The Keeper of Secrets

Parson Tobias Campion has just travelled to his new vicarage, but unfortunately his possessions have not made it, so he has to impose on a distant cousin, Lady Elham, for his first night in the community.  Thefirst friend he makes is Doctor Edmund Hansard.

Shortly after Campion arrived, his cousin’s husband drowns.  As Justice of the Peace, Hansard has to investigate the cause of death.  Due to the wealth of Lord Elham, the inquest was held in his home, with members of the household making up the jury, and returning a verdict of a natural death.

The new Lord wants a stone monument installed in the church and he wants the parishioners and his tenants to pay for it.  Campion is against them paying for it, as is Hansard.  The young Lord threatens the pair of them.  Hansard confides in Campion that there are rumours that the son is responsible for his father’s death, and his mother is covering for him.  It is not long after this that Campion is attacked by someone unknown.

Later, the following spring Campion comes across the body of the young woman who had been a maid to his cousin.  Hansard tells him that her throat had been slashed.  Hansard calls in another doctor to examine the body.  It is agreed that the young woman could have been killed at Christmas time and the cold preserved her body.  If that’s the case, they need to find out why Campion’s cousin lied about her whereabouts.  

Campion and Hansard travel to Bath in search of the killer however, they find that the killer has returned home.  They return post-haste in order to protect loved ones, but will they arrive in time?  Although, author Judith Cutler’s historical murder mystery seems to drag on, the concluding chapters are fast paced and full of terror and action.  This was quite a good read, for the beginning of a trilogy.

Dead Image

It was a lovely early morning in October of 1874 when a narrow boat carrying gunpowder blew up under a bridge alongside Regent’s Park.  Sergeant Ernest Best of the Detective Branch begins his investigation by trying to get the bodies identified.  There were three men on the boat, so why was there a fourth body?  And why was a woman amongst the deceased?  PC George Smith is assisting him.

Later Chief Inspector Cheadle informs Best that the young woman had been stabbed, so he has a murder case on his hands.  Could the explosion have been set off by the Fenians?  Cheadle suggests a number of scenarios to Best.

Best and Smith can’t seem to get a break, that is until a young woman comes in distressed about her missing sister.  It seems as though Helen Franks sister went missing at the time of the explosion.  

The inquest into the explosion determined how it was caused, and also determined that the death of the boatmen was accidental, but determined nothing about the woman’s death.

Suspicions are aroused when one of the prime suspects goes missing.  Cheadle dispatched Best to follow up on the canal where the suspect worked.  Meanwhile, Smith is continuing with his part of the investigation.  It appears that a young man has mysteriously gone missing.

Two young people and a murder suspect  missing.  What was a sergeant of detectives to do?  Author Joan Lock has the solution in mind, but it will take the work of both Best and Smith to get to the conclusion.  A good quick read for the first in a series.

The Two-Pound Tram

Wilfred and Duncan are brothers born in the 1920s.  Duncan was the eldest of the two.  The boys had a dream of owning a tram, all due to an advertisement they had seen in the Daily Mail.  They were available in London for the sum of £2.

Unfortunately, Duncan became seriously ill, and lost the power of speech.  He was unable to regain it, however the two boys did develop a secret form of communication.  Their lives change when their mother leaves home.  Their father comes to resent them.

They have an interest in collecting butterflies, and as a result meet a Viennese  neighbour who also collects butterflies.  An incident occurred when Duncan was sixteen that led to the boys leaving home.  With their meagre savings, they headed for London.

They didn’t get the tram they had wanted, but ended up with a horse drawn antique.  They also found a horse to pull it.  They then found themselves on the road to Canterbury.  Just outside of Canterbury they also found themselves a load of passengers and establishing a new business.  Later an incident forced the boys to move on, however with a girl the same age as Duncan.  Heather, now known as Hattie, had joined the team as they headed towards Brighton and eventually home.

In Worthing, they settle with the old tram on the property of their Viennese friend.  Later, he purchases a proper tram for them to operate in Worthing.  Unfortunately, the outbreak of the war turned things upside down.

Author William Newton continues the story of Wilfred, Duncan, Hattie and the tram as the war progresses and on into the future.  Newton’s story is a good read, and a different type of historical novel.  I found it to be a relaxing read, but not without its own surprises.  This was a short book, but thoroughly enjoyable.

What Dies Inside

October 1984 and the IRA has just exploded a bomb at the hotel where the Conservative Party is holding its convention.  The police, Special Branch and MI5 are looking for the bomber, one Gerry Durkan.

Durkan manages to get the draw on a Special Branch officer and shoot him.  Meanwhile, MI5 operative Martin Palmer has found out via a wire tap where Durkan is going to meet up with his girlfriend.  Will he have any more luck catching the Irish fugitive?

A raid, which fails to capture Durkan, turns up a photo that points to a killer.  Constable John Carlyle finds the incriminating photo during the raid on a London pub.  What shall he do with it?

The above question sits unanswered at the end of James Craig’s second prequel to the series about John Carlyle, leaving the reader to wonder what is next.  A very quick read.

The Nun’s Tale

John Thoresby, Archbishop of York, has been discussing the fate of a nun who ran away from her convent with his dinner guests, one of whom is Owen Archer.  Why would she have run away, and why did she die in Beverly, at the home of Will Longford?

Eleven months later, it appears that the nun has returned from the dead!  Then who is in her grave?  When it is opened, the body seems fresh, and on top of that it is the body of a man!

Thoresby orders Archer to investigate the nun’s story.  Before he can begin his work, his wife, Lucie, is called upon to examine the nun.  However, when Owen returns home and finds out about this, he is not pleased.  However, he is unable to do much about it, as Thoresby is sending him to question the family of the nun, and he also has to take some archers to the Duke of Lancaster.

Lancaster in turn has further orders for Owen to look into the connection between the nun, and a conspiracy in France.  However, it is Owen’s wife, Lucie, who learns the nun’s secrets as she treats her both in body and mind.

Author Candace Robb has created a very twisted plot in this third mystery of the Owen Archer series.  It is a story of forbidden love, deceit and treachery that involves a bit of international intrigue.  A good read.

Nemesis

DI Vinnie Palmer and DC Rob Hill are at Strangeways Prison in Manchester to interview a guard as to how he and his partner had come to lose a prisoner they were escorting to another lockup.  As Palmer is finishing up his notes on the interview they are called out of the city to where a headless body has been found.  Palmer is sure that it is the missing guard.

The head is found later in the home of the guard whom they had just interviewed.  Hill spots the killer in the dead guard’s vehicle, but they are unable to catch him.  A few days later, Palmer receives a phone call from the killer.  As he tells Hill, they are being toyed with.  Later in the day, Palmer’s boss, Delany calls him back to the office.  They are going to interview the cop who had originally put the killer behind bars.  From him they learn that the killer has contacted him and plans on killing him.

How many more people will die before the police have caught the killer?  Will Palmer survive?  Author Roger A. Price’s first thriller is full of bad cops, treachery and action.  Fast paced, this first in a series is a good read.  I look forward to reading the sequels.

Perfect Kill

DI Luc Callanach is in France as a Scottish liaison with Interpol, and looking into human trafficking.  He is currently in a morgue staring at the body of a young man from Scotland who has had his organs removed.  He is also working with an old friend from Interpol, Jean-Pau, however, their relationship isn’t as cordial as it used to be.

Callanach calls DCI Ava Turner to inform her of the situation.  Turner has just been called out to the scene of a murder, so she has her hands full.  However, the following morning she begins an investigation into the young man.  She learns from the father that the lad had met a woman recently.  Then, another missing lad appears on the radar.  Could the cases be linked?

As the team begins to prepare their investigations, a PC informs them that skull fragments have been found on a pig farm.  Fragments point to there being three bodies, and that they were female.

Are they going to find more bodies?  Can they find the missing young man?  Author Helen Fields novel is complex and intense.  It revolves around the terrifying scene of human trafficking and the secret world of selling of body parts.  This is a fast paced thriller that is hard to put down.  I hope that Fields will eventually write more sequels.

The Sanctuary Sparrow

Just after Easter in 1140, the monks of the abbey at Shrewsbury are interrupted in their observation of Lauds at the church by a young man who comes barging through the door.  Quick on his heels is a mob out for blood.  They are on the verge of taking the boy’s life when Abbot Radulfus steps in front of them aided by Cadfael.  He invokes the sanctuary that the lad has claimed.  The drunken mob claims the lad had killed and robbed a man in town.  Radulfus repeats himself forcing the mob to retreat.

As Cadfael begins his treatment of the lad, he learns that his name is Liliwin, and that he is a tumbler and juggler.

The following morning a deputy, the city provost and a delegation of citizens came to the abbey.  The deputy indicates that the victim is not dead, but definitely robbed of his senses and some valuables.  It is agreed that Liliwin has forty days of sanctuary.  Cadfael is called into the city to administer to the elderly grandmother of the main accuser.

Cadfael learns the story behind the accusations, but also comes across a piece of evidence that might indicate otherwise.  How will he use it?

A few days later Cadfael discovers the body of a fisherman along the edge of the river.  This was a man who knew the river well.  Why had he drowned?  The mob that assembles shortly afterwards declare that Liliwin is the killer.  Time is running out for him.  Can Cadfael and deputy sheriff Hugh Beringar find the real killer in time?

Author Ellis Peters’ seventh chronicle in the story of Cadfael presents a tale of love and misbegotten love, which leads to murder.  It comes as a surprise when the killer is revealed.  A good quick read.

The Lantern Men

DCI Harry Nelson has been informed by his DI Judy Johnson that a killer Johnson had worked hard to put behind bars has been found guilty of killing two young women.  However, neither is happy because both feel that there are two more deaths that are unaccounted for, and they are sure the same man is responsible.

Shortly after this Dr. Ruth Galloway is shown a post card by a former colleague that she would have done a better job as a witness and of finding the remaining bodies.  She immediately calls Nelson.  Based on the handwriting, the card seems to have come from a woman who had hosted Ruth at a writing retreat.

Not long after this, the killer tells Nelson that he will show him where the bodies are if Ruth is the one who does the digging.  She accepts the challenge.  Nelson also receives information that the killer had been a member of a group of three men who would pick up women on the fens.  They called themselves The Lantern Men.  The young women would later disappear after spending some time with the group.

When the forensic archeologists dig at the site indicated by the killer they find not just two bodies, but a third.

The morning after the bodies are dug up, Nelson receives a call that another body has been found.  This recent death is a young woman who matches the characteristics of those killed by the man that they have in custody.  Talking to the boyfriend, DI Johnson learns. That the woman had been road training on her bicycle, so why was an expensive bicycle doing out in the dunes?

DNA and dental records help identify the bodies.  Nelson continues to maintain that they have the killer.  However, he couldn’t have killed the latest victim.  So, who is the killer?

Author Elly Griffiths has the reader in suspense, giving numerous hints convincing the reader to follow that trail.  However, in the end, a surprise is revealed to the reader.  Griffiths’ thriller is complex and a superb read, which was hard to put down.

A Litter of Bones

Duncan Reid is out for a walk with his son and dog near Fort William when the dog disappears.  He tells his son, Connor, to wait on the path while searches for the dog.  When Connor doesn’t respond to his calls, he rushes back to the path only to find the boy gone!  Later a package is delivered to the local police.

DCI Jack Logan is called in to investigate because he had jailed a man for three previous cases.  The case was solid.  However, there are similarities.  Could some of the investigative information been leaked, and now there was a copycat killer? Or had they convicted the wrong man?

In Fort William Logan is welcomed by DI Ben Forde.  Forde has assembled a strong team to work the investigation.  It doesn’t take long for the team to determine a suspect.  That evening they have him, but is he the brains behind the operation?  However, it turns out he has a different connection to the case.

The following morning, Logan states that Connor has less than twenty-four hours to live, based upon the previous cases.  Then the brother of a WPC working with Logan goes missing.

Does the team have another kidnapping on their hands?  Author J. D. Kirk really picks up the pace at this point.  Logan and his team have to act fast as time is running out.  This is the first in a series, and is an extremely well written thriller, hard to put down.  I can hardly wait to get my hands on the sequels.

The Shadowcutter

Giles Vernon and his wife  are on holiday in Stanegate.  They have invited Felix Carswell to join them.  Vernon intends on taking some sword lessons while there.  He meets a Spanish opponent at the lessons.  After a bout, the Spaniard collapses, coughing up blood.  Carswell rushes to his aid and quickly diagnoses phthisis.

Getting the man back to his flat, Carswell discovers that his back is crisscrossed with scars and some open wounds.  Looking in a drawer, Vernon comes across a whip.  Later in the day, Vernon receives a note from Lord Rothborough asking for his help.  When he turns up at the estate, he finds Rothborough and his eldest daughter with the body of a young woman, which had been pulled from a pond on the estate.

Vernon gets Carswell to examine the body.  He discovers a bit of shell in the back of her head.  Vernon then takes him to the grotto nearby the pond.  There they find blood on the wall at the height of the woman’s head.  They have a murder on their hands.  However, the local coroner is not going to allow that to stand.  In his mind it is simply the death of a maid - a non-entity.

How can Vernon and Carswell manage to find the killer with the local coroner being nonchalant about the death?  And what of the robbery that Lord Rothborough tells them of at his estate?  

Author Harriet Smart’s murder mystery is complex, and tied in with resolving a robbery at the same time has both Vernon and Carswell tied in knots.  They experience both tragedy and relief as this thriller progresses.  Smart also throws in a bit of international intrigue to the mix.  A good mystery for the reader to enjoy.

The Dead Songbird

Major Vernon has been requested by a visiting opera singer to visit with her.  He has no idea why, and invites Dr. Carswell to join him.  They find out from her, that she had received a note, which threatens her life.  She has had several in the past.

While discussing the matter with her, Vernon is called out because a body has been found.  When they get there, Carswell discovers that the man is not long dead.  Why was he arranged so peacefully?  They soon learn that the young man was a singer in the church choir.  Carswell’s post-mortem determines that the victim had been strangled with a ligature of some sort.

The following evening, on his way home from a dinner party, Carswell is shocked by a scream coming from the diva’s house.  Upon investigating, he finds that someone had left a dead bird on the bed with a ribbon around its neck.  However, the diva states that she is more frightened by the notes than a dead bird.

Meanwhile, Carswell has somehow become engaged to a young woman to whom he has chatted with a couple of times.  How will he extricate himself from that?  And, Vernon has let his foremost prime suspect slip through his fingers.

Author Harriet Smart has things well in hand for Carswell and Vernon, although it is not an easy task.  They will have their trials and tribulations along the way.  A good, quick read.

The Butchered Man

Felix Carswell has come to Northminster to become the new police surgeon.  He will be working for Chief Constable Giles Vernon.  Felix’s father, Lord Rothborough, had wanted him to take up a military career, rather than medicine.  It is Vernon’s plan to modernise the police force.

Moments after Vernon and Carswell meet, they are called out to a building site where a body has been found.  With the body back at the police’s temporary mortuary, they discover that it has been badly mutilated.  Unfortunately, due to legalities, Carswell is unable to start on the post-mortem immediately.

Vernon’s sister is able to identify the victim. With that knowledge, Vernon is able to begin his investigation into him.  Hopefully this will lead him to the killer.  His first appointment is with the victim’s cousin, who had a recent altercation with the victim.

Having done his post-mortem, Carswell is certain that the killer is a butcher.  He is also certain that the victim had been poisoned before being slashed.  In the victim’s stomach, he finds some seeds; some whole, some chewed.  When he administers a seed to a mouse, the mouse dies.

Now, it is up to Vernon and Carswell to find the killer.  But will the killer strike again beforehand?  Vernon and Carswell come into conflict as their investigation progresses.  Will they be blinded by what they learn?

Author Harriet Smart has written an intriguing historical murder mystery in the first of this series.  It has a surprising conclusion.  A good quick read.  I look forward to the sequels.

Dead Memories

DI Kim Stone has been called to an incident at a flat in a tower.  Her DS, Bryant doesn’t want her to enter the flat.  Being stubborn, she goes ahead only to be confronted by a scene that recreated something that she had experienced thirty years before in a flat below this one.  She now has to convince her boss, DCI Woodward that it isn’t connected to her past.

The following morning DS Austin Penn and DC Stacey Wood are wondering if they have a new case on their hands.  Not long after they do find that they do have a case.  There were no needles at the scene, so how could two teenagers have overdosed?

The postmortem reveals that the lad had a bit of cracker wrapper in his throat.  This is the evidence that ensures that Stone knows that the scene was created and directed at her.

As Penn is working at his desk, a call comes in that a body has been found in a car that has been crushed.  The question now is, how are they going to get it out without destroying evidence?

Woodward has one stipulation for her to continue working on the case is that Dr. Alison Lowe is to work with the team.  Stone’s team had worked with her on a previous case.  Lowe was a profiler and behaviouralist, but Stone has no use for that.  She is also under the impression that Lowe is there to help the team, but that is not the case.  Lowe is there to observe Stone.

When an older couple are killed and burned in a vehicle, Stone decides to inform her team that she thinks that the killer is replicating disasters in her life in order to get at her.  The question arises, what traumatic event will the killer try to replicate next? There is a second question; who hates Stone the most to do this?

A third recreation leads Stone to almost punch a constable, but Bryant stops her.  However, it leads to her DCI pulling her off the case.  

How many more will die before the team without the leadership of Stone before the killing spree ends?  Author Angela Marsons’ psychological thriller is fast paced and intense.  I found it hard to put down.  A very good read.

The Moon Tunnel

Philip Dryden has come to an archeological dig near Ely in search of a story.  But it isn’t the story that he expected.  The crew has found a tunnel and in it a skeleton.  This site was once a WWII POW camp.  Dryden realises that the man had been shot in the tunnel, but why was he crawling into the camp?

Laura, Dryden’s hospitalised wife, offers to do some internet research for him.  Limited as she is, he accepts her help.

Because the skeleton is so old, the police aren’t interested, so Dryden begins his own investigation.  He speaks to his uncle, who was quite young at the time.  What he learns takes him to a home that was robbed during the war.  A man had been killed during the robbery.

Laura’s research comes up with a name of a missing POW, but records show that he never existed.  So, who was he?  And, why was he crawling into the POW camp?  Dryden also discovers that there is a missing, and very valuable painting, that has not been recovered.

Some time later, Dryden while going to ask the archeologist questions about the dig, discovers his body in one of the trenches, killed execution style.

Who is the killer, and why was he killed?  With the police pursuing their own investigation, Dryden has clues of his own to follow.  Author Jim Kelly’s thriller is just that; full of tension and crisis.  Who will find the killer first?  Dryden or the police?  An exciting read.