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

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[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
 
[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Cecilia Ekback
+
|isbn=0571370977
|title=In the Month of the Midnight Sun
+
|title=The Lock-Up
|rating=5
+
|author=John Banville
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=1856, Blackasen Village, Sweden: A Lapp sits surrounded by three dead bodies – the vicar, a constable and one other.  The murders coincide with the arrival of Magnus Lille, a geologist sent by the Swedish government to map the mountain that gives the village its name.  Magnus doesn't realise what he's walking into as up till now he thought his main problem was his sister-in-law, brought with him at his wife's father's, (the Minister for State's), insistence.  The events that will take place will cause them both sleepless nights and a real chance that neither will live to go home.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444789937</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Susanna Gregory
 
|title=A Grave Concern: The Twenty Second Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Chancellor Tynkell was kindly, but ineffectual and everyone was stunned by his murder, not least because it happened very publicly - on top of the church tower, in a high wind with a lot of people watching.  Then the murderer disappearedSome people saw a black cloak being blown along to the marshes outside Cambridge and swore that it was the devil's work, but physician Matthew Bartholomew and Brother Michael knew better and were determined to prove it.  These are not Bartholomew's only problems though: a 'barber surgeon' (free shave or haircut with every treatment) recently arrived from Nottingham is causing problems rather than curing illnesses. His sister is struggling to get her husband's tomb built by the mason she commissioned to do the work: like builders everywhere throughout the ages he keeps moving from job to job and never finishing any.  Then Brother Michael is offered a Bishopric - in Rochester.
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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 difficult.  They'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>0751549797</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Bonnie MacBird
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|isbn=1529337968
|title= Art in the Blood: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure
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|title=In Place of Fear
|rating= 4
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|author=Catriona McPherson
|genre= Crime (Historical)
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|rating=5
|summary= It's the winter of 1888 and Sherlock Holmes is languishing. After a devastating result concerning the mysterious Ripper investigation, Holmes can find no solace and falls back in to his troublesome relationship with cocaine. Not even his good friend Doctor Watson can cheer him – that is until an encoded letter arrives from Paris from a young French cabaret star who claims her son has vanished. Intrigued, Holmes explores the case only to uncover that the disappearance of a young boy is only the tip of the iceberg. Journeying to Paris and then to the Lancashire countryside, Holmes and Watson become involved in a dangerous investigation, concerning a prized stolen statue, child slavery, and murder – but who is the culprit behind it all?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000812969X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=CC Humphreys
 
|title=Fire
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Puritan/former Roundhead Pitman and former highwayman/Cavalier Captain William Coke have formed a deep respect for each otherTheir first mission was to track down the Fifth Monarchists, an organisation out to avenge those who were found guilty and hanged for signing Charles I's death warrantThat was then, during the Great Plague.  A mere year later, the Plague has lessened but the Fifth Monarchists are back, taking Pitman's and Coke's interventions personallyWe therefore find our heroes defending themselves, their families, the monarch, and, on top of that, a new disaster is about to hit the capital.   
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|summary=It's July 1948 and Helen Crowther is due to start work as a qualified medical almoner the following morning - on the day that the NHS is bornShe'll be working for Dr Deuchar and Dr Strasser in their GP surgery and her job will be to help patients with those non-medical problems which affect their healthThe 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>1780891458</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Indrek Hargla and Christopher Moseley (translator)
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|isbn=057136358X
|title= Apothecary Melchior and the Ghost of Rataskaevu Street
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|title=April in Spain
|rating= 5
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|author=John Banville
|genre= Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=In fifteenth century Tallinn religion and superstition sit side by side. In the midst of this is scientifically-minded apothecary Melchior Wakenstede, known for his curiosity, logical thinking, and ability to solve murders. There are rumours of a ghost a few doors down from Melchior on Rataskaevu Street, though he's not as ready to believe in it as some of his neighbours. When several people die after saying they'd seen the ghost, Melchior can't resist looking for the connection between them and trying to discover the truth behind the tales.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0720618452</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jennifer Donnelly
 
|title=These Shallow Graves
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Jennifer Donnelly wrote one of my all-time favourite books, ''A Gathering Light'', so I was very excited to read her latest novel and see how it compared. Like ''A Gathering Light'', ''These Shallow Graves'' is a historical novel with a murder mystery at its heart and a feisty heroine who challenges the standards of the day.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471405176</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lloyd Shepherd
 
|title=The Detective and the Devil (Charles Horton 4)
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=1855: Only a few years after the notorious Highways Murderer left his mark on London's docks, Constable Charles Horton is called back to the areaThe disturbing murder of a clerk and his family bears the trademark of the serial killer but Horton's sure he's already dead; Horton saw him dieAt this point the hunt for a devil incarnate begins, taking Horton and his wife Abigail to the other side of the world and the darker side of an untouchable Victorian institution: The East India Company.
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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>1471136124</amazonuk>
 
|amazonus=<amazonus>1471136124</amazonus>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Martin Edwards (editor)
 
|title=Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=I'm not big on short stories, but two factors nudged me towards this bookFirstly, it's broadly golden age crime, one of my weaknesses and secondly, the editor is [[:Category:Martin Edwards|Martin Edwards]], a man whose knowledge of golden age crime is probably unsurpassed and he's done us proud, not only with his selection, but with the half-page biographies of the writers, which precede each story.  There's just enough there to allow you to place the author and to direct you to other works if you're tempted.  It's an elegant selection, from the well known and the less well known, all set in and around the country house.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712309934</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= A J MacKenzie
 
|title= The Body on the Doorstep
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=On the marshes of Kent in the late eighteenth century, Reverend Hardcastle discovers a dying man on his doorstep. Narrowly escaping a bullet himself, he is entrusted with the dying man's last words which leave him questioning the mystery behind this anonymous man's death. With smugglers rife along the Kent coast, it seems as though it was a simple falling out amongst thieves, but the Reverend believes the answer to this crime lies deeper. Assisted by the brilliant Mrs Chaytor they set off to solve the mystery – but with smugglers lurking all through the county and the French threatening to invade, there are unsuspected dangers around every corner.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785761137</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Gavin Scott
+
|isbn=B08Z8BMZ7H
|title=The Age of Treachery
+
|title=The Mystery of Healing
 +
|author=A P McGrath
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=In the winter of 1946 Duncan Forrester, formerly of the Special Operations Executive, was back at his Oxford college as a junior fellow in Ancient HistoryHe'd lost the woman he loved to the Gestapo and was now feeling guilty about the fact that he was besotted with the wife of his best friend, a fellow academicTo confuse matters further the woman in question, Margaret Clark, had been having an affair with another lecturer, David Lyall and it seemed likely that she would leave her husband for him.
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|summary=We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era and he's the physician on duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of the populaceThe remuneration isn't high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and hones his skills: Solon ''wants'' the warriors to liveIt'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>1783297808</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= E S Thomson
 
|title= Beloved Poison
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=St Savior's is a crumbling infirmary – its walls stuffed with ambition, jealousy and hatred. Six tiny coffins, each containing dried flowers and mouldering rags, are uncovered inside the decaying chapel. A silent outsider, with secrets of her own to hide, is determined to discover the truth. And in a trail that leads from the bloody worlds of dissecting table and operating theatre, through to the squalor of Newgate Prison and its gallows, Jem Flockhart faces a ruthless adversary. As the destruction of St Savior's looms, the dead are unearthed, the living are forced into impossible decisions – and murder is the price for secrets to be kept…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472122275</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= George Mann
+
|isbn=1529337925
|title= The Osiris Ritual: A Newbury and Hobbes Investigation
+
|title=The Mirror Dance (Dandy Gilver)
|rating= 3
+
|author=Catriona McPherson
|genre= Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Sir Maurice Newbury, his majesty's special agent, and his assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes are on the case once more. When a group of well-to-do explorers return from an Egyptian expedition, they unveil a mummy and unleash an ancient mystery. Soon the explorers are being picked off one by one and Newbury must solve the mystery if he is to catch the culprit. But there's more than one brute on the loose, while Newbury attempts to track down a rogue agent, Veronica takes the case of disappearing women into her own hands with dangerous consequences …
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783298251</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
 
|title=Sherlock: The Essential Arthur Conan Doyle Adventures
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=There can be few people who haven't heard of Sherlock Holmes, whether in the guise of the original stories or subsequent film and television adaptations including the most recent series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, who are pictured on the dust cover of ''Sherlock: The Essential Arthur Conan Doyle Adventures''. It's this most recent series which has widened the fan base of the stories and many of them won't have copies of the original stories to hand.  My own copy is a 1959 reprint of the 1929 edition which had four stories in one volume, but this current volume has nineteen stories in the one book.
+
|summary=It was the August Bank Holiday weekend and, as so often happened, it was cold enough to have the fire lit and Bunty the Dalmation wasn't inclined to leave it to keep Dandy Gilver warm on the sofa.  The thought of work was almost cheering when Dandy took the call from Sandy Bissett in Dundee.  She was the publisher of a magazine and had been told that the man running the Punch and Judy show in the local park had used copies of two of her cartoon characters - Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to drum up some local interest in his show.   Sandy Bissett's request was simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the man about infringement of copyright - and Dandy and Alex would be cheaper than employing a solicitor to do the same job.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940163</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Margery Allingham
+
|isbn=B08LKT7HSR
|title=Sweet Danger
+
|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=''Sweet Danger'' is the fifth book in Margery Allingham's ''Campion'' series, which has our eponymous gentleman-adventurer on a quest to find the rightful heir of a suddenly-valuable principality on the Adriatic Sea known as Averna. The British Government want proof of ownership and this, of course, involves overcoming several obstacles, including a curious riddle, collecting various items and keeping one step ahead of the enemy. The quest soon becomes a race against time, when the villains, led by Machiavellian schemer Brett Savanake, start to close in on our heroes.
+
|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 over. Now she's determined that the man responsible for her murder will be brought to justice.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099474689</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Margery Allingham
+
|author=Stephen Clarke
|title= Mystery Mile
+
|title=The Spy Who Inspired Me
|rating= 5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= On a transatlantic liner, an American points out Crowdy Lobbett and predicts that he will have been murdered within a fortnightIndeed 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.
+
|summary=This is a spoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond.  Or Ian FlemingBut it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 'likes the ladies' and who works for the secret service, but in the planning side of things more than the active 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>0099474697</amazonuk>
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|isbn=2952163855
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Gregory Dowling
+
|isbn=0349423083
|title=Ascension
+
|title=Death and the Brewery Queen (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
 +
|author=Frances Brody
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|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!
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973139</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Frances Brody
+
|isbn=0241433568
|title=A Death in the Dales
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|title=Eight Detectives
 +
|author=Alex Pavesi
 
|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.
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|summary=It's 1930 and Megan and Henry are staying with Bunny at his house in SpainIt's unbearably hot and Bunny drank too much at lunch: he's going to have a rest and then he wants to talk to Megan and Henry about something seriousOnly it never gets that far: when Bunny doesn't emerge after his siesta his guests find that he's been murderedHow can that have happened?  There's no one else in the house, so one of them must be the killer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349406561</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Shirley McKay
+
|isbn=1473682401
|title=Queen & Country: A Hew Cullan Mystery (Hew Cullan Mystery 5)
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|title=The Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver)
|rating=5
+
|author=Catriona McPherson
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|rating=4
|summary=It has been three years since Hew was banished from Scotland and manoeuvred into working for Elizabeth I's spymaster, WalsinghamHis 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 nephewIf 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.
+
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973120</amazonuk>
+
|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 Dunnoch.  They'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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ian Ross
+
|author=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)
|title=Swords Around The Throne (Twilight of Empire)
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|title=The Honjin Murders
|rating=5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Centurion Aurelius Castus' time in Britain is over but not his propensity for being on the wrong side of dangerDue 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 throneThe 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!
+
|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 hasteShe 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081167</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1782275002
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=David Chadwick
+
|isbn=B07XLM3SM6
|title=Liberty Bazaar
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|title=Murder at the Dolphin Hotel
|rating=5
+
|author=Helena Dixon
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|rating=4
|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 WarMeanwhile slave Trinity escapes to England and immediately becomes an icon for the liberal eliteHowever 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.
+
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906582920</amazonuk>
+
|summary=Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care of her grandmotherA great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and the conclusion was that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwiseKitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Lloyd Shepherd
+
|isbn=0349423067
|title=Savage Magic
+
|title=The Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)
 +
|author=Frances Brody
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=London, 1842: Magistrate Aaron Graham is missing his wife.  She's left him, taking their daughter to live with her cousin in a very uncousinly way.  Yet 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 itHowever, 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 importanceThe important thing for each of them has become survival.
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|summary=From Christmas to Easter a train ran from Leeds City Station to King's Cross, arriving before dawn so that the forced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Garden. In early March 1929, one of the porters who was unloading the boxes discovered the body of a man, stripped naked and with no means of 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 neededKate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child and could not come to terms with the fact that she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murderHe was reluctant to give her all the information which the police held.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471136086</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
 
|author= Vaughn Entwhistle
+
{{Frontpage
|title= The Dead Assassin
+
|isbn=1472127110
|rating= 4
+
|title=Indian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery
|genre= Crime (Historical)
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|author=Sara Sheridan
|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…
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|rating=4.5
|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=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>1910208264</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Anthony Quinn
+
|isbn=1912374439
|title= Curtain Call
+
|title=The Courier
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)
|genre= Crime (Historical)
+
|rating=3.5
|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 devices.  As luck would have it, one of those devices is an invitation to meet a previously unknown relative. March 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=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>178185971X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Alexander Wilson
+
|isbn=1786075431
|title=Wallace of the Secret Service
+
|title=Mrs Mohr Goes Missing
 +
|author=Maryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)
 
|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=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>0749018151</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Sara Sheridan
+
|isbn=1786893762
|title= British Bulldog
+
|title=Things in Jars
|rating= 5
+
|author=Jess Kidd
|genre= Crime (Historical)
+
|rating=4.5
|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 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>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=M J Carter
 
|title=The Infidel Stain
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|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=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>0241146259</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Matthew Pearl
+
|isbn=0349414327
|title=The Last Bookaneer
+
|title=A Snapshot of Murder (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 masterpiece.  Therefore 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 prizeAnd Fergins? He's going too, whether he wants to or not.
+
|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>1846556198</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

1529337968.jpg

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

0241433568.jpg

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

1472127110.jpg

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

1912374439.jpg

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