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Newest Crime (Historical) Reviews (view source)
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[[Category:Crime (Historical)|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Crime (Historical)]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=MRC Kasasian0571370977|title=The Mangle Street MurdersLock-Up|author=John Banville|rating=54
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=March MiddletonIt's father dies, six months since the dramatic events which we read about in [[April in Spain by John Banville|April in Spain]] and she becomes a 20-something alone; not a good status for a Victorian woman. She therefore moves Dr Quirke is now back in with her guardian, Sidney Grice, personal Dublin and living (not private!if somewhat uneasily) detective. Although, as Sidney has a case to solvewith his daughter, March may as well be invisiblePhoebe. Grice has been employed by shopkeeper William Ashby who has savagely murdered The worst of his own wife by stabbing her 40 times grief is over but he irrationally blames DI St John Strafford for what happened and leaving this has made the Italian word for already strained relationship between them more difficult. They'revenge' on re brought together by Chief Inspector Hackett when the wallbody of a young, Jewish scholar, Rosa Jacobs, is found in a lock-up. Everyone says he did At first, it apart from Ashby, of course. Therefore Grice teams up with Inspector Pound of the Yard to solve the conundrum and March looked as though she'd gassed herself but Quirke is there to help, whether Sidney wants her to or notconvinced that it was murder rather than suicide.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781851840</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Brody1529337968|title=Murder on a Summer's Day: (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)In Place of Fear|author=Catriona McPherson
|rating=5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=It was Kate Shackleton's cousin in the India Office who sought her help July 1948 and Helen Crowther is due to find Maharajah Narayan who had gone out hunting on start work as a qualified medical almoner the Bolton Abbey Estate and not returned, although his horse - a flighty Arab - returned riderless. The following morning a body was found - but this proved to be one of on the grooms who had accompanied Narayan earlier in day that the dayNHS is born. Had he slipped jumping across the Strid She'll be working for Dr Deuchar and Dr Strasser in their GP surgery and drowned? her job will be to help patients with those non-medical problems which affect their health. The jump across hardest part of the river Wharfe looked tempting and job will be to persuade people were warned of that the dangers, but it was known services she offers really are free and that young men regularly crossed that way rather than walking they don't have to do anything to the wooden bridge or the stepping stonesqualify for them. Later in Some of the day Narayan's body was foundproblems will require delicate handling but Helen has a problem of her own which might give her some insight. He'd been shot through the heart and a clumsy attempt had Her marriage has never been made to hide the body - but only Kate Shackleton believed that there was foul play. The authorities seemed determined that what had happened would be written off as 'a tragic accident'consummated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034940058X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hannah Kent057136358X|title=Burial Rites|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Fridrik, Agnes and Sigridur are accused of murdering two men one Icelandic night in 1829 before setting fire to their home. Now Agnes awaits execution, imprisoned April in the farm of a lowly local family who, rumour has it, wouldn't be too great a loss if the prisoner becomes dangerous. Margrit Jonsdottir (the farmer's wife) doesn't feel threatened and sets the shocked, malnourished Agnes to work. Gradually Agnes reveals the events of that night to Margrit and Toti, a young priest. Her version seems to be a little different from what everyone else concluded, predictably… Or perhaps not so predictably.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447233166</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSpain|author= Daniel Woodrell|title=The Maid's VersionJohn Banville
|rating=5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Kate Shackleton's business as Terry Tice was a private investigator is beginning to attract interest but when therehitman, although he didn's a loud banging on the door very early one morning she soon learns the truth t think of the old adage that when family comes himself in, money doesn'tthose terms. The visitor He saw what he did as ''looksa matter of making things tidy'' familiar but Kate can. I couldn't quite place where she's seen resist the woman before. Eventually it emerges thought that Mary Jane Armstrong is Kate's sister. Kate he was adopted as a baby and knew nothing an extreme version of her natural family but Mary Jane needs helpMarie Kondo. Her children had taken food for their father at He enjoyed his job, something which occurred to him when he was in Burma with the quarry army ''where he worked got the chance to kill a lot of the little yellow fellows and tenhad a fine old time''. He was spending a lot of time with Percy Antrobus -year-old Harriet reported finding her father dead on who couldn't understand why Terry didn't know the floor purpose of a swizzle stick - surely he wouldn't drink champagne with bubbles in the hut, but when searchers returned to ''morning''? It was after Percy's death that he saw the quarry there was no sign benefits of taking up a body or of Ethan Armstrong either. Local opinion said that her husband had abandoned them, but Mary Jane believed her daughterjob in Spain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954876</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth LoupasB08Z8BMZ7H|title=The Second DuchessMystery of Healing|author=A P McGrath|rating=54
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Elizabeth Loupas, it seems, was not We meet Solon in Pergamon in the first author to be inspired by second century of the intrigue common era and scandal he's the physician on duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of the renaissance court of Ferrerapopulace. The poem remuneration isn't high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and hones his skills: Solon ''wants'My Last Duchess' by Robert Browningthe warriors to live. It's quite a spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see them, first published in 1842 is an elegiac account reflecting they're sprinkling gold dust onto the popular view that Duke Alfonso d’Este murdered his first wife Lucrezia de Medici because of her unfaithfulnesslions' manes to make them look more impressive. Loupas explores some of The sagitarii are the archers and the themes raised in beastiarii are the poem and cleverly combines elements of Browning’s work condemned criminals who are going to fight for their lives with true historical accounts to create an appealing murder-mystery set against the sumptuous backdrop of renaissance Italywild animals. Today, it's the crocodiles.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848093837</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Brody1529337925|title=A Medal for Murder: The Mirror Dance (Kate Shackleton MysteriesDandy Gilver) |author=Catriona McPherson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=When a pawnbroker It was unceremoniously robbed of valuable items which he the August Bank Holiday weekend and, as so often happened, it was holding cold enough to have the fire lit and Bunty the Dalmation wasn't inclined to leave it to keep Dandy Gilver warm on behalf the sofa. The thought of clients he first called the police and then Kate Shackleton work was almost cheering when Dandy took the police seemed to be getting nowherecall from Sandy Bissett in Dundee. It wasn't just She was the crime which publisher of a magazine and had been committed, but told that the man running the Punch and Judy show in the pledges local park had sentimental value used copies of two of her cartoon characters - Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to many of Moonydrum up some local interest in his show. Sandy Bissett's clients request was simple: she wanted Gilver and he was worried Osborne to warn the man about how they would feel when the jewellry couldn't be returned infringement of copyright - and Dandy and what the impact Alex would be on ''his'' reputation. He wanted the pieces back - but most of all he wanted Kate Shackleton and her assistant Jim Sykes cheaper than employing a solicitor to visit the clients and discuss do the situation with them. Simple? Nosame job.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749941928</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances BrodyB08LKT7HSR|title=Dying In The Wool: (Kate Shackleton Mysteries) |rating=4.5|genre=Crime Murder in the Belltower (HistoricalA Miss Underhay Mystery)|summary=Kate Shackleton had gained something of a reputation for solving mysteries and there were plenty of those at the end of the Great War. She tracked down men who were then reunited with their families and even those who had no wish to be found and were not reunited. She had her own reasons for doing this - it made her feel more positive about her own situation. Her husband Gerald was posted ''missing, presumed dead'' in the last year of the war and it was the one mystery she couldn't solve, no matter how she tried. But her successes in other areas led to her first professional investigation.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749941871</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Gallagher|title=The Bedlam DetectiveHelena Dixon|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Authors like to claim that writing is hard work. In a way, that’s true – there are a really astonishing number December 1933 the remains of words Elowed Underhay were discovered in a book, and it’s often very difficult to wrangle them from your head into coherent sentences on a pagethe cellar of the Glass Bottle Public House. At Ezekiel Hamett was sought in connection with the same timemurder of Elowed and his half-brother, thoughDenzil Hammett, whose body was also discovered. Kitty Underhay's long search for her mother, who disappeared in June 1916 was over. Now she'hard'' should not s determined that the man responsible for her murder will be the same as ''boring''. It’s sad to come across authors who don’t enjoy the process of writing, and it’s so easy brought to tell when you’re reading a piece of work by a writer who was actually having fun when they wrote itjustice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091950120</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edney SilvestreStephen Clarke|title=If I Close My Eyes NowThe Spy Who Inspired Me
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=12th April 1961This 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 radio news is full of Yuri Gagarinladies's first earth orbit and two boys who'd had ambitions to be Tarzanworks for the secret service, to be engineersbut in the planning side of things more than the active service. Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, or medical scientists curing all diseasesand the pair end up stranded in Normandy, suddenly had a new possibility: maybe they could be astronauts. 'Brasilia had been inaugurated less than with Margaux on a year earlier, but whichever of us got desperate mission to be president was going to transfer unearth traitors in the capital back resistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to Rio. We were twelve. It was a different country. A different world.'keep up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857521322</amazonuk>2952163855
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sax Rohmer0349423083|title=Fu-Manchu - Daughter of Fu-Manchu|rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Fu Manchu is dead (or is he?) but his evil genius lives on, in Death and the form of his daughter! New narrator Greville is sent to fetch Dr Petrie Brewery Queen (narrator of the first three booksKate Shackleton Mysteries) to come to an archaeological dig where Greville's chief Barton, an old friend of Petrie's, lies dead. (Or does he?) From there, the pair, along with Nayland Smith and Superintendent Weymouth, are plunged into a death-defying adventure.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857686062</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=GK Chesterton|title=The Complete Father Brown StoriesFrances Brody
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Having read many 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 Father Brown short stories beforeBarleycorn 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, and after really enjoying the recent screen versionJames Lofthouse, I jumped at will be back from a trip to Germany before long. James went to see what the chance continental brewers were doing and what changes Barleycorn might need to get hold of this TV tie-in omnibusmake. The William is worried that James is perhaps enjoying himself a little cleric who has such bit ''too'' much or is going to bring back a mild manner, German bride but a keen knowledge of human evil, is one of my favourite detectives, and it was a pleasure he'd like the business to be able to read this complete collection of ship-shape before his storiesnephew returns.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849906467</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Sheridan0241433568|title=London Calling: a Mirabelle Bevan MysteryEight Detectives|author=Alex Pavesi
|rating=5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Mirabelle Bevan is an intriguing characterIt's 1930 and Megan and Henry are staying with Bunny at his house in Spain. Warm, resourceful It's unbearably hot and extremely clever, she spent her war years in intelligence (though not active duty) Bunny drank too much at lunch: he's going to have a rest and then, as the war ended and her long-time lover died, she withdrew he wants to talk to the coast Megan and the dubious joys of running a debt-collection agencyHenry about something serious. Accidentally getting involved in solving a major crime with her vibrant young companion Vesta Only it never gets her noticed, however, and it isnthat far: when Bunny doesn't long before she finds herself knee-deep in another mystery. A childhood friend flees London and an accusation of murder to beg Vesta and her employer to help him prove emerge after his siesta his innocenceguests find that he's been murdered. This leads How can that have happened? There's no one else in the intrepid pair into the world house, so one of smoky, music-filled basements and the black market, where they encounter criminals from all across them must be the social spectrumkiller.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972434</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jacqueline Jacques1473682401|title=The Colours of CorruptionTurning Tide (Dandy Gilver)|author=Catriona McPherson
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Mary, an impoverished cleaner, is witness to a murder. Archie is one of the first artists to work Those who were with us at the police and creates a picture end of the man she says she saw. Taken by her looks he persuades Mary to sit for a portrait, but the man who buys the portraitwould rather buy Mary herself...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784531</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Andrew Taylor|title=The Scent of Death|rating=4.5|genre=Crime [[A Step So Grave (HistoricalDandy Gilver)by Catriona McPherson|summary=It’s hard A Step So Grave]] will remember that Donald was engaged to explain why Andrew Taylor’s novels are so chillingMallory Dunnoch. They’re ghost stories that often lack ghosts, crime novels in which the crime itself feels at a remove from the rest of the action They're now married and Mallory is having twins. But that’s really When they arrive no one can doubt the secret charms of their power: while in most thrillers, the bogeyman is a single entity, easy to pinpoint Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and therefore easy to excise from the rest of the healthy fictional worldher brother, things Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. There are never so simple in the universes Taylor creates. What is frightening in an Andrew Taylor novel? Everything.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007213514</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=George Mann (Editor)|title=Encounters of Sherlock Holmes|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Sherlock Holmes remains an enduring icon of English literature; perhaps as popular today as he was back in the late 1800s, maybe even more so two drawbacks: they're noisy and they're staying with the advent of TV Dandy and film adaptations of his adventuresHugh. Indeed Dandy and her detective partner, such is Alec Osborne, had not taken up the lasting appeal of chance to look into a problem at the character that since Cramond ferry when it was offered to them twice before, but suddenly the death possibility of Conan Doyle there have been literally hundreds being out of works published, picking up where the original stories left offhouse at Gilverton seems irresistible. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781160031</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matthew PearlSeishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=The TechnologistsHonjin Murders
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=The year To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is 1868 and Boston is under threat from an evil genius who seems enough to have make the uncanny ability book one to manipulate matter itselfread; 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 city 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 already experienced two attacks; 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 chaos wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annexe before the harbour when sun rises on their marriage. What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the navigation instruments went awry neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the eerie spectacle in time of the commercial quarter when every item crime, this case has a lot of glass, including windows, eyeglasses, clocks and watches spontaneously meltedthe peculiar about it. But are these attacks a prelude to something greater?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099512769</amazonuk>1782275002
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James P BlaylockB07XLM3SM6|title=The Aylesford SkullMurder at the Dolphin Hotel|author=Helena Dixon
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Langdon St. IvesElowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, renowned scientist and adventurerKitty, returns home from in the hubbub care of her grandmother. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and grime of Victorian London the conclusion was that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to his tranquil residence terms with this and in rural Aylesford where he lives 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with his wife Alice 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 their two young childrenKitty could not understand why. Weary She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the city, having survived a devastating explosion naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotel. And she particularly vicious attempt cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on his life, he is hoping for some repose things ''and a chance '' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to work quietly on his latest project; a dirigible airshiptake charge of security at the hotel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857689797</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Gallagher0349423067|title=The Kingdom of BonesBody on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)|author=Frances Brody|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary='If you like this sort of thing…' reads From Christmas to Easter a line train ran from Stephen GallagherLeeds City Station to King's 'The Kingdom of Bones'Cross, 'then here comes arriving before dawn so that the kind forced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Garden. In early March 1929, one of thing you’ll like'. It’s describing the opening music for porters who was unloading the boxes discovered the body of a theatrical numberman, but it’s an almost perfect tagline for ''The Kingdom stripped naked and with no means of Bones'' itselfidentification. If you like Victorians, vaudeville Scotland Yard hit a dead end and villainy, if you like prize-fighting called on the services of Kate Shackleton in the hope that her knowledge and police chases and possession by connections in Yorkshire would give them the Devil, then here comes 'The Kingdom of Bones'lead they needed. It’s Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child and could not come to terms with the kind of thing fact that you’re really going she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murder. He was reluctant to likegive her all the information which the police held.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091950139</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dashiell Hammett1472127110|title=The Return of the Thin ManIndian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery|author=Sara Sheridan|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=I've recently been discovering Life has changed dramatically for Mirabelle, our favourite fifties sleuth, since the original works of Raymond Chandler whichwar, like many people, I'd only really known from and not always for the Hollywood renditionsbetter. A naturalWhen she first settled in Brighton she was alone, if backwardsrudderless and secretly grieving for Jack, progression from there was clearly the lover who died before he could leave his wife. As time went by she found in herself an ability to the writer that Chandler solve crimes, made friends including an ebullient and determined young woman called 'the ace performer'Vesta who refused to let a little thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what she wanted, the man 'who did over and over again what only even found consolation in the best writers ever do at all'arms of a rather charming policeman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800208</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Essie Fox1912374439|title=Elijah's MermaidThe Courier|author=Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Author Augustus Lamb receives Nazi-occupied Oslo, 1942. There, I've given the game away. For in a shocking letter from his publisher 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 old rushes to her best friend Frederick Hall. Hall has discovered Lamb's small grandchildrento help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, Lily and Elijahthe late 1960s, in a London home for foundlingswhen great consternation is being felt. Lamb's son Gabriel had died after In this timeline, a socially unacceptable liaison with beautiful Italian Isabella maverick agent is back in town, one who subsequently disappeared. Delighted beyond words at Hall's discoverymight have been fingered for murdering that female victim, Augustus adopts the twinseven though she and he lived together with their baby as a young family, raising them except he was thought by all to have died in his Herefordshire country home, Kingsland House. There the children grow, happy and loved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409123340</amazonuk>War…
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Carnac1786075431|title=The Autobiography of Jack the RipperMrs Mohr Goes Missing|author=Maryla Szymiczkova and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=The Meet Zofia. A socially climbing wife of a medical professor, she''Autobiography'' presents itself s intent on making herself known as the Ripper’s story told from a charitable lady, and keen on her husband progressing yet through his own perspectiveesteemed career. In 1890s Cracow, life is pretty good, but she knows it could always be better. The son Meanwhile, other people's life could certainly be better – cholera is nearing the city due to lack of an impoverished doctorhygiene, young Carnac has and many people have to fall on charity and almshouses to keep a childhood obsession with blood which a series of unfortunate events morphs into a full-blown desire roof over their heads. One such was Mrs Mohr, although she was rich enough to slit human throatskeep private lodgings and staff in her charitable home. It’s the typical Victorian coming-of-age story (from birth I say ''was'', for she has vanished. Only due to schoolZofia's help does she get found, then first love dead and finally adulthood) with in a twistplace the near-lame woman could never reach by herself. Just who could be killing people in a charity home, in that and to what end? And why does Zofia feel the path Carnac’s on leads him need to become not make a responsible adult but the most famous murderer of the nineteenth century.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552165395</amazonuk>name for herself by answering those questions?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kylie Fitzpatrick1786893762|title=The Silver ThreadThings in Jars|author=Jess Kidd
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=It's 1840 A child has gone missing. The detective asked to take on the case is still struggling with the shame and Rhia Mahoneyfrustration left by a previous case, daughter of an Irish merchant specialising where the child was not found in local linen, has time. Hardly original themes for a comfortable lifeprivate eye thriller. And yet . . . take another look. All that changesThis detective is a woman, howeverand the setting is Victorian London, as her father's warehouse burns down, taking his faltering business with it, ensuring Rhia must make her own way in all the rich and colourful paradoxes of that era: technical and scientific progress jostling for space beside superstition and a fascination with the world. Via family connections she comes to England bizarre and the home of Quaker widow Antonia Blakedownright hideous. The idea is that Antonia will protect Rhia whilst she seeks And before you're more than a position as governess couple of pages in bustling, alien Londonyou realise just how much more unusual our heroine is than you expected. But rather than residing Bridie Devine may dress in half-mourning, with a sanctuarywidow's cap and stout, shiny boots, but the tobacco she smokes in her problems worsen as shepipe (my dear, what an utterly ''fast''s enveloped in thing for a mystery leading lady to transportation despite do!) is mixed with a nugget of something, well, let's say recreational, created by her innocencechemist friend Prudhoe. The only things holding her life together are 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 letters she writes to ghost. Ruby Doyle, world-famous tattooed boxer (deceased) accompanies Bridie all through her dearly departed grandmotherinvestigation, her artistic skill and it's clear he has a determination to discover who wants her gonesoft spot for the determined young woman. If he really exists, that is.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800127</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Davies0349414327|title=The Year After|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Captain Tom Allen is home from World War I. Whilst waiting to be demobbed, he receives an invitation to attend the annual Christmas house-party at Hannesford Court, the stately home A Snapshot of Sir Robert and Lady Stansbury. He used to look forward to it before joining up and so decides to attend again, but everything has changed. The Stansbury's heir, Harry, and son-in-law, Oliver, were killed and second son, Reggie Stansbury, remains in a nursing home with no legs and dwindling self-respect. Whilst coming to terms with the devastating realisation that he's one of the very few men in their set to return alive and entire, Tom remembers pre-war Hannesford and the night when his friend Professor Schmidt died at such a gathering. Everyone believes it was unsuspicious but gradually things are coming to light that hint of hidden secrets. Along with her Ladyship's former companion, Anne Murder (who has issues of her ownKate Shackleton Mysteries), Tom decides to investigate as truths are exhumed, making him doubt whether those happier times were as idyllic as he remembers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980443</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Karen Engelmann|title=The Stockholm Octavo|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=As a Customs and Excise 'Sekretaire' in 18th century Stockholm, Emil Larsson has all he needs: professional respect, a bachelor's lifestyle and a table at Mrs Sparrow's gaming house whenever he fancies his luck. Contrastingly, his superiors at work feel he's missing a certain something. In order to climb further up the career ladder (maybe even to maintain his current position) Emil needs to marry. His manager believes this so fervently that there's a deadline for the wedding. Emil panics but Mrs Sparrow offers to lay an 'Octavo', a fortune-telling spread of eight cards to guide him to the eight people who will ensure his success. However, not all goes to plan as, over the eight nights it takes to complete the Octavo, it becomes apparent that the prediction isn't for Emil's future, but has become an Octavo to save the whole of Sweden.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444742698</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bruce Macbain|title=Roman Games (Plinius Secundus)|rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Sextus Ingentius Verpa isn't the most popular person in Rome. He may be a high ranking politician with the Emperor Domitian's ear but this also means he's a spy, ambitious and not always using his power and position for good. When Verpa is discovered, unceremoniously and repeatedly stabbed in his well-guarded bedroom, there are many who sigh with relief. However, the murderer must still be found and so Domitian appoints Gaius Plinius Secundus (or Pliny the Younger as history will dub him) to investigate. Pliny isn't a natural but reluctantly takes on the task because Domitian says so; Pliny has no choice. Domitian also says that the culprit must be found before the end of the Roman Games, giving Pliny 15 days. Over these 15 pressurised days he'll dig into Rome's filthy underbelly of cults, prostitution and other things he wasn't expecting, including practically adopting his own, personal rude poet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800364</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maureen Jennings|title=Vices of My Blood: Murdoch MysteriesFrances Brody
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=William Murdoch has at last been promoted 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 full detective, and continues take the opportunity to solve cases with his usual mix of dogged determination visit Haworth and flair. Toronto at Stanbury, not least because the end deeds of the nineteenth century is marked by Brontë Parsonage are being handed over so that it can become a huge divide between the rich museum and her parents will be there for the poorevent. What could be better than seeing her family, witnessing a momentous event and having the fact that many opportunity to take photographs of the latter group are utterly destitute leads to all manner of crimes, great and smallsetting for ''Wuthering Heights''? Nothing could go wrong.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857689924</amazonuk> Or could it?
}}