The Dark Isle

Sam still wants to know more about her father.  Fortune puts her on the island of Hoy where the family had come to in the past.  She hopes to speak to a man who once worked with her father.  When she meets the man, he makes a request of her; to get in contact with his daughter who he has not seen for thirteen years.  The daughter, Anna, had spent a summer with Sam, so she is familiar with her, but also hasn’t seen her in ages.

When she meets up with her old friend, Sam is shocked when her friend denies knowing her.  Sam later learns the reason for Anna denying her.

Will what Anna tells her serve to help Sam find the truth or will it just confuse matters more?  Author Clare Carson’s thriller gets more exciting as the pages turn.  Sam will find out more about her father, but in the process learn more about herself.  A good read.

A Cruel Necessity

The morning after a night of drunken revelry, John Grey comes upon the body of a man whose throat has been slashed.  The innkeeper declares that he had been at the inn.  Grey finds that his purse hasn’t been taken, but the innkeeper notices that the man’s ring is missing.  Why was he carrying a cipher in his boot?  Grey is also surprised to later learn that the dead man had been asking about him.

As a newly trained lawyer, Grey feels that it is duty to investigate this curious death.  A few days later another man comes to the village looking for Grey.  Grey assumes that this man is another Royalist spy.

Grey accuses the secretary of the local lord of the killing after finding evidence.  However, he later wonders if the evidence might have been planted.  His only possible witness has his throat slashed shortly thereafter.  What to do now?  Suddenly Grey finds himself accused of all the murders.  His best friend suggests he flee to London.

Will Grey safely make it to London and if so, is he safer there than at home?  Author L. C. Tyler’s murder mystery is full of treachery and has a very surprising conclusion.  A good read.

To Die But Once

A man has come to Maisie Dobbs to ask for help in finding his son who has gone missing.  He had been working for a company that had been painting Nissan huts on airfields in Hampshire.  It is also at this time that the BEF has found itself trapped in France.  Maisie’s assistant Billy Beale’s son is with the BEF.

Maisie travels to Hampshire in search of the lad, but quickly finds out that there are many airfields in the county.  On her way back to London, Maisie discovers that her car is being followed.  Why would someone be doing that?

Unfortunately the body of the lad is found before Maisie can return to London.  It appears that he may have had an accident, but Maisie and the pathologist agree that it more likely is murder.  They also both notice something wrong with his brain, which appears to have a tumour in it.  Could it have been caused by the toxic paint he was working with?

It is at this time the son of a friend takes off with a friend of his in a yacht to join the flotilla headed for Dunkirk.  Maisie’s friends are in a tizzy as a result.  Will Tim’s injuries prevent Maisie from focusing on the case she has at hand?

Author Jacqueline Winspear’s latest novel is based on real things that happened in the war, and it makes an excellent background to the story.  Following the climax she hints at what her next story could be about.  I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

Night of the Lightbringer

A controversial book has been stolen from the archives at the Vatican in Rome.  It is suspected that the thieves are from Ireland, so an investigator is sent in search of the book with the admonishment to use the services of Sister Fidelma.

Back in Ireland at Cashel, a body has been discovered in a wood pile, stacked in preparation for Samhain.  Fidelma’s partner, Eadulf, determines that he has been murdered.  His bodyguard, Aidan thinks that it is a ritual killing for Samhain.  Fidelma quickly takes charge of the investigation.  Later, a woman would come to town and claim to be from the Otherworld.  She speaks of dire threats to Cashel as a result of the death.

Fidelma also has to deal with a man who comes seeking vengeance for his sister who died in childbirth.  The man who impregnated her had taken her against her will.

As Fidelma continues to investigate, more questions seem to be thrown in her way.  As usual, author Peter Tremayne weaves a wonderful plot full of intrigue.  A very good read.

The Amber Road

Ballista and his men are in Oblia, at the northern edge of the Black Sea, preparing to head north on a mission for the emperor.  Shortly after arriving there, the town is attacked by Goths.  Ballista organises the defense of the city.  Can the badly outnumbered citizens of Oblia prevent the destruction of their city?

Once again on their way, Ballista and his crew head upriver towards where he had grown up.  It will not be an easy passage.  When Ballista and his men get to the headwaters of the Vistula, his uncle informs him that things have changed considerably since he left, and not for the better.  When he arrives home, he finds that his tribe has come under siege by a usurper to the throne of a neighbouring clan.

Can Ballista and his men survive treachery amongst his people and battles with the enemy to complete the mission set out by the emperor?

Author Harry Sidebottom’s historical novel is full of action that brings this story to a climatic end.  The reader is left wondering what is next for Ballista and his men.  All-in-all a very good read.

The Kings of London

DS Breen and temporary DC Tozer have been called out to the site of an explosion.  Inside the house they find the body of a man who has been partially flayed.  They manage to get out of the house just before there is another explosion.  It turns out that the victim was the son of a government minister.

Breen discovers that the victim was a heroin addict.  Could the flaying of the skin been to disguise his addiction?  Who was responsible, then?  With that, case closed, but not in Breen’s mind.

Things become complicated for Breen when a cop is murdered.  Prosser had been forced to resign by Breen, who was now a suspect.  How will he be able to prove his innocence, especially since Tozer has left the force to help her father with his dairy farm?

Author William Shaw’s murder mystery has a few plot twists to keep the reader’s interest, with a couple of surprises at the end.  A very good read.

The Wolf Sea

While in Miklagard an old enemy of Orm‘ sand the Oathsworn steals a prized sword from Orm.  Unable to retrieve it, he turns to deception.  Orm and the Oathsworn are lucky to find a man with a ship, but now crew, so that when Starkad, the old enemy, sails away, the Oathsworn are able to follow.

Their first stop is at Larnaca on Cyprus.  There they find that in order to get what they need, they will have to evict some fierce Arabs from the island.  Orm is given the chance to strengthen his crew by taking on some Danes.  Will these independent minded individuals join the Oathsworn? 

Battling their way off Cyprus, the Oathsworn move on to Antioch.  There they join an army that is going to march on Aleppo.  After the battle at Aleppo, the Oathsworn march south, however some of the newer members of the group begin to grumble.  In Jerusalem they run into trouble.

Author Robert Low’s tale of Norse adventurers comes to a brutal end at Masada, where many years earlier there had been another brutal end to an embattled people.  Well written, this novel is a very good read for fans of historical fiction.