Murder at the Bayswater Bicycle Club

It has been some time since lady detective Frances Doughty had had a case.  She has been approached by a government agent asking her to do some observations at the Bayswater Bicycle Club annual summer meeting.  Certain members of the club are suspected of being spies.

She calls together her team to support her; Sarah, who at one time had been her maid, and her boyfriend, Mr. Pounder, Cedric Garton and the two entrepreneurial boys, Tom and Ratty.  But first Frances wants to learn to ride a bicycle, and to do this she has to go in disguise as a lad.  Having learned how to ride, Frances wants to check out the nearby site where a cyclist had been murdered.  She and Cedric discover that he was likely riding too fast at the time of his death.  But why was he riding too fast?

The day of the meeting and the host, Sir Hugo Daffin is missing.  Frances and her friend Cedric go in search of him.  They find the man she was supposed to meet tied up in a small cottage.  After releasing him, the three continue the search.  They find him in his room in a deep sleep.  It would appear that he has been drugged.

Why would anyone want to kill the innocent daughter of the local blacksmith?  Frances had found her body during the meeting.  Had she seen something that she shouldn’t have?  The police hold everyone at the meeting so that they can be questioned.

Will the police be able to find the killer?  Or will the sharp mind of Miss Frances Doughty put together the puzzles and find the solutions or can they work together?  Author Linda Stratmann’s murder mystery is as fast paced as a bicycle race.  A good quick read with some surprises.

Mourn Not Your Dead

Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and DS Gemma James have been called out to a murder scene.  The victim is Division Commander Alastair Gilbert.  Unfortunately Kincaid and Gemma are at odds because of an incident that had happened the previous week.

It doesn’t take long to learn that Gilbert was not well liked in the town where he lived, yet his wife and stepdaughter were.  On the other hand, Kincaid knows that Gilbert wasn’t really well respected within his own organisation.

For Gemma, a chance meeting with her long lost friend, Jackie Temple brings back good memories, and at the same time Jackie vaguely remembers seeing Gilbert talking to a known informant.  Could this have had anything to do with the murder?  

A spate of burglaries in the village points to a potential suspect, because the victim’s wife had mentioned missing some jewelry.  However, when the suspect is apprehended, those who had lost their possessions, rose up in support of him.  What to do now?

Things take a turn for the worse when Jackie is shot and killed while on her beat in London.  Could this be connected to what she had learned?

Author Deborah Crombie has answers for the reader and some that are left unanswered in this mystery.  Crombie also has a surprising conclusion to this enjoyable read.

Murder in Belgravia

Chief Inspector Beech has an unusual case on his hands.  A young aristocratic woman has admitted to the killing of her husband.  He had come home from the war injured and addicted to opiates.  She refuses to see her husband’s doctor, so Beech is arranging for a female doctor to help.  Dr. Caroline Allardyce has to order an ambulance when she discovers the state of the woman.

Beech wants to set up a small organisation to help get women into the police force.  He approaches the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Edward Henry, with his idea.  Two women, a detective and a doctor, plus two men to oversee them.  He has two women in mind, and they wouldn’t need to be on the payroll because they are well off.  Surprisingly, Sir Henry agrees.

The woman he approaches first is Victoria Ellingham.  Her husband had been killed at Ypres.  She had also studied law at university before the war.

PC Billy Rigsby, another wounded veteran, is to be attached to the team.  His role will be to be a bodyguard to the two women on the team.

Now to the murder scene.  Caroline is sure that the injured young woman was so badly injured that she would not have been able to kill her husband.  Beech wants Rigsby to chat with the ladies of the house.

The other policeman to join the team is DS Arthur Tollaman.  He has a prodigious memory.  That evening the team met together for the first time.  Beech tells them of the pathology report.  The murder victim had shrapnel near his spine, which likely caused him a great deal of pain, leading to his drug addiction and pneumonia.  He was also suffering from syphilis.

Could the young maid, Polly, have stabbed the victim to protect her mistress?  Beech has brought the victim’s medicines to the meeting.  Caroline tells them that some are cocaine and heroin, readily available at any pharmacy.  However, Polly has disappeared, possibly abducted by the butler to the murder victim.

Is the team prepared for more deaths?  Now that the Zeppelins have started to bomb London, will people accept women policing them?

Author Lynn Brittney has the answers to those questions and many more that arise as the team continues its investigation.  The team works well together and the end of the case comes to an unusual conclusion.  A good quick read.

Balkan Glory

Sir Thomas Kydd has returned to England after sailing in the Indian Ocean.  He is spending time at his club, much to the chagrin of his wife, Persephone.  Meanwhile, his good friend and brother-in-law, Nicholas Renzi, also known as Lord Farndon is visiting the Foreign Office.   There he learns that the French have control of the Adriatic Sea. He is also asked to go to Austria and be an intermediary in negotiations for the hand of Marie Louise, daughter of the Kaiser.  He is to take his wife, Cecilia.  There is an ulterior motive to the Farndons’ trip; he is to take the measure of Count Metternich.

It doesn’t take long for Kydd and his ship, Tyger, to be sent to the Mediterranean.  They head for Palermo.  Aboard are Persephone and her cousin Emily.  They take up residence in a small villa overlooking the bay.  Just as they were getting settled in, word arrived that the French were about to launch an invasion at Messina.  Kydd is forced to sail without some of his men because they were on shore leave.

Kydd manages to stop what in reality was a French feint on Sicily.  However, Admiral Sydney Smith wants more glory for himself. He is out out when Kydd refuses to follow his suggestion of attaching his ship to the admiral’s fleet, instead intending to follow his orders from Admiral Cotton.   Not long after, Tyger is joined by the frigates, Active and Volage.

Captains Gordon and Hornby are in agreement with Kydd on his plans for sharing the spoils of war.  Soon Cerebus joins the fleet, captained by Whitby.  Whitby brings a French newspaper, which seems to know the details of Kydd’s little fleet.  He has also been titled the “Sea Devil”.  However, Bonaparte has someone who intends to put a stop to the devilry.

In Vienna, Renzi is attacked by four Russians bent on removing the British marriage suit.  Fortunately, his training at sea saves him.  Later, Cecilia tells him that Bonaparte is to propose marriage to Marie Louise.  He will set aside Josephine because she is barren.  What would such an alliance do to the allies arrayed against Bonaparte?

Once in the Adriatic with his small fleet, Kydd sets up a secret base on the island of Lissa.  He and his fleet set about wreaking havoc.  The French commander plans to wait until he has enough sail to hunt the Sea Devil down.  

What will happen to Tyger and Kydd’s little fleet when the French set sail?  And what is to become of Renzi’s mission in Vienna?

Author Julian Stockwin has based his latest navel novel on historical facts.  Napoleon did make an agreement with Austria through Metternich and the British navy did secure the Adriatic, forcing Napoleon Bonaparte to change his plans.  Stockwin couldn’t finish his novel without at least one major naval battle, which he describes in great, bloody detail.  A thoroughly enjoyable read.