The King's Evil

Pudding Lane, London, September 1666.  A poorly tended fire in a bakery oven one night has taken the opportunity to grow.  And grow it did, for the closely packed wooden houses were good fuel to feed it.  London burned for four days.  In its aftermath, the city lay destroyed, burned to the ground.

Returning home from Oxford, Christopher Redmayne finds that his house and that of his brother, Henry have survived the conflagration.  Henry encourages Christopher to taken advantage of the tragedy.

Constable Jonathan Bale is doing his best to deter thieves taking advantage, too.  Thieve proliferated the city in search of goods that were now easily accessible.  Having met Redmayne on couple of occasions, Bale is not impressed by him.  Bale wants to maintain his honest position as a constable.  Redmayne has rubbed him the wrong way from the get go.

However, the two men find themselves working together when Redmayne 's employer is brutally murdered in the house Redmayne had designed for him.  Redmayne is determined to find the murderer.  As Redmayne begins his quest, he discovers some surprising things about the victim.  Meantime, Bale has discovered that the victim was not well liked amongst his business rivals.  The question arises, did the house that Redmayne had designed have anything to do with the murder?

Not long after this, the victim's lawyer is murdered.  Things point to a ship owned by the victim, and connections in France.  What dangers are Redmayne and Bale getting themselves into as their investigation progresses?

Author Edward Marston provides plenty of intrigue, tension and danger in the concluding pages of this historical murder mystery.  A very good read.

Believe or Die

Michael is travelling, in search of a particular physician.  One evening he happens to be invited to be the guest of Richard Mead.  That evening over a drink, Richard tells his story.

In 1642, King Charles is trying to force England towards papism, but parliament has refused his demands.  Throughout the country there are those who support him, and those who oppose him.

Two friends are to find themselves on opposite sides of the forthcoming war, and how this occurred is simply by accident.  Will Pitkin, Richard's friend, is involved in a riot and accidentally kills Richard's girlfriend.  A short time later, bent on vengeance, and intending to kill Will, Richard accidentally kills Will's girlfriend.  Both end up on the side that they had really opposed; Will in support of the king, and Richard supporting parliament.

Battles ensued between the Roundheads and the Caveliers.  Oliver Cromwell vowed to make the Roundhead army into the best in the land, while Prince Rupert led the king's forces.   Meantime, Will and Richard are lucky to survive the first season of fighting.  There would be more battles to come, angering these two men more and more at each other.  Unfortunately for King Charles, his treachery would lead to his execution in 1649.

Cromwell is now in charge of England, and he imposes his Puritan views on the nation. Royalist supporters are hunted down, and if they don't recant, the are killed.  Is this what England fought the civil wars for, Richard wonders.  Yet, he has his own vengeance in mind.  Will Pitkin must be found and killed.

Richard's hope of killing Will are thwarted when Will is captured by seafaring pirates and sold as a slave to the Moors.  With the war done, Richard goes in search of a  man who is killing witches.  Meantime, Will is struggling with his life as a slave.  In his despair he converts to Islam.

Luck is on Will's side.  An escape comes his way, plus a business venture.  However, before he can complete his part in the business venture he must complete his vow of killing his former friend, Richard.

Author M. J. Harris is very descriptive in his writing of the English Civil Wars that for a period of time it seems that Richard and Will become superfluous to the story.  However, when he gets back on track a good story ensues, however the reader is left hanging at the end.  Otherwise a good read.

Grave Concerns

Drew Slocombe has been developing his remote property for the purpose of having natural burials on it.   One of his employees, while going over the land with a metal detector discovers a body of a woman.  Because of other recent deaths, the police don't prioritize her remains.  Later, a young woman comes to Drew and suggests to him that the body could be that of her mother, and that her husband possibly killed her.  She is not prepared to share this information with the police.  Is it just the ramblings of a neurotic pregnant woman, or is there more to it?

Shortly afterwards a retired doctor visits Drew and tells a bizarre story about who the woman could possibly be.  He doesn't want to approach the police with his theory of who the woman could be.  However, when he names the daughter of the woman, it turns out that the daughter is the one who had visited Drew earlier.

When he is offered two thousand quid to search for the daughter's mother, Drew can't resist because his family is in need of the money.   Meantime, strange happenings are occurring in the burying grounds, which could end up putting people off wanting to be buried there.  Drew wants to ignore it, while his partner, Maggs is prepared to go to the police.

Author Rebecca Tope presents several twists and turns in the concluding chapters of this murder mystery.  A good, quick read.

Prime Suspect

DCI Jane Tennison has been trying to get ahead on the major crimes unit, but she is continually assigned menial tasks.  After a recent murder case is given to a male DCI, John Shefford, Tennison complains to her superior to no avail.

Fortunately for Tennison, Shefford suddenly collapses and dies from a massive heart attack.  Tennison demands, and is given the case, much to the disgust of Shefford's team.  She now embarks on learning about the case as quickly as possible.   She quickly discovers that the victim has been wrongly identified.  That in itself can get the case the team had put together earlier against a man thrown out of court.

Tennison orders the team to gather new evidence, which they resent.  DS Otley is doing everything to hamper her work and at the same time pin it on the man they have arrested.  Unfortunately time runs out on them, and he must be released.

However, moments after the man is released, Otley is apprised of the discovery of another victim.  He informs Tennison and later tells her that Shefford was sure that there was another victim in the north of similar circumstances.  Tennison persists in her belief that they are following up on the prime suspect despite his claims of innocence.

Although author Lynda La Plante's novel "Prime Suspect" gets off to a slow start, it slowly builds up steam, turning into a very good murder mystery.  Well worth the read, and making me want to read the two sequels.

A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury

It is 1399 and Henry has returned from Ireland because Richard II has been incarcerated in The Tower.  Henry's father is crowned king of England and Henry becomes the Prince of Wales.  Henry's guardian and tutor is the legendary Sir Henry Percy, also known as Hotspur.  Not long after this, Richard dies.

Wales is in rebellion and Hotspur wants to settle the dispute without further war.  He begins secret negotiations with Owen ap Griffith, leader of the Welsh.  At this time, Lord Grey takes it upon himself to make an incursion into Wales.   Unfortunately for him, Griffith kills his men and takes him hostage.  Meantime to the north, the Scots are causing trouble.  Hotspur must head north, leaving the young prince in charge of the marches.

Not long after this, Edmund Mortimer is taken prisoner after a battle with the Welsh.  King Henry decides he has no choice but to go to war with the Welsh.  Unfortunately for him, he is rebuffed, not in battle, but by a viscous autumn storm.  Defeated and humiliated Henry returns to England.  To the north, Hotspur has better luck, defeating the Scots and taking Lord Douglas captive.

Desperately in need of money, King Henry orders all prisoners held for ransom to be turned over to him.  Hotspur does not like this order.  Henry's demands will turn his foremost supporter against him.  What ensues sets the future for the War of the Roses.

Author Edith Pargeter has written a very good historical novel that outlines the House of Lancaster's claim to the throne of England and how it was secured in a single battle.  A good read.

Red to Black

Finn works for the British embassy in Moscow.  Moscow's attempts to honey trap him have had no success until they send Anna.  He is quite taken by Anna, but she is also taken by him.  Before long, they are working together.

When Putin comes to power, Finn rails against the Russian people for allowing this former KGB agent to become their leader.  He also rails against his own country for supporting Putin.  He seems to be going off the tracks, but Anna understands that he he is doing it on purpose.  He seems to have something in mind.

After Finn is taken back to Britain, and interrogated he resumes a normal lifestyle for a bit.  However, he then goes feral, and heads to Germany where he meets up with Dieter, a former agent of the BND.  He is searching for information on East German agents and their connection to Putin.

It is the events of 9-11 that change things forever.  Finn knows that President Bush will now focus in Iraq, thereby leaving Putin to do as he pleases.  He also fears that Anna's controllers will try to create a wedge between the two of them.

Author Alex Dryden has written an excellent thriller based on his knowledge and experiences as a journalist in Russia.  It opens the reader's eyes to how Putin came to power and has maintained that power through international intrigue.  A very good read.  I am looking forward to the sequel, "Moscow Sting".