his daughter, Phoebe. The worst of his grief is over but he irrationally blames DI St John Strafford for what happened and this has made the already strained relationship between them more difficultThey're brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the body of a young, Jewish scholar, Rosa Jacobs, is found in a lock-upAt first, it looked as though she'd gassed herself but Quirke is convinced that it was murder rather than suicide.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099474697</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gregory Dowling
 
|title=Ascension
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Alvise Marangon is an artist 'resting' between commissions and so using his guile and enterprise as a tour guide to those taking the European Grand Tour in 18th century VeniceEverything has a business as usual feel to it for Alvise until he notices a fellow gondolier paying his friend not to take a couple of English touristsThen, as the new Doge is inaugurated a man's head is thrown into the crowd. Showing people around a typical Venice is becoming increasingly hard for Alvise – Venice is not behaving typically!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973139</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Frances Brody
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|isbn=1529337968
|title=A Death in the Dales
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|title=In Place of Fear
 +
|author=Catriona McPherson
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Kate Shackleton's niece, Harriet, was recovering from diphtheria and Kate decided to take her away to the country for a fortnight to help her recuperateHer's friend - and would-be suitor - Dr Lucian Simonson had inherited a house in Langcliffe from his aunt Freda and Kate was pleased to accept the offer of the property for a couple of weeks.  There was a hidden message that she might also  see if she'd like to make her residence there more permanent, but Kate was in no hurry to make her mind up about remarriageHer private investigations suited her well and it wasn't long before she was approached to look into a crime which had troubled Lucian's Aunt FredaThe old lady had witnessed a murder, but her evidence was dismissed and she went to her grave believing that the wrong man had gone to the gallows.
+
|summary=It's July 1948 and Helen Crowther is due to start work as a qualified medical almoner the following morning - on the day that the NHS is bornShe'll be working for Dr Deuchar and Dr Strasser in their GP surgery and her job will be to help patients with those non-medical problems which affect their health.  The hardest part of the job will be to persuade people that the services she offers really are free and that they don't have to do anything to qualify for themSome of the problems will require delicate handling but Helen has a problem of her own which might give her some insightHer marriage has never been consummated.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349406561</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Shirley McKay
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|isbn=057136358X
|title=Queen & Country: A Hew Cullan Mystery (Hew Cullan Mystery 5)
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|title=April in Spain
 +
|author=John Banville
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It has been three years since Hew was banished from Scotland and manoeuvred into working for Elizabeth I's spymaster, Walsingham.  His loyalties remain with the Scottish Queen Mary but he must hide them as well as he can lest he becomes a victim of the conspiracy fever cutting through England and keeping the hangman busy.  There's also another fever cutting through Scotland – the plague, providing even more reason for Hew to worry about the wellbeing of his sister, brother in law and nephew.  If he could but go home he'd have a surprise for them.  When he gets there, there's a surprise for him in the form of a death prophesy picture, followed by a murder.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973120</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ian Ross
 
|title=Swords Around The Throne (Twilight of Empire)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Centurion Aurelius Castus' time in Britain is over but not his propensity for being on the wrong side of danger.  Due to an adventure on the journey he comes to the notice of Emperor Constantine, and is promoted to his elite bodyguard – the swords around the throne.  The multiple emperor model that has evolved to govern the Empire is shaky to say the least, riven by plots, conspiracies and worse.  Therefore Castus' new job is neither safe nor easy but it's not something he can refuse… unfortunately!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081167</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Chadwick
 
|title=Liberty Bazaar
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary= Confederate General Jubal de Brooke is sent to Britain as an envoy to raise awareness and funds from the English aristocracy for his southern brothers in arms in the American Civil War.  Meanwhile slave Trinity escapes to England and immediately becomes an icon for the liberal elite.  However soon Trinity realises there's more to the English support than just talk.  She uncovers a secret – and highly illegal – plot with far reaching effects for her homeland, not to mention dangerous consequences for her.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906582920</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lloyd Shepherd
 
|title=Savage Magic
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=London, 1842: Magistrate Aaron Graham is missing his wifeShe's left him, taking their daughter to live with her cousin in a very uncousinly wayYet her distance doesn't prevent her discussing the goings on at her new home with Graham; as these goings on resemble witchcraft and seem to be taking a toll on his daughter's health Aaron is rightly worried.  He calls upon Constable Horton to investigate… this is the Horton whose wife Graham encouraged to enter one of the more exclusive madhousesUnder the circumstances it seemed the right thing to do but Horton still hasn't forgiven his superior for it.  However, as the investigation goes on and Graham is distracted by a murder case with a rising body count, these bubbling undercurrents of enmity reduce in importance. The important thing for each of them has become survival.
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|summary=Terry Tice was a hitman, although he didn't think of himself in those termsHe saw what he did as ''a matter of making things tidy''I couldn't resist the thought that he was an extreme version of Marie Kondo.  He enjoyed his job, something which occurred to him when he was in Burma with the army ''where he got the chance to kill a lot of the little yellow fellows and had a fine old time''He was spending a lot of time with Percy Antrobus - who couldn't understand why Terry didn't know the purpose of a swizzle stick - surely he wouldn't drink champagne with bubbles in the ''morning''? It was after Percy's death that he saw the benefits of taking up a job in Spain.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471136086</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Vaughn Entwhistle
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|isbn=B08Z8BMZ7H
|title= The Dead Assassin
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|title=The Mystery of Healing
|rating= 4
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|author=A P McGrath
|genre= Crime (Historical)
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|rating=4
|summary=London, 1895. Arthur Conan Doyle is summoned to the scene of a mysterious crime – a senior member of the Government lies murdered. Close by, the body of the attacker is found, riddled with bullets. The dead assassin is identified, however, as a man who was hanged several weeks previously. Mystified by the strange incident, Arthur Conan Doyle calls on a friend for advice – Oscar Wilde. Together, the two of them are swept up into a bizarre investigation – one that threatens their lives, their families, and the very establishment itself. It seems that someone is reanimating corpses, and programming them for murder…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783292687</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Anita Davison
 
|title= Murder on the Minneapolis
 
|rating= 5
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Governess Flora Maguire is sailing from New York to England on the SS Minneapolis, entrusted with the task of returning her teenage charge, Eddie back home to boarding school. Unfortunately for Flora, the ship is first-class only, so she spends the first night aboard stowed away in her cabin, acutely aware of her lower social status. Her intention to stay out of the limelight is thwarted when, during a solitary stroll along the deck, she discovers a dead body at the bottom of the companionway. The ship staff hastily conclude that this is a tragic accident, but Flora has other ideas and decides to conduct her own investigation. Is there a murderer aboard ship? And if so, is Flora making herself a prime target by poking her nose into other people's affairs?
+
|summary=We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era and he's the physician on duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of the populace. The remuneration isn't high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and hones his skills: Solon ''wants'' the warriors to live. It's quite a spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see them, they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes to make them look more impressive. The sagitarii are the archers and the beastiarii are the condemned criminals who are going to fight for their lives with the wild animals. Today, it's the crocodiles.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910208264</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Anthony Quinn
+
|isbn=1529337925
|title= Curtain Call
+
|title=The Mirror Dance (Dandy Gilver)
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Catriona McPherson
|genre= Crime (Historical)
+
|rating=4.5
|summary= London, 1936. Nina Land is a West End actress, and she is spending her afternoon in a hotel room with a married man. When she spots the face of the man the newspapers have named “The Tie-Pin Killer”, she faces a huge dilemma – will she report the man to the police, and risk her career and the reputation of her lover? Or will she stay quiet, and risk the lives of innocent girls?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593238</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=MRC Kasasian
 
|title=Death Descends On Saturn Villa (The Gower Street Detective Series)
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=While the best personal detective in the known Victorian world (in his opinion anyway) Sidney Grice is away on a case, his ward March is left to her own devicesAs luck would have it, one of those devices is an invitation to meet a previously unknown relativeMarch visits Saturn Villa with a sense of curiosity and encounters Uncle Tolly whose afternoon tea is one she will never forget. Let's hope she knows a good detective!
+
|summary=It was the August Bank Holiday weekend and, as so often happened, it was cold enough to have the fire lit and Bunty the Dalmation wasn't inclined to leave it to keep Dandy Gilver warm on the sofaThe thought of work was almost cheering when Dandy took the call from Sandy Bissett in DundeeShe was the publisher of a magazine and had been told that the man running the Punch and Judy show in the local park had used copies of two of her cartoon characters - Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to drum up some local interest in his show.   Sandy Bissett's request was simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the man about infringement of copyright - and Dandy and Alex would be cheaper than employing a solicitor to do the same job.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178185971X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alexander Wilson
+
|isbn=B08LKT7HSR
|title=Wallace of the Secret Service
+
|title=Murder in the Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery)
 +
|author=Helena Dixon
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=This is the third in the re-issued series authored by the former soldier, spy and Professor of English Literature, without whom it is said, there'd have been no Bond, no Smiley, no Bourne.
+
|summary=In December 1933 the remains of Elowed Underhay were discovered in the cellar of the Glass Bottle Public House. Ezekiel Hamett was sought in connection with the murder of Elowed and his half-brother, Denzil Hammett, whose body was also discovered. Kitty Underhay's long search for her mother, who disappeared in June 1916 was overNow she's determined that the man responsible for her murder will be brought to justice.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749018151</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Sara Sheridan
 
|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 ex-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 gentlemanAll 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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=M J Carter
+
|author=Stephen Clarke
|title=The Infidel Stain
+
|title=The Spy Who Inspired Me
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= London, 1841. Newly returned from India, Jeremiah Blake and William Avery find life back in Victorian England difficult to settle into, having left a disconnected country travelled by pony and trap, and returned to one in the grip of railway mania. When a series of murders occur, all connected to the press, Avery and Blake find themselves back in action. But with connections between the murdered and those seeking revolution, it is a race against time to find the killer before he strikes again.
+
|summary=This is a spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming.  But it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 'likes the ladies' and who works for the secret service, but in the planning side of things more than the active service. Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, and the pair end up stranded in Normandy, with Margaux on a desperate mission to unearth traitors in the resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to keep up with her!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241146259</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=2952163855
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Matthew Pearl
+
|isbn=0349423083
|title=The Last Bookaneer
+
|title=Death and the Brewery Queen (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Frances Brody
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Bookaneer Fergins makes a decent living in 19th century LondonHowever his business acquaintance Davenport has a plan to aid his prosperity.  Hot literary property Robert Louis Stevenson is dying on Upolo, a Samoan island, having just written his final potential masterpieceTherefore all Davenport has to do is to steal it, bringing it back to publishing glory and self-aggrandisementThe only problems are that the enabling legal loophole is about to close and he's not the only one with his eye on that particular prize.  And Fergins?  He's going too, whether he wants to or not.
+
|summary=Kate Shackleton runs her investigation agency from Batswing Cottage, ably assisted by Jim Sykes, who lives in Woodhouse and her housekeeper, Mrs Sugden.  She's been approached by William Lofthouse of the Barleycorn Brewery in MashamSomething is going wrong with his business and he'd like Kate to look into it discreetly: he's hoping that his nephew and right-hand man, James Lofthouse, will be back from a trip to Germany before longJames went to see what the continental brewers were doing and what changes Barleycorn might need to makeWilliam is worried that James is perhaps enjoying himself a little bit ''too'' much or is going to bring back a German bride but he'd like the business to be ship-shape before his nephew returns.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846556198</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jane Thynne
+
|isbn=0241433568
|title=A War of Flowers
+
|title=Eight Detectives
 +
|author=Alex Pavesi
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=A War of Flowers is the third of Jane Thynne's thoroughly researched and beautifully written novels of Nazi Berlin from the female point of viewReading them is an immersive experience; the joy of the book is in location, description, comment. The action does not rush but the ending expertly pulls plot strings together and has a wow factor that will leave the reader eager for more.  
+
|summary=It's 1930 and Megan and Henry are staying with Bunny at his house in SpainIt's unbearably hot and Bunny drank too much at lunch: he's going to have a rest and then he wants to talk to Megan and Henry about something serious.  Only it never gets that far: when Bunny doesn't emerge after his siesta his guests find that he's been murdered.  How can that have happened?  There's no one else in the house, so one of them must be the killer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471131904</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Dan Simmons
+
|isbn=1473682401
|title=The Fifth Heart
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|title=The Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver)
 +
|author=Catriona McPherson
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=On a rainy night in March 1893 Henry James stands on a Paris bridge, about to end it allNext to him sidles Sherlock Holmes, about to do the sameInstead of jumping, Holmes drags James off for a drink and decides that they will go to America to solve a 17-year-old murder caseThe 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!
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|summary=Those who were with us at the end of [[A Step So Grave (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson|A Step So Grave]] will remember that Donald was engaged to Mallory DunnochThey're now married and Mallory is having twinsWhen they arrive no one can doubt the charms of Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and her brother, Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver.  There are two drawbacks: they're noisy and they're staying with Dandy and HughDandy and her detective partner, Alec Osborne, had not taken up the chance to look into a problem at the Cramond ferry when it was offered to them twice before, but suddenly the possibility of being out of the house at Gilverton seems irresistible.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751560952</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jayne Anne Phillips
+
|author=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)
|title=Quiet Dell
+
|title=The Honjin Murders
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
+
|genre=Crime
|summary= Chicago 1931. Asta Eicher is a widow, with three children and a crippling sense of loneliness. When Harry Powers asks her to marry him, she is delighted – and the new family soon leave in order to travel to West Virginia. They are never seen againBack in Chicago, Emily Thornhill is one of the few women journalists in Chicago, and is sent to investigate the disappearance, trying to establish what happened to the family. As she becomes ever deeper involved with the investigation, Emily begins to discover things she never expected – both about the case, and herself.  
+
|summary=To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'.  For those who need more, here is the extra background we're in rural Japan in the 1930s. The oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, although the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thingEither way, the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annexe before the sun rises on their marriage. What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has a lot of the peculiar about it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099590255</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1782275002
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Philip Kerr
+
|isbn=B07XLM3SM6
|title=The Lady from Zagreb
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|title=Murder at the Dolphin Hotel
 +
|author=Helena Dixon
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
+
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|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.  
+
|summary=Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care of her grandmother. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and the conclusion was that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise.  Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was ill. She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand why.  She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotel.  And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things ''and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the hotel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782065814</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Barbara Cleverly
+
|isbn=0349423067
|title=Enter Pale Death
+
|title=The Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Frances Brody
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=''Death by Misadventure''.' This is the official verdict as to the cause of death of Lady Lavinia Truelove, trampled to death by a notoriously ill-tempered horse, which she foolishly tried to approach in its stall. The horse panicked and reacted badly, resulting in a gruesome and bloody attack, witnessed by two boys from the village. Most people would dismiss the event as a tragic accident, but detective Joe Sandilands suspects that this could be cold-blooded murder. Could his judgement be clouded by the fact that he has a very personal axe to grind with the 'grieving' widower, who has been showing increasing attentiveness to Dorcas, the girl he plans to marry?
+
|summary=From Christmas to Easter a train ran from Leeds City Station to King's Cross, arriving before dawn so that the forced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Garden. In early March 1929, one of the porters who was unloading the boxes discovered the body of a man, stripped naked and with no means of identificationScotland Yard hit a dead end and called on the services of Kate Shackleton in the hope that her knowledge and connections in Yorkshire would give them the lead they needed.  Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child and could not come to terms with the fact that she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murder.  He was reluctant to give her all the information which the police held.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1616954086</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Enter the Saint
+
|isbn=1472127110
 +
|title=Indian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery
 +
|author=Sara Sheridan
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
+
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=When you think of thrillers written by a man 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 (and women) 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.
+
|summary=Life has changed dramatically for Mirabelle, our favourite fifties sleuth, since the war, and not always for the better. When she first settled in Brighton she was alone, rudderless and secretly grieving for Jack, the lover who died before he could leave his wife. As time went by she found in herself an ability to solve crimes, made friends including an ebullient and determined young woman called Vesta who refused to let a little thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what she wanted, and even found consolation in the arms of a rather charming policeman.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>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
+
{{Frontpage
|author=G M Best
+
|isbn=1912374439
|title=The Barchster Murders
+
|title=The Courier
 +
|author=Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Anthony Trollope was very taken with Barchester when he first visited the city, but pausing to look out at a pleasant view he discovered the body of Thomas Rider, a bedesman at Hiram's Hospital.  At first it was suspected that Trollope might have been the murderer - for this was no natural death, but a stabbing - but once he proved that he was a professional man there on business for the first time, he found himself drawn into the investigation. There is a secret which the warden, the Reverend Septimus Harding has hidden for well over a decade and it looks as though Rider might have been murdered to prevent the secret coming out.
+
|summary=Nazi-occupied Oslo, 1942. There, I've given the game away. For in a book that centres around a murder, I've told you who did it – the Nazis, surely? Well, that certainly has to remain to be seen in this volume, which splits its time between one of war, when a young woman sees her father arrested, and their store condemned as Jewish and rushes to her best friend to help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, and the late 1960s, when great consternation is being felt. In this timeline, a maverick agent is back in town, one who might have been fingered for murdering that female victim, even though she and he lived together with their baby as a young family, except he was thought by all to have died in the War…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910208086</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Rory Clements
+
|isbn=1786075431
|title=The Queen's Man
+
|title=Mrs Mohr Goes Missing
|rating=4
+
|author=Maryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)
 +
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Elizabethan England - a murky, dirty world full of religious strife and violent, short lives. Queen Elizabeth sits on the throne, but her seat is by no means safe - her first cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, is locked up in Sheffield Castle. Unable to leave, but by no means unable to plot and scheme 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.
+
|summary=Meet Zofia.  A socially climbing wife of a medical professor, she's intent on making herself known as a charitable lady, and keen on her husband progressing yet through his esteemed career. In 1890s Cracow, life is pretty good, but she knows it could always be better.  Meanwhile, other people's life could certainly be better – cholera is nearing the city due to lack of hygiene, and many people have to fall on charity and almshouses to keep a roof over their heads. One such was Mrs Mohr, although she was rich enough to keep private lodgings and staff in her charitable home.  I say ''was'', for she has vanished.  Only due to Zofia's help does she get found, dead and in a place the near-lame woman could never reach by herself. Just who could be killing people in a charity home, and to what end?  And why does Zofia feel the need to make a name for herself by answering those questions?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848548486</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=L C Tyler
+
|isbn=1786893762
|title=A Cruel Necessity (A John Grey Historical Mystery)
+
|title=Things in Jars
 +
|author=Jess Kidd
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Essex 1657: Cromwell's Republic is 8 years old. While John Grey sleeps off a good night of drink under the eaves of a cottage, a Royalist spy is murdered down the road. A trainee lawyer, John also enjoys the science of investigation and so starts looking for clues that will lead him to the murderer.  Although it's not easy: strange happenings occurred that night and Grey is having trouble persuading others of what he saw.  Meanwhile his mother has the perfect match for him. Unfortunately their ideas of perfection differ somewhat!
+
|summary=A child has gone missing. The detective asked to take on the case is still struggling with the shame and frustration left by a previous case, where the child was not found in time. Hardly original themes for a private eye thriller. And yet . . . take another look. This detective is a woman, and the setting is Victorian London, with all the rich and colourful paradoxes of that era: technical and scientific progress jostling for space beside superstition and a fascination with the bizarre and the downright hideous. And before you're more than a couple of pages in, you realise just how much more unusual our heroine is than you expected. Bridie Devine may dress in half-mourning, with a widow's cap and stout, shiny boots, but the tobacco she smokes in her pipe (my dear, what an utterly ''fast'' thing for a lady to do!) is mixed with a nugget of something, well, let's say recreational, created by her chemist friend Prudhoe. The fact that it's actually meant to cure bronchial problems is by the by. Her housemaid, being seven-foot-tall, is also somewhat remarkable. And then, of course, there's the ghost. Ruby Doyle, world-famous tattooed boxer (deceased) accompanies Bridie all through her investigation, and it's clear he has a soft spot for the determined young woman. If he really exists, that is.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472115031</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=C J Sansom
+
|isbn=0349414327
|title=Lamentation (Matthew Shardlake)
+
|title=A Snapshot of Murder (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
 +
|author=Frances Brody
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=The reign of Henry VIII is drawing to a close.  It's heresy to speculate on the death of the king, but obvious to anyone who sees the bloated man who can barely walk that he cannot have much longerMatthew Shardlake is still drawn to the queen - Catherine Parr as was - but he'd prefer to avoid court politics particularly when there's someone as suggestible and changeable as Henry on the throne.  Ultimately though he doesn't feel that he has much choice when he's summoned to Whitehall Palace.  It seems that the queen has a problem which could put her life in danger - along with the lives of all those who are seen as her supporters.
+
|summary=Even detectives need a break and for Kate Shackleton, photography gives her the mental relaxation which she needsWhen the local Photographic Society proposed an outing, Kate was keen to take the opportunity to visit Haworth and Stanbury, not least because the deeds of the Brontë Parsonage are being handed over so that it can become a museum and her parents will be there for the eventWhat could be better than seeing her family, witnessing a momentous event and having the opportunity to take photographs of the setting for ''Wuthering Heights''?  Nothing could go wrongOr could it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230744192</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Murder at the Brightwell
 
|author=Ashley Weaver
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=It probably helps to be a fan of Agatha Christie.  It probably helps to absolutely adore the sheer selfish indulgence and style of the 1930sIt probably helps to just accept the ''rich'' as being completely divorced from real life.  It definitely helps if you're happy to take your crime as a puzzle, rather than as heart-rending, gut-wrenching rendition of reality.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749017317</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Queen of Hearts
 
|author=Rhys Bowen
 
|rating=2
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Lady Georgiana Rannoch, 35th in line for the British throne, may know how to navigate upper class society, but there aren't many acceptable career choices for a penniless almost royal. So when her mother, famous actress Claire Daniels, invites her on a transatlantic cruise, Georgie is looking forwards to living the highlife and relaxing for a while.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00M4ZGVBG</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Martin Davies
 
|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 anti-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 doMeanwhile a courtesan named Leonarda just wants to find out why the man she loved died.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980451</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Dyslexia Friendly Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 13:45, 25 March 2023

0571370977.jpg

Review of

The Lock-Up by John Banville

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

It's six months since the dramatic events which we read about in April in Spain and Dr Quirke is now back in Dublin and living (if somewhat uneasily) with his daughter, Phoebe. The worst of his grief is over but he irrationally blames DI St John Strafford for what happened and this has made the already strained relationship between them more difficult. They're brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the body of a young, Jewish scholar, Rosa Jacobs, is found in a lock-up. At first, it looked as though she'd gassed herself but Quirke is convinced that it was murder rather than suicide. Full Review

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Review of

In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson

5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

It's July 1948 and Helen Crowther is due to start work as a qualified medical almoner the following morning - on the day that the NHS is born. She'll be working for Dr Deuchar and Dr Strasser in their GP surgery and her job will be to help patients with those non-medical problems which affect their health. The hardest part of the job will be to persuade people that the services she offers really are free and that they don't have to do anything to qualify for them. Some of the problems will require delicate handling but Helen has a problem of her own which might give her some insight. Her marriage has never been consummated. Full Review

057136358X.jpg

Review of

April in Spain by John Banville

5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

The Mystery of Healing by A P McGrath

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

The Mirror Dance (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

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

3.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

The Spy Who Inspired Me by Stephen Clarke

4star.jpg General Fiction

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

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi

5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

The Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

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

4star.jpg Crime

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

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Review of

Murder at the Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

Indian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery by Sara Sheridan

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

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Review of

The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)

3.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Nazi-occupied Oslo, 1942. There, I've given the game away. For in a book that centres around a murder, I've told you who did it – the Nazis, surely? Well, that certainly has to remain to be seen in this volume, which splits its time between one of war, when a young woman sees her father arrested, and their store condemned as Jewish and rushes to her best friend to help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, and the late 1960s, when great consternation is being felt. In this timeline, a maverick agent is back in town, one who might have been fingered for murdering that female victim, even though she and he lived together with their baby as a young family, except he was thought by all to have died in the War… Full Review

1786075431.jpg

Review of

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

3.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

1786893762.jpg

Review of

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

0349414327.jpg

Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

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

Move on to Newest Dyslexia Friendly Reviews