***** During a summer night in 1860, a terrible crime is committed. When the Kent family of Road Hill House wake up the next morning, they learn that three-year-old Saville is missing and soon discover he has been brutally murdered. As local police fail to track down the killer, Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard is…
Category: mystery
‘Fog of Doubt’ by Christianna Brand
***** When Belgian paramour Raoul Vernet is found with his head bashed in on the night of a particularly dense fog, suspicion naturally falls on members of the house he was visiting at the time. While no-one appears to have been in the immediate vicinity when Vernet was killed, Inspector Charlesworth is certain someone in…
‘The Mile End Murder’ by Sinclair McKay
***** (Audiobook) When wealthy and eccentric widow Mary Emsley is found dead at her home on 17th August 1860, the resulting murder inquiry grips the nation. Faced with several suspects, the police home in on two individuals, finally narrowing it down to one man – James Mullins. Convicted and hanged for the killing, the Mullins…
Author Interview – Lex Lander
Creator of the Andrew Warner Manhunter series, author Lex Lander talk about characters, place and Brigitte Bardot… Thinking back to when you started writing, is there anything you would do differently in terms of the writing, or in getting your books to market? I started at…
‘Bad Debts’ by Peter Temple
(Five Stars) Occasional lawyer and part-time sleuth, Jack Irish is used to trouble. Taking work as a debt-collector he idles away his spare time at the racetrack or helping out in a cabinetmaker’s shop. But when a former client leaves a message on Jack’s…
Writing the Fifties
NB This piece first appeared on B for Bookreview, as part of the ‘Blood on the Tyne: Body Parts’ Blog Tour. Beginning a new murder/mystery series is always fun, but sometimes it can throw up a few additional challenges, so how did the first book in the Rosie Robson series get…
‘They All Love Jack’ by Bruce Robinson
They All Love Jack (Audiobook) Ever since a mysterious figure ripped his way through the East End of London in the late 1880s, writers and filmmakers have focused on the identity of the perpetrator. The mystery of Jack the Ripper still exudes a fascination to…
‘I May Kill You’ by Keith Dixon
My Review (5 stars out of 5) When a series of mysterious, threatening notes are sent out to hundreds of apparently unconnected people, ex-cop Ben Buckland is shocked to learn his teenage daughter has also been targeted. Though no longer on the ‘force’ Ben seeks help from former colleague and old flame Serena, triggering bad…
‘The House in the Woods’ by Mark Dawson
The House in the Woods A shooting at a remote farmhouse on Christmas Eve launches DCI Mackenzie Jones and her team on a murder investigation. On the face of it, the culprit seems all too obvious—a murder/suicide by an unstable sibling leaves…
‘No Mercy’ by Robert Crouch
No Mercy Following the apparent suicide of a Highways Inspector, Environmental health Officer Kent Fisher wonders if everything is as clear-cut as it appears. When bolshy restaurateur Samson Capote is found dead in his own freezer, it seems too much of a coincidence, but…
Colin Garrow 