Friday, June 28, 2019

Secrets in the Stones

Dr. Tom Silkstone has just been involved in a duel.  When Lady Lydia Farrell called out his name just before shots were to be fired, Silkstone was distracted and took a bullet in the chest.  Later that night, Sir Montagu was murdered in the study at Boughton Estate.  Despite his condition, Silkstone rushes there to be with Lydia.  Who could have done such a thing?  The potential list of suspects is a long one because of what Montagu had done in the area.

Silkstone’s post mortem of Montagu reveals that he had been tortured prior to being killed.  What information was the killer wanting?  The local magistrate, a good friend of Montagu, orders the arrest of villagers who had protested the actions of Montagu.  Silkstone has to do something to prevent them from being scapegoats.

While in Oxford, Silkstone is urgently called back to Boughton Estate.  Lydia has discovered that her late husband’s grave has been disturbed and the diamond ring that had been on his hand was gone.  Silkstone is sure that whoever took the diamond also killed Montagu.  That person would be trying to sell the diamond in London.

It is in London that Silkstone’s old adversary, Nicholas Lupton, brings him evidence of who the killer might be.  However, that same evidence seems to suggest that the writer may have been responsible for the theft of the diamond, but not necessarily the killing of Montagu.

In London Lupton does indeed find the man behind the theft of the diamond, but in so doing, he brings about his own death.  When Silkstone does the post mortem on Lupton, he discovers where the man had been assaulted.  There he also finds the man behind the theft of the diamond; but he is dead.  During the autopsy, Silkstone discovers the diamond lodged in the man’s throat.  What is going on?  How many more people are to die before Silkstone can find the killer?

Author Tessa Harris’ historical murder mystery is full of plot twists and it takes the skilful analysis of the clues by Silkstone to figure out who the killer is, but will he act in time to prevent anymore?  A good read for fans of historical fiction.

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Evil Games

DI Kim Stone and DS Bryant have just nailed a man for making sex videos of his daughters, and they have plenty of evidence, however nothing to charge his wife who claims to know nothing about it.  But, will they be able to keep him jailed for life after two constables beat him up?

Shortly afterwards Stone and Bryant are called out to a scene where a man has been brutally stabbed to death.  It turns out that the victim had been a rapist who had been released early.  The killer had thrown the knife down not far from where the rapist’s victim lived.  It didn’t take long for Stone to identify and arrest the killer.

Stone is surprised when her superior tell her to get further background on the case.  It seems so open and shut.  After visiting the woman’s psychiatrist, Stone wonders why she was prepared to testify against her.  With the death of a client of the psychiatrist, Stone feels more distrust of her.  And knowing things about the doctor was certainly to affect her own psyche.  How would she protect herself?

Meanwhile she and her team have to continue to work on the paedophile case.  Can her team pull it together and close it despite some issues?

Author Angela Marsons' psychological thriller is full of tension, leaving the reader wondering what could happen next.  Stone and the psychologist have a tug of war that neither can truly win, but someone has to come out on top.  A truly engaging read.

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Death in Profile

DCI Tom Allen and DI Bob Metcalfe are investigating the death of a woman.  Her husband had reported her missing.  Her death is similar to ones done by a serial killer they’ve been hunting for some time now.  The current victim is number five.

That evening Allen is taken off the case.  Detective Superintendent Simon Collison tells him it is to allow him leave and to bring his own fresh eyes to the case.  Allen doesn’t want to be taken off the case and plans on working on it on his own.  He asks Metcalfe to help him, but he declines.

DC Karen Willis suggests bringing in a profiler.  She also has someone in mind; her boyfriend, Dr. Peter Collins.  On the weekend, Allen provides Metcalfe with the name of the taxi driver who had transported the latest victim.  It was something he wasn’t supposed to do, nor was he supposed to meet with Metcalfe.  Allen also knows that a profiler has been brought in.  Who on the team could have given him that information?

At last they have a suspect in hand, and he fits the profile suggested by Dr. Collins.  However, all the evidence is circumstantial.  Allen tells Metcalfe that he is convinced that they have the wrong man.  It doesn’t take the jury long to convict.  Unfortunately shortly after entering prison the man is killed.

At the same time Allen has found evidence that the dead man couldn’t have been the killer.  When Dr. Collins finds out about this, he goes off the rails.  Meantime Collison has to start anew on the investigation.  Will they get the right person this time?

Author Guy Fraser-Sampson captures the reader’s interest immediately in the opening pages and holds it throughout.  I found this book hard to put down.  As a matter of fact, I read it in one, so engrossed in I was.  Highly recommended read.  I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequels.

Saturday, June 22, 2019

The Jackal Man

DCI Gerry Heffernan and DI Wesley Peterson have been called out to a scene where a young woman was found partially strangled. Fortunately a truck driver had come along and interrupted the strangling.  However, he didn’t see the perpetrator.

DC Trish Walton is with the victim at the hospital when she briefly comes round and says that her attacker was wearing a dog’s head mask.

A few days later another woman is attacked. This time the strangulation is a success.  Her body is left, wrapped in a white sheet.  What is peculiar is that her abdomen has been opened and her organs removed and neatly set beside the body.  Also with the body is a small replica of Anubis, the Egyptian god of death and embalming.

Peterson’s archeologist friend, Dr. Neil Watson, who is researching a local castle where the original owner had gathered Egyptian artifacts, informs Peterson that the son of the original owner had committed four gruesome murders and then committed suicide.  Could someone be copying his acts?

Author Kate Ellis presents the reader with a plethora of suspects, so how will Heffernan and Peterson narrow it down to the real one?  Read on!  A good quick read.

Thursday, June 20, 2019

The Night Stalker

DCI Erika Foster is at a supper get-together with her pathologist friend Isaac Strong when she receives a message about a suspicious death.  Together they set off to begin the investigation.

Initially it looks like a straight forward gay-bashing.  However, as the scene of crime officers point out, it appears to have been meticulously planned. 

Foster’s superior, Detective Chief Superintendent Marsh, warns her off of one potential suspect because he is being watched for child pornography.  His alibi stands because of his being watched around the clock.  However, when DI Peterson pulls him in Marsh goes off the deep end and relieves Foster of the case.

Then another killing occurs in much the same manner.  This time forensics has a print of the killer, albeit an ear print.  The pathologist, Isaac Strong informs Foster that a suicide bag was used in both cases.  Other than that, what links the two cases?

DNA from the ear print and the suicide bag point to the killer being a female.  However, Foster’s superiors are unaccepting of the evidence.  In their minds there’s no such thing as a woman serial killer.

Author Robert Bryndza has a few sudden and shocking twists to this murder mystery thriller.  It is fast paced and keeps the reader’s interest throughout.  A thoroughly enjoyable read, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequels.

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

The American Agent

Hitler’s Blitz has struck London and Maisie Dobbs has become an ambulance driver.  One night an American news broadcaster by the name of Catherine Saxon spends time with Maisie and sends a report back to the USA about what it’s like to be under the Blitz.  The following morning Saxon is found dead in her room.  Her throat has been slashed.

Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard wants Maisie to work with Mark Scott, an American detective to solve the case in part because Saxon’s father is an isolationist senator in the USA.  Maisie and Scott have worked together before.

Maisie is wary of Scott, so she sets her assistant, Billy Beale to check him out and if possible, quietly follow him.  As her investigation progresses, Maisie begins to wonder about MacFarlane and the victim herself.

The Blitz begins to intensify, resulting in Priscilla Partridge, Maisie’s best friend, being badly injured while on ambulance duty.  Maisie is also injured at the same time, although less so.  She continues with her investigation.  Billy finds out that the victim’s brother has travelled to England a few times during the war in the hopes that he can stop the war news from being broadcast to the USA.

Author Jacqueline Winspear presents the reader with a few potential suspects for the killing of the young reporter, but Maisie is daunted by any of them.  A surprise ending in this story.  A good, quick read.

Sunday, June 16, 2019

The Stone Circle

DCI Harry Nelson has just received an enigmatic note from someone about a stone circle.  It brings back memories of a past case, yet seems to have been written by someone who knows him and is known to be dead.  He talks to his friend Dr. Ruth Galloway about it.  The following Sunday morning there is a bag on his front step with another note and a small stone in it.

Out at a dig Ruth is surprised to find that it is supervised by the son of her former mentor. Shortly after leaving, she is called back because bones have been discovered.  It doesn’t take her long to realise that they are the bones of a child and that they are recent.

Two weeks later, DNA evidence helps identify the bones as belonging to a twelve year old girl who had gone missing over thirty years earlier.  Shortly afterwards Ruth receives an enigmatic letter, in this case about the body she had excavated.  Nelson is sure that the letter has come from the same person who sent his.

Who is the threat coming from?  Author Elly Griffiths slowly builds up the tension in this murder mystery including another and a baby abduction.  Naturally there is much mystery regarding stone circles including one across the country.  Griffiths leaves the reader on the edge of their seat before releasing the tension.  A very good quick read.

Shadow of the Raven

Dr. Thomas Silkstone has been refused the opportunity to see Lady Lydia Farrell at Bethlem Hospital, better known as Bedlam, where she has been forcefully confined by her late brother’s guardian, Sir Montagu Malthus.  Before he can do anything about it he is called to Oxford to investigate a murder at Boughton Estate.

In Oxford, Silkstone learns that Malthus has requested an Act of Enclosure for Boughton Estate.  The surveyor working on the survey has been shot.  Malthus has enforced a curfew on those living on the estate until the killer is found.  Sir Theodisius Pettigrew wants Silkstone to perform an autopsy on the victim.  Silkstone discovers that the victim had been shot by a small calibre pistol, not the usual weapon of brigands.

Silkstone decides that it is important that he visit the sight of the killing in Raven’s Wood.  He is warned off, however proceeds ahead anyway. 

Back in London, he is shocked at what has become of Lydia in Bedlam.  He is told that he is the one who signed her into the hospital, however he knows that Malthus ordered a forgery of his signature.

Meanwhile in Brandwick, the village associated with Boughton, things are starting to get out of hand, and in London Lydia has been transferred out of Bedlam, but Silkstone has no idea where.  Then news arrives that Lydia has died.

Is Silkstone’s life now also at an end now that his beloved is dead?  Author Tessa Harris’ novel about the times of the Act of Enclosure is intense, and revealing.  The wealthy had the power, and the government behind them.  The weak and disenfranchised had nothing but their faith and belief on their side.  Some things never change.  A thoroughly enjoyable read, and hard to put down.  I immediately ordered the next and last book in the series from the library.

Friday, June 14, 2019

Perfect Death

DI Luc  Callanach has been called out in the early morning hours to where a body of a naked young woman has been found at Arthur’ Seat.  Not long after this, DCI Ava Turner is called out to a suicide, which is her mentor, DCI George Begbie.  He had recently suffered a heart attack.  Could that have brought about his suicide?  Pathologist Ailsa Lambert shows Turner a couple of mysterious initials on his wrist.  What’s the meaning behind them?

Not long after this an informer’s car is involved in a bloody accident, however there is no body at the scene.  When Turner checks on the informer’s business, she discovers that it has been ransacked.  The following Monday, Turner meets with Begbie’s widow and finds out that Begbie has a pile of cash stashed away in the attic?  Had he gained it by gambling or some other illegal means?

Callanach had planned on taking leave after some shocking news from his mother, however when Lambert informs him that his victim had ingested a very strong cannabis oil, and that her death could very well be murder he changes his mind about his leave.

Afterwards Callanach is called by Begbie’s informer.  A meeting is arranged, but when Callanach arrives he finds the informer dead in unique circumstances.  That same night Turner has a confrontation with a couple of rogues intent on getting something from Begbie’s house.  She barely comes out the winner.  Scratches on Begbie’s wrist convince Turner that he didn’t commit suicide.

Moments after Begbie’s funeral, Callanach is at the hospital because a doctor wants to discuss a suspicious death.  A well known philanthropist has died as a result of taking a powerful diet drug.  Having spoken to the family, the doctor is sure that the drug was administered without the victim being aware.

As the cases progress, Turner decides to switch responsibilities with Callanach in the hopes that new eyes will find solutions.  Author Helen Fields’ novel is brutal in the ferocity of the killings.  Death hovers over both Turner and Callanach, not just for themselves, but also for those that they care about.  This is an intense read, yet thoroughly enjoyable for those fans of murder mystery thrillers.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Rome's Fallen Eagle

A. D., January 24 - Rome.  Caligula has been assassinated by his guard.  Who will become the new emperor, or will the senate decide to go back to being a republic?  However, it is the Praetorian Guard that makes the decision.  Claudius is chosen to be the new emperor and the senate is forced to swear allegiance.

The real power behind Claudius lies with the freedmen Narcissus, Pallas and Callistus.  The first is foremost amongst the triumvirate.  It is also Narcissus that orders Vespasian and his brother, Sabinus, to the Rhenus frontier and to retrieve the lost eagle of the Seventeenth Legion.  It is a near impossible task.

Vespasian’s new command is the Second Augusta.  However, it is a cavalry cohort of Batavians that Vespasian will take in search of the lost eagle. After they cross the river, they find that their men are being picked off. Who, but three men back in Rome would know of the mission?  Which of them is it?

Fortunately for Vespasian, they end up receiving help in their quest.  But, will they achieve their goal or will someone else get the eagle?

Vespasian’s and Sabinus’ next assignment is to be part of Plautius’ invasion of Britain.  Vespasian will keep command of the Second Augusta, while Sabinus is to be legate of the Fourteenth.  However, what’s to be done when the whole army refuses to embark?  It is only when the Eagle of the Seventeenth is presented to Plautius by Narcissus that the mutiny is quelled.

How successful will the invasion be?  Author Robert Fabbri’s fiction is based on historical writings with a twist to make it more readable and interesting.  There are plenty of battles and political intrigue and treachery, all which seemed to be the norm of the time.  This was a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequels.

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Striking Murder

DS Michael Brennan has been called into Wigan Borough Police Station early on a Sunday morning in the winter of 1893.  Captain Bell tells him that Arthur Morris had been found murdered in the wee hours.  Morris was a colliery owner, which was one of many suffering from a five month miners’ strike.  The colliery owners were threatening to bring in blackleg workers.  However, the main question is, what was Morris doing in that part of town at night?

Several days on, and no suspects in sight, Brennan and DC Jaggery leave the pub into a foggy night.  Each goes his separate way, but Brennan is followed and attacked.  Left for dead in the cold, it is fortunate that he was found by a thief who knew him and got him to the infirmary.  Will this set back the investigation?

Author A. J. Wright’s murder mystery is based on a time of an actual strike/lockout.  The killer can’t be allowed to get away with killing, however it is going to take a resolute mind to find the killer.  Brennan’s steadfast gathering of evidence will put the killer behind bars, but not without a few surprises.  A good quick read.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Tell Nobody

DI Lottie Parker has just walked into the station when she hears a teenager enter behind her.  The girl, who is covered in blood says, “I think I killed him.” and then collapses.  The doctor in emergency tells Parker that the girl had recently given birth.

Not long after this, Lottie’s son, Sean and a friend, discover the body of a baby in the canal while fishing.  Later in the day, a group of kids discover the body of a boy near a clubhouse.  When the boy is identified, realisation sets in that he was from the same estate as the girl who had given birth, but had now escaped from the hospital.

The following morning another body is discovered.  It’s another young boy in similar circumstances to the previous victim.  Autopsies on the boys show that they had been abused.  Did the abuser kill them?

Author Patricia Gibney’s fifth book in this series is fast paced and an attention grabber.  She presents plenty of suspects with a surprising conclusion.  This thriller is hard to put down and is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Monday, June 3, 2019

Beneath the Surface

DS Ray Lennon knows that he is taking his own life into his hands when he is informed by DCS Sean McGuinness that he has to bring DI Tom Reynolds back from holiday.  A man has been murdered inside Leinster House in Dublin.  The victim is an important advisor to the government.

When IT access the victim’s computer, disturbing images are found on it.  They include the victim’s boss, who is a government minister tapped to become the leader of the party.  In addition, the woman the victim worked with seems to have disappeared.

DS Laura Brennan discovers an unmentioned access to the building on the building’s plans.  Could the killer have used it unnoticed by people working in the building?  The number of suspects increases.

Author Jo Spain’s thriller is full of suspects, but can Reynolds pin it on anyone in particular.  There’s no evidence pointing to one particular suspect.  How will he and his team solve this particular killing?  Spain’s thriller is a very good read, and it was hard to put down.  I’m sure other fans of this genre will concur.