The Scorpion's Nest

Walshingham is cleaning up threats to the queen.  Fourteen men have gone to the scaffold, but one has eluded him.  He wants Kit Marlowe to go after the fifteenth.  It would mean travelling to France.

Marlowe goes under cover at the English College in Rheims, a place known as a nest of scorpions.  There he learns that a young man had recently died, but the manner of his death has been covered up.  Going into the catacombs he discovers the body of the victim and also discovers that he had been hung.  Marlowe also learns that one of the fathers had died recently, too.  A prostitute he has befriended tells him that in this case the victim had been stabbed to death in his bed.  How does she know that?  Her friend had been sleeping with him at the time.

Through Walshingham’s local agent, Marlowe has to go in search of a document that is in code.  Once he has it, Walshingham’s man who deciphers it will be there to do just that.  However, not long after his arrival, he is stabbed, and another man has been killed at the English College.

Time is running out for Marlowe to catch the man he has been sent to get.  Is he also the murderer?  How can he find the killer and complete Walshingham’s task in time?

Author M. J. Trow has some action remaining for Marlowe in this Elizabethan thriller before he can solve the murders and get back to London.  All-in-all, a good quick read.

Witch Hammer

Kit Marlowe was on his way to London with a new play, when came upon Lord Strange’s Players.  He knew them well and took shelter with them from the rain.  He is shocked to learn that most people have left London due to the plague.  Lord Strange decides that the troupe must go to Stratford.

Unfortunately, for Marlowe, one of the players, Edward Alleyn, has absconded with his newly revised play.  Unbeknownst to Marlowe, Alleyn has been arrested by Faunt, one of Walshingham’s men.  The play is also recovered.  Alleyn unknowingly misdirects Faunt, who is searching for Marlowe, to Oxford.

In Stratford, the troupe stays at Clopton Hall.  Marlowe is surprised by the daughter of the owner when she asks him to kill a man who is a rival to her father.

While in Stratford, Marlowe meets up with an aspiring poet and playwright, one William Shaxsper.  The night of the play, which was supposed to be staged at Clopton Hall, a doll in the likeness of Lord Strange is discovered with a thorn in it.  Strange collapses with pains in the area of the thorn. Witchcraft?  Reginald Scot, is sure that it is an attempt at such.

When Lord Clopton passes away shortly thereafter, his daughter, Joyce, comes with her retinue to the troupe in search of help because Lord Greville has laid claim to Clopton Hall.  Greville’s men aren’t far behind, and a minor skirmish ensues.  Sometime during the following night Ned Sledd, leader of the troupe is murdered in his sleep.  Who can they trust?

Author M. J. Trow has plenty of adventure awaiting Marlowe and the troupe.  The adventure includes treachery, murder and resolution.  A good quick read.

The Biggin Hill Wing: From Defence to Attack

The airport at Biggin Hill was initially established to help with the development of radio telemetry, so that planes could communicate with each other.  During the initial phase of the Battle of Britain, the Air Force was used for defensive purposes.  However, in 1941, with the change in command of the Royal Air Force, the plan was now to take the battle to the Germans.

The newly formed “Circus” had various elements to protect the bombers that were attacking various sites in France.  These were the Escort Squadron, the High Cover Wing and the Mopping Up Wing.

Author Peter Caygill outlines daily air battles with victories and losses and how they affected the men.  He also tells of how the men would let off steam when they had time off and away from Biggin Hill.

Once the Germans turned their attention to Russia, the number of planes the British had to deal with decreased.  As time went on, the British began to bomb into France.  As a result the fighters accompanied the bombers to provide protection.  Their time in France was limited due to fuel consumption.

The Spitfire has some advantages over the Messerschmidt 109, such as turning ability.  However, things were to change in September when the Germans introduced the Focke-Wulf 190.  It had numerous advantages over the Spitfire, but could its pilots better the RAF pilots?

Caygill draws a number of conclusions about the successes and failures of the year.  It was a year of learning for the RAF.

Caygill also includes an appendix about pilots who were downed but managed to escape back to the UK with the aid of the French Resistance.  A second appendix includes a discussion of the Great Escape, which included pilots from Biggin Hill.

All-in-all, a very good read for fans of history, and in particular World War Two history of the RAF.

The Cursed Inheritance

DCI Gerry Heffernan and DI Wesley Peterson have been called down to the river where the body of a man has been pulled out of the water.  Pathologist Colin Bowman indicates that the man has been stabbed.

When they get back to the office, DC Steve Carstairs reports that a call about a theft at a health spa had just come in, which seems to fit a pattern of recent thefts.  DS Rachel Tracey goes with him to start the investigation.

It turns out that the murder victim was investigating a mass murder, which had occurred at the house.  Which is now the spa.  Peterson decides to read the old files on the case and comes away with questions of his own.  What had happened to all of the people who were potential witnesses or were they suspects?

As the investigation progresses, the team is able to locate the witnesses/suspects and interview them with the exception of two.  Is one in the clutches of the other?  Author Kate Ellis ups the body count in this murder mystery as the investigation progresses and concludes with a surprising twist.  A thoroughly enjoyable read, and I’m looking forward to reading the next book.

Imperial Vengeance

At a battle where the Romans have taken a fortress, Castus is warned by a witch that he will eventually kill his king before she is killed by one of his tribunes.

After the celebration of the victory, Crispus tells Castus that his father, Constantine, has decided to go to was against Licinius, the other co-emperor because he is persecuting the Christians.  Crispus is to take his armies to help Constantine, and he wants Castus to come along as his commander.

Constantine has decreed that Crispus is to be in charge of the navy. In Athens Castus runs afoul of Flavius Innocentius, a man tasked with routing out spies. 

Constantine now tells his troops that they now will fight under the sign of Christ.  All other gods are to be forgotten.  Unfortunately, a fire at the docks in Thessalonica has set back the naval portion of the expedition.  Accident or sabotage or divine disapproval?  Fortune is on the side of Constantine when his army defeats Licinius’ army.

Constantine now sets about building a new city, which is to be named after him - Constantinople.  However, this is not the end for Castus nor Crispus.  Treachery and life threatening events await.  Who can they trust?  Author Ian Ross’ latest historical novel is based on actual events and people who Constantine was to have expunged from records.  This was a thoroughly invigorating read and hard to put down.

The Shadows in the Streets

A seventeen year old girl has been found in a canal near Lafferton.  Another older girl, has come to the police station to report that she had seen the victim working the streets earlier and that one of her mates is also missing.  DI Franks heads up the investigation.  He has two new members on his team;  DS Ben Vanek and DC Steph Mead.

DCS Simon Serrailler is called back from vacation to oversee both cases.  Vanek is if the mind that both are related and he has only one culprit in mind for both.  However, lack of evidence prevents Vanek from charging him.  A few days later the community is in a turmoil when another prostitute goes missing.  Fortunately, a few days later she is found alive, but badly injured.

However, the same morning that the girl is found, the wife of the new dean of the cathedral goes missing.  Not long after this a woman who regularly cycles to work simply disappears.  Is her disappearance connected to the killings?  If so, how?  She wasn’t a prostitute.

Author Susan Hill has other questions that the investigative team needs to answer, but she keeps the answers to those questions out of sight for the team, hinting at possibilities, but providing the reader with a surprising conclusion.  A thoroughly enjoyable read.

The Plague Maiden

DS Rachel Tracey has just read a letter to DCI Gerry Heffernan, which claims that a man in prison was wrongly imprisoned some time ago.  Heffernan isn’t interested, but when Tracey mentions it to DI Wesley Peterson, he expresses interest in following it up.

Later that day Heffernan and Peterson are called out to a nearby shopping centre where the manager has received a letter indicating that some product within the store has been tampered with.  However, the letter didn’t demand a ransom of any sort.

At this same time, Dr. Neil Watson has a crew of archeologists digging in a field, which could contain a plague pit.  Unfortunately, some rogue diggers are trying to steal things from the field at night, and in order to protect the dig, Watson has started sleeping in a tent there.  One night he is struck over the head when he goes to check on some noises he heard.

A day or two later a more recent body is found in the plague field.  Do they have a murder on their hands?  Colin Bowman, the pathologist, quickly assures Peterson that it is indeed a murder.

As the investigation progresses, links appear between the cases, but how can they be neatly tied together?  It will take some time for Peterson and his team to come to the correct conclusion.

Author Kate Ellis has some surprises up her sleeve in this murder mystery.  The plague pits were real things in the fourteenth century as multitudes of people quickly died from the plague as was the real background to a couple of the murders Ellis has appear in her story.  A good read.

Careless Love

Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and DS Winsome Jackman are attending the scene of an automobile accident, which had happened a few days earlier.  However, there is now the body of a young woman sitting in the driver’s seat.  How had she come to be there well after the police had initially been on the scene?

It doesn’t take long to identify the body.  She was a nineteen year old student at the local college.  The autopsy reveals that she had died from an overdose of sleeping pills, but had not died at the scene where she was found.  Suicide or was she killed?

A few days later DI Annie Cabbot and DC Gerry Masterson are attending an accident on Tetchley Moor where a man has died from an apparent fall.  The question is, why would a man wearing a suit and brogues have been out walking on the moor?

From Cabbot’s father’s partner, they get an idea of who might be involved.  Zelda is someone who easily recognises faces and she puts Banks and Cabbot on a trail, which could possibly lead to the person involved.  However, they also learn that there is a criminal gang involved in sex trafficking.  It turns out that the man involved is someone who both Banks and Cabbot had dealt with in the past.

When the male victim is identified, the police are sure that they have a crime on their hands.  Is it connected to the case of the young woman?  Both deaths are under suspicious circumstances.  A week later, Banks meets with his old friend DCI Ken Blackstone from West Yorkshire about another suspicious death of a young female student.  On her phone is the name of the first victim, but the number isn’t hers.

However, as the investigation progresses, tenable links are discovered.  Those links are meshed together by author Peter Robinson to create a iron clad case against the criminal behind the killing.  Robinson has written another of his classic whodunnits, and in closing the novel gives a hint of what is to come in the next novel.

The Mask of Command

It is 317 AD and Aurelius Castus is with Emperor Constantine in the east where he and Licinius have just reached a new treaty after heavy battling.  Resting in camp, Castus learns that his wife, Sabina, has recently died.  He needs to get home to look after his wife’s will and their young son.

Having returned home to Rome, Castus finds himself appointed to the head of an army headed to the northern frontier.  He takes his son, Sabinus, with him and accompanied by Ganna, a slave woman who has been with his son since his birth.

Included in the cavalcade is Crispus, son of the emperor, Constantine.  He is only fifteen and on his way to learn how to be an emperor.  However, Crispus would not travel as far as Colonia Agrippina, where Castus would take up his appointment.

It doesn’t take long for Castus to realise that his posting is undermanned and that in reality it is a businessman by the name of Rufus that is really the power in the area and not the governor.

Within a day of arriving at Colonia Agrippina, the enemy have crossed into Roman territory and are on the march.  Victorious in battle, Castus negotiates a treaty with the enemy.  They provide him with hostages as a surety to peace.  Will the peace hold and can trust the local business community, let alone his own troops?

Can Castus, his son, and Crispus survive in an environment of mistrust, and treachery on all sides?  Author Ian Ross has plenty of action, double crosses and battles ahead for all in this intense historical fiction.  Well written and thoroughly an enjoyable read.

The Divided City

Inspector Gregor Reinhardt is back in Berlin now that the war is over.  He has been called out to a building where the body of a man has been found.  Investigating further, Reinhardt discovers another body a few floors up, inside an apartment.  He calls for the American MPs to attend.  They were happy to say that it was a local problem, not needing their attention.

Professor Endres, the pathologist, tells Reinhardt that both men were brutally attacked and that the second one was subsequently drowned by someone forcing water into his lungs.  Moments after learning this, Reinhardt is hailed back to the I police station, where he is introduced to two people from the British sector and an American who he knows.  The British tell the group that one of the victims was one of theirs who occupied a sensitive position and could not hold his liquor.

Reinhardt has questions about how quickly the Allies found out about the deaths.  He prefers to investigate only the German victim, leaving others to investigate the Brit’s death.

Later Reinhardt is called out to investigate another death.  Once again this is a former Luftwaffe pilot.  Is there a link between the two?  As his investigation progresses, he discovers that there is a link between the victims and others, and that is the outfit they served in during the war.

Shortly afterwards Reinhardt is surprised to find a Soviet MGB major awaiting him at his home.  Major Skokov seems to know as much as Reinhardt does, and then he inquires about his Western Allies connections.  Fortunately, and unbeknownst to Skokov, Reinhardt’s friend, Brauer is also staying in the same house and hears everything.  He promises to watch Reinhardt’s back.

Reinhardt is further shocked when his son turns up on his doorstep.  He had thought that Friedrich had been lost at Stalingrad. However, he had been made a POW.  Reinhardt wonders if Friedrich had been turned by the Soviets.

When Reinhardt discovers the link connecting the victims, he finds an industrialist behind the group of veterans.  Will there be more deaths to come?  There are many more questions to answer, too.

Author Luke McCallin provides those answers for Reinhardt near the end of this thriller.  He shows how the war left Berlin divided amongst the Allies, and at the same time pitted them one against the other.  A thoroughly enjoyable read, which brings to a conclusion this trilogy. 

Blind Fury

DCI Mike Lewis, DI Anna Travis and DS Paul Barolli are on the scene where the body of a young woman has been found alongside the M1.  Lewis says that it reminds him of two previous cases.  The first woman had been identified as a prostitute, but as yet the second victim had not been identified.  Would they be able to identify the third?

A man who is a prisoner writes to Travis suggesting that he might be able to help.  He had been imprisoned by her, so why would she accept his help?  However DCS Langton insists that she meet with him.  Barolli feels that the prisoner is providing them with valuable information, but Travis feels contrary.

After some time, they are able to identify the victim as a Polish woman who had worked for an American couple as an au pair.  She was an illegal immigrant.  Shortly after this, the third victim is identified.  She too, was Polish.

However progress is limited, so Langton warns Lewis that his team will be cut back and he has limited time to get a result.  A break occurs when a woman comes in and informs Lewis and Travis that three victims had worked for her.  But that still doesn’t give them a suspect.

When they do finally get a suspect, they have no evidence.  How can they get the evidence?  Author Lynda La Plante has an interesting way of serving up the culprit plus a shocking conclusion to the story.  Well written and hard to put down.  A real page turner.

The Vows of Silence

A young newlywed has been shot to death in her own flat for no apparent reason.  Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler has taken charge of the case.

Several days later there is another shooting. As Serrailler approaches the scene, his sister calls to tell him that her husband has collapsed at home.  Two women have been shot, the dead one a bride-to-be, the other a  friend is in serious condition.  She would die overnight in hospital.

It appears that they have a lunatic on their hands killing young women.  There’s no doubt that he will strike again, but when and where?  It doesn’t take long to find out.  A young single mother is shot in her doorway.  The investigation is getting nowhere.

As Serrailler’s team continues their investigation, they are hampered by an upcoming society wedding.  In addition, Serrailler’s sister, Cat’s husband has been diagnosed with a brain tumour.  It is a tough time for all involved.

Author Susan Hill has written an interesting novel that shows not just police procedure, but the human side of policing.  Life can be harsh, and Hill delivers some extreme harshness in this novel.

Master of Rome

The Roman legions have been destroyed just outside Tunis, those who survived the slaughter have retreated to Aspis where the navy sits in the harbour.  There Atticus is in charge of the fleet.  His friend, Septimus, is a marine centurion, there to help, but what help can he be when the Carthaginian fleet bottles them up in the harbour and their army is advancing?

Fortunately the Roman fleet from Sicily arrives before the Carthaginian navy can attack the bottled up fleet.  The Carthaginians are forced to retreat after a battle at sea, however, they have won a significant battle on land against the Romans.

Consul Paullus decides to take the victorious fleet to Sicily and engage the Carthaginian army there.  Atticus warns against it due to the possibility of severe weather.  Paullus’ decision would be one that would lead to the destruction of many ships as a storm strikes the fleet before it can put into port on Sicily.

Because of what has happened to his old legion, the Ninth, Septimus decides to leave the ship and return to the army, now that the Ninth is being reformed.  It causes grief between him and Atticus.

Atticus’ old enemy, Scipio, has been elected senior consul with the death of Paullus.  Scipio decides to continue the war with Carthage.  The first place to be attacked will be Panormus on the northwest coast of Sicily.  Atticus will man the blockade while the Ninth and Second legions will march on the city.  Although the legions are able to take the city, the weak Roman navy is badly damaged by the Carthaginian navy as it attempts to break out of the harbour.

Is this the end of the Roman navy?  Author John Stack has battles remaining for both Atticus and the infant Roman navy; there is plenty of well written, exciting action in store for both Atticus and Septimus.  This was a very enjoyable read, which I found hard to put down.