The Stationmaster's Farewell

The Exeter stationmaster has disappeared.  It is possible that the body in the Guy Fawkes bonfire is his.  Superintendent Tallis is sending Detective Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming to investigate.

Exeter's Superintendent Steel has a criminal in mind who might be in the picture for the murder of the victim.  Both Steel and Colbeck are castigated by the bishop for allowing this murder to happen so close to the cathedral.  At the inquest, Colbeck and Leeming feel that the new stationmaster is also worth looking into.  As Colbeck and Steel sift through the house of the victim, they are presented with a third suspect.

Having apprehended one of the suspects, Colbeck is unsure whether he is the true culprit.  He and Leeming maintain the pressure on the other two.  In a surprising turn of events the victim's diary turns up.  What hidden clues will it provide?

Author Edward Marston provides a surprising conclusion to this murder mystery.  A good, quick read.

Sanctity of Hate

A body has been found in the mill pond of Tyndal Priory.  Brother Thomas sets to investigate on behalf of Prioress Eleanor, for Brother Gwydo has found blood in the grass alongside the stream inside priory property.

Brother Thomas has also been asked to interview a young man who wants to become a monk.  However, he suspects that the lad carries hate in his heart for many things, and may not be a good candidate for the monastery.  A riot breaks out, threatening a young Jewish family temporarily seeking refuge in the inn's stable.  The young wife is about to give birth.  Adelard, the baker's son, wants to become become a monk and may have spread vicious rumours about the family.  He has also cast aspersions on Eleanor's maid and one of the monks.  Thomas has also promised not to baptise the child while Sister Anne helps with the birth.

Eleanor needs to make sense of it all.  Further turmoil is added to the community when one of the monks is garrotted outside the priory's walls.  Crowner Ralf arrests the young Jew when the aspiring monk is attacked.  He later learns he really has no suspects, yet keeps the Jew secure for his own protection.

As Thomas questions the aspiring monk, he learns things that point in a bad direction.  He tells Eleanor of the revelations.  They discuss the information with Crowner Ralf.   Trials and tribulations await the trio before author Priscilla Royal allows them to solve the murder.  A good, quick read.

A Killing Coast

DI Andy Horton is continuing his search for information about his missing mother.  However, he has his hands full, preparing for an American sub that is going to come into Portsmouth in the coming days.  He is involved in security operations, and must check out all reports of unusual activity.

It is while on one of these investigations that he gets a call from DS Barney Cantelli that a woman's body has been found on the shore.  During the post-mortem, it is discovered that the she is a he.

Also in the port is a super yacht, worth millions.  The owner is hosting a charity event.  Horton discovers that the wife of the owner is an old girlfriend of his.

The following day, the pathologist tells Horton that the victim found on the shore had been beaten and then drowned.  As a result of his delay in acting on the investigation, Horton gets a bollocking from his superior officers; one of whom didn't listen to him when he did mention the body.

Another body turns up in the boot of a car that has recently been submerged.  It turns out to be an elderly man who had been providing Horton with information.  The car belongs to a man who had been seen entering the first victim's home.  What ties them all together?  Horton thinks he has everything sewn neatly together, until one foggy afternoon he comes across the body of the owner of the super yacht in a derelict house.

Author Pauline Rowson has provided the reader with a very convoluted tale.  Her protagonist, Andy Horton, works hard to develop a solution to the crimes in the story, yet he is unable to unwrap his own mystery.  A very good read.

Limestone Cowboy

Ebola virus has broken out at Heckley General Hospital, and it is in quarantine!  Fortunately it turns out to be a false alarm.  However, it appears that the patient may be a victim of attempted murder.  His bleeding was the result of ingesting a large amount of Warfarin - that is, rat poison!  DI Charlie Priest and DS Dave Sparkington visit the victim in the hospital to get the lowdown.

The investigation of the victim's home turns up a tin of pineapples that has been tampered with.  Priest and Sparkington turn their investigation to supermarkets and they find that there have been complaints of mouldy fruit and dyed beans.  Obviously a nutter is at work.

Meantime life intervenes for Charlie in the form of his goddaughter and a potential girlfriend.  How is he to mange these things while handling a murder investigation?

By the end of the novel, Priest's team has solved a couple of mysteries, yet author Stuart Pawson provides a huge surprise right at the end of this  police thriller, which is totally unexpected.  A very good, quick read.

Dead on Cue

Vicar Nick Lawrence has been convinced to take a minor role in a play being put on in nearby Fulke Castle.  Unfortunately the man who was to direct it has suddenly passed away.  On the other hand, fortunately, an actor from Hollywood and recent immigrant to the area, Gerry Harlington, steps in to take on the fole of director.

On the first night of the production, Harlington dies as the result of a fall from the battlements of the castle.  Inspector Dominic Tennant, and his DS, Mark Potter investigate what now appears to be a murder.

One of the cast members, Jonquil Charmwood, confesses to Nick that she actually didn't act in the first performance; a friend had taken her role, and now she is missing.  Nick calls Tennant who now has a missing person to contend with as well as a murder investigation.  Or is it two murder investigations?

Author Deryn Lake presents a few potential killers in the lead up to the conclusion of this little murder mystery, finally narrowing it down to the culprit in the dying pages.  A quick, but good little read.

Four Below

DI McLusky, and DS Austin have been called out to Leigh Woods because a woman has reported seeing a fox carrying part of a human head.  In the cold and mist the search team isn't having any luck when McLusky and Austin are called to an automobile accident.  There are several suspicious things related to the accident.

Meantime, DI Kat Fairfield has been called to a shopping centre where the body of a man has been found in the toilets.  The pathologist wants an immediate post-mortem, and his suspicions turn out correct.  The victim is a heroin addict, but his heroin has been laced with anthrax!  Other users are at risk, too.

A few days later, a body is found in a shallow grave in Leigh Woods.  It isn't long before the body is identified as someone from the drug world.  Is it a case of out with the old as a new gang tries to take over?  Also the MO of the murder is strange, indeed.  It isn't long before a second body is found in the woods.  The bodies of junkies are piling up for DI Fairfield, too.

Author Peter Helton neatly ties the two cases together and provides an exciting conclusion to this thriller.  This the second murder mystery I have read in the DI McLusky series, and I am looking forward to the next.

The Cipher Garden

Chief inspector Hannah Scarlett and her cold case team have been sent a note about the murder of Warren Howe, accusing his wife of being the culprit.  Is there enough evidence to reopen the case?  DS Nick Lowther, who had been in on the initial investigation, feels that the case isn't worth re-opening.

It is years on and now, quite suddenly, the family of the victim are getting anonymous hate letters.  Thrown into the mix is historian Daniel Kind, a friend of Scarlett's.  Once he learns of the investigation, he decides to surreptitiously help the chief inspector.  Kind is also trying to organise the garden of the cottage he and his partner, Miranda, recently purchased.  There is a mystery in the garden that the historian/detective in Daniel would like to solve.

A suicide in the community throws everyone for a loop.  Is it tied to the original murder?  As the investigation progresses, DS Lowther throws a spanner in the works.  This isn't the only surprise author Martin Edwards has in store for the reader before drawing this murder mystery to a conclusion.  A thoroughly good read.

Masaryk Station

It is now 1948 and John Russell is now employed by the Brits and Yanks to translate Russian for them in Trieste.  Russell is still employed by both the Soviets and the Yanks as a double agent.  Shchepkin is still his Soviet contact.   Effi, Russell's wife and their adopted daughter, Rosa, are in Berlin where Effi is working on another film and Rosa is attending school.

In Berlin the Soviets have decided to step up the restrictions on travel for the allies in the western zone.  Both have things to do while the western allies set up a new currency plan for western Germany and the allied section of Berlin.  It will cause problems as the Soviets establish a blockade of Berlin.  What will it mean for the future of the pair and their daughter?

Author David Downing has developed a story that leads wonderfully into the Cold War and all the issues that developed as a result of the issues between the USA and the Soviet Union.  Downing's 'Station' series provide fans of spy thrillers excellent reads.

Death of a Wine Merchant

Lord Francis Powerscourt has been called upon to help with the defense of a man who is charged with murdering his brother, a wine merchant.  Prior to the reading of the will, Powerscourt learns that apparently half the victim's fortune seems to have disappeared.  Powerscourt engages his friend Johnny Fitzgerald to help him.  In addition, Powerscourt gets a wine expert to investigate the wines of the victim.

Unfortunately Powerscourt is unable to get the accused to speak.  The court case would begin in three weeks.  Is that enough time to find the evidence?  What about the new concept of fingerprints?  Would that help?  Powerscourt also learns from a former employee that money was disappearing from the accounts of the firm.  He had been fired when he reported it to the late merchant.

Powerscourt and his wife, Lucy, travel to France in order to further his investigation. There he comes across a surprising discovery.

Author David Dickinson provides the reader with a novel full of blackmail, conspiracy, subterfuge and a surprising end.  A thoroughly good read.

The Pagan Lord

While away from home, castising his son, Uthred's home is attacked by Cnut Longsword, and his woman, Sigunn, is taken.  Cnut demands a meeting, at which he tells Uthred that men under his banner had raided into his territory, kidnapping his wife and children.  While meeting with Cnut, his home is once again attacked, and Uthred is forced to flee.

Uthred decides his only course is to capture Bebbanburg, which is rightfully his, but for many years held by his uncle.  Unfortunately he is unable to capture the fortress despite avenging its loss.  He takes his cousin's wife and son hostage.  But what to do now?  His cousin's wife provides him with information that leads Uthred on a new gambit.

Uthred decides to influence future battles, and to do that he needs to draw Cnut from the destructive track the Dane is on.  Uthred hopes Edward and Aethelred will join forces the defeat the Danes, thereby saving England.

Author Bernard Cornwell has written an excellent historical thriller.  His battle scenes are bar none, and the historical events are well researched.  A very good read for fans of historical novels.

Midnight at Marble Arch

It is 1896 and Thomas Pitt has recently been appointed head of Britain's Special Branch.  The former head, Lord Narraway, has become involved in the investigation of a rape and murder of a young socialite.

A short time later while at a party Pitt's wife is amongst a group who sees a young man terrify a young woman so much that she accidentally falls out a two storey window to her death. Charlotte's Aunt Vespasia has a feeling that the two events might be tied together.  She sets about a quiet inquiry, and determines in her own mind that the young man who had terrified the dead girl had raped her at an earlier party.

The father of the young girl asks Pitt to investigate his daughter's death.   Narraway comes to Pitt for advice on the course he needs to take.  Pitt contacts a lawyer and discovers how difficult it is to prosecute a rape case.  The woman is humiliated even more.  He is also concerned that the perpetrator could repeat his crime.  He isn't wrong, because another young woman is raped and murdered shortly afterwards.  When a third girl is raped, Pitt has a name confirmed, but there is no evidence to put forward to prosecute.  How can he do it?

Author Anne Perry sets a struggle for both Pitt and Narraway, plus the legal team to prove both the innocence of one man and the guilt of another in this Victorian murder mystery.  A good, quick read.

Little Girl Lost

DS Lucy Black has been called out on a snowy night to search for a little lost girl who was reportedly seen by a milkman.  It turns out that the child she finds is not the one that was reported to be missing.  Who is the missing, but now found child? Her pyjamas have the name 'Alice' on them.  Black will have to wait until the sedation given to the child wears off.

Meantime the police are investigating the disappearance of 16 year old Kate McLaughlin, which Black wants to be involved with.  However, she is transferred to the Public Protection Unit, under Inspector Tom Fleming.  There, the forensics officer, PC Tony Clarke informs her that the child's pyjamas have blood on them.  He also discovers blood on her hands later when they are coated with luminal.

Because of Kate's age, PPU still has a connection to the case.  Black is later informed by Clarke that hairs containing DNA of Kate have been discovered on Alice!  A public announcement leads to the discovery of who Alice is, but now it appears that her mother is missing.  Fortunately Black discovers that the mother was away on holiday, having left her daughter with her estranged husband.  When they get to the father's home they find him dead, and evidence that Kate had been held in the house.

Author Brian McGilloway builds up tension in this thriller leading to a surprising conclusion.  All-in-all a very good, quick read.

Just One Evil Act

DI Thomas Lynley has been called by his DS Barbara Havers, informing him that her friend's daughter has been taken his lover, and the mother of the child.  Because there is no legal marriage, there is nothing that the police can do.  Havers sets out to act as her friend's own private investigator.  Unfortunately her superintendent is not having that.

Havers hires a private detective by the name of  Dwayne Doughty.  Doughty has an unpresuming office.  However, unknown to his clients, he operates a very secretive operation.

Havers is shocked a few months later when the mother returns, accusing the father of abducting the child, who had been with her in Italy. Havers knows this is impossible because the mother had all the child's papers. Havers wants to go to Italy to help find the child.  Once again, her superintendent refuses.  However, when the story of the kidnapping hits the press, Havers gets a bollocking and Lynley is sent to Italy to intervene.

Chief Inspector Salvatore Bianco is in charge of the investigation in Lucca, Italy.  He learns, when he questions the parents that she had arranged with her sister for false emails to be sent to their daughter, purportedly from the father.  Bianco has a couple of suspects in mind, which he points out to Lynley.  He just has to figure out a connection.  Lynley and Bianco find out from the mother had another lover in London while living with the father of her daughter.

The child is found safe in Italy, but is that the end of the story?

Author Elizabeth George has provided the reader with a tangled  web, full of deception, confusion, subterfuge and a murder thrown in for good measure.  This is a read you won't want to put down.