Maids of Misfortune

Annie Fuller is under pressure to pay the outstanding debt of her late husband.  If she attempted to do that, she would have to give up her boarding house, which is her main source of income.  She also operates as a medium, providing future prognostications for people looking for good news.

Annie is shocked when she is confronted by a lawyer who tells her that one of her clients has committed suicide, and she has been named in his will.   It doesn't make sense to her that he would commit suicide, nor that he was on the brink of insolvency.  She is convinced that he was murdered and that his missing assets, when discovered will point to the murderer.  She is determined to find the killer, so she hires on as a maid of the family of the victim.

Annie and the lawyer for the victim's family is sure that the former maid can provide them with information.  However, when the maid turns up dead, Annie blames herself because she had been looking for her to provide information.  The situation changes dramatically when the victim's son is taken in by the police based on evidence they find in his room.  Annie is sure that it has been planted, but how to prove it?

Annie's friend and lawyer to the victim, Nate Dawson, discovers some information concerning the victim's partner and his whereabouts on the night of the murder.  Together, they will solve the crime, but Annie will have help from unexpected quarters.  A good read by author M. Louisa Locke.

Lambs to the Slaughter

DCI Monika Paniatowski has just been assigned the investigation of a murder of a miner in a town currently split over whether the miners should strike or not.  She assembles her team to carry out the investigation.  Meantime back at headquarters, her supervisor, George Baxter is being informed that The Yard will be involved in some manner with the intention of preventing a strike happening.

Monika's right hand man, DI Colin Beresford is sure that the killer is an old man on the opposite side of the strike argument to that of the victim.  Monika is not so sure.   Unfortunately on the first night of the investigation, Monika's fourteen year old daughter, Louisa, decides to go to a party without her mother's permission.  As a result, Monika requests some compassionate leave, leaving Beresford in charge of the investigation.

The following morning, the coroner provides Beresford with new information.  It seems to counter the reasons for putting his prime suspect forth.  A new suspect comes to light and Beresford is convinced he has the right one to present to Monika when she returns.  Monika is not convinced that Beresford has the right suspect.

Meantime she requests DS Kate Meadows to begin the investigation into what had happened to Louisa.  The information that Kate gleans offers up a twisted plot involving the security forces of the UK.  Another brilliant work by author Sally Spencer, a read hard to put down.

A Market for Murder

Karen Slocombe and her daughter Stephanie had just left the supermarket when there was a massive explosion from inside.   Shortly thereafter, a fellow stall keeper in the local market is shot dead by a crossbow arrow.  Karen saw it happen.  Coincidence or something else?

The stall holders gather to discuss the situation.  The leader of the group points out that they have received information that there is an operation going on to create GMO apples in the area.  The dead stall holder had been selling his own apple juice.  Some of the group are concerned that the pollinators pollinating the GMO apples could adversely affect all of their produce.

Den Cooper, who had once been with the police and is now with Social Services, is getting antsy over the murder investigation.  He takes time off and offers his services to the police.

It is during a funeral that somebody shoots Karen.  Was she shot because she was close to naming the killer?   Author Rebecca Tope presents numerous suspects in this murder mystery with a few surprises at the conclusion.  A good, quick read.

The Parliament House

A newly minted Member of Parliament has just been assassinated in front of Christopher Redmayne and his good friends Julius and Susan Cheever.  The assassin escapes before he could be apprehended.  Redmayne immediately calls upon his friend Constable Jonathan Bale for help.   From what he learns from his brother, Henry, Redmayne is sure that the intended target was actually Cheever.  He is also sure that the assassin will strike again.

While travelling to the funeral of the late Member of Parliament, another attempt is made on Cheever's life.  While Redmayne is with Cheever at the funeral Bale learns that the cause of the attempts may be a seditious pamphlet said to have been written by Cheever.

With a drawing of the killer in hand, Redmayne and Bale set off in search of him, only to find that he is already dead.  Who is the paymaster, then?  With evidence found on the body, Bale has his suspicions, but Redmayne discounts them, for he has his own suspicions.

Author Edward Marston provides a rollicking conclusion to this historical murder mystery.  Full of tension and excitement, it is a good, quick read.

The Drowning

A man has gone missing.  Evidence shows that there is no reason for him to have disappeared.  And now Patrick Hedstrom's wife has presented him with a couple of letters that appear threatening in nature that were mailed to a fellow writer.  The writer was friends with the missing man.  Could there be a connection?

Sometime later a body is discovered under the ice.  It proves to be the missing man.  He didn't drown, but was stabbed several times.  It is no longer a missing person case, but rather a murder investigation.

Meantime a local author has been receiving threatening letters.  Erica, Hedstrom's heavily pregnant wife, has been looking into this situation because she us a friend of the author.  What she doesn't know is that there are three other men who have been receiving similar letters.  The author was a friend of the murdered man.  Is there a connection?

The connection comes to light when the remaining three men are attacked in one way or another.  However, none of them will admit to knowing anything.

Author Camilla Lackberg builds the plot intensely towards the ultimate conclusion, but gives the reader several surprises at the end leaving the reader in a state of shock.  An extremely good read.

Farewell to Russia

A lake in the Soviet Union suddenly has dead fish in it.  The thing is, it is right next to a nuclear plant.  An official has called Pyotr Kirov to inform him of the situation.  The fear is that contamination could leak out of the containment lake and into the Volga.  Kirov takes it to his superior in the KGB, Grishin, who invokes General Order Number One.  The army controls the nuclear plants, and don't seem overly concerned.  They claim that the problem is a concentration of pesticide.  One of the members of the meeting claims that the west has a method of cleaning up spills like this, but it is unavailable to the Soviet Union.

Meantime in England, George Twist has just convinced the company he works for to let him travel to the Soviet Union to work on selling LNG plants.  He also convinces the board to continue investing in Sep Tech, the company that can clean up nuclear spills.

Kirov decides to enlist the aid of Comrade Irina Terekhova, a nuclear scientist, who had attended the General Order No 1 meeting, and seemed to have a dissenting opinion of what had happened at the plant.  The soviets had five months to get things cleaned up before spring arrived, bringing with it melting snows, which would flush the contamination downstream.

Terekhova discovers how the contamination could have occurred.  When she does, she tells Kirov that it could be worse than Chernobyl.  Terekhova travels with Kirov to the plant to investigate the incident.  She is there to help Kirov with the technical questions.  Kirov applies the KGB pressure.

Later, Colonel Pokrebsky, who is in charge of the army's nuclear knowledge, determines that the lake must be drained, despite it containing enough plutonium to kill millions.  The KGB is able to put a stop to that.

Twist is taken to meet the Gas Minister by Kirov.  The possibility of gas plants are offered, but hints are made about the contamination clean up technology Sep Tech has.  Kirov comes to London to put further pressure on Twist.  He is sure that he can get the technology in through Finland.  But can they get it past American trade regulations?

Author Jim Williams has written a thriller set in the dying years of the Soviet Union.  He masterfully crafts the machinations of the KGB and how they controlled so much of soviet life simply with threats and at the same time raw brutality.  The autocratic rule of the Soviet Union relied on police forces such as the KGB within and outside their country.  A good read.

Waterloo

After Napoleon escaped from Elba, the allies, in conference at Vienna, declared war on him, not France.   The duke of Wellington was given the task of defeating Napoleon.  He had to travel to Brussels from Vienna to organise his British-Dutch army, while Blucher was tasked with leading the Prussian army.   The Russians and the Austrians could not get their armies into the field in time to battle the French in time.

Napoleon's plans were to split the allied army, defeating one then the other.  He split his own army in order to do that.  Marshall Ney was sent to Quatre Bras to take on the British, while Napoleon turned to battle Blucher at Ligny.  Napoleon punished Blucher, but did not destroy him.  Blucher retreated northwards toward Wavre, while the battle at Quatre Bras was a relative draw.  However, because of Blucher's move northwards, Wellington retreated too.  He had a place in mind; Mont. St. Jean, just outside of Waterloo.

Mistakes by Ney and Napoleon plus a torrential rainstorm allowed Wellington and his men to escape to Mont St. Jean, a place Wellington had observed as a perfect place for a defensive battle the year before.  Blucher is twelve miles to the east when Napoleon and his army arrive at the site where Wellington awaits.  He is sure that he will defeat the British on the following day, June 18, 1815.

The morning dawns, the fields are wet an Napoleon is told by his officers that the guns would get stuck in the mud, so he decides to wait.  Besides Blucher's army is not going to be able to come to the aid of Wellington, is it.  At about 11:20 a. m., Napoleon decided it had dried enough and commenced the battle with an attack on Chateau Hougoumont, which was on his left.

Napoleon's plan by attacking Hougoumont, was to hopefully draw some of Wellington's reserves from the centre in order to protect his right flank.  That never happened.  Napoleon began his attack on Wellington's centre-left flank at about 1:00 p. m. with an artillery barrage.  Fortunately for Wellington, he kept most of his men on the reverse slope.

At the same time as Napoleon was preparing to advance his troops onto Wellington's position, he became aware that the Prussians were approaching his right flank.  He placed troops on his right to be ready to take the Prussians on, expecting to have defeated Wellington by the time Blucher's army arrived.

The attack is almost successful as the French reach the summit despite a devastating heavy barrage of canister shot from the British.   It is at that time that the British release their heavy cavalry on the French destroying their advance.  Out of control, the cavalry continue on to attack the French guns.  Seeing their opportunity, French lancers attack the now tired British cavalry, killing many who become mired down in the mud.

At about 4:00 p. m., Marshall Ney, from his high vantage point across the valley, seeing the British evacuating their wounded, assumed Wellington was retreating.  He then ordered a cavalry charge, not wanting the British to escape.  Approximately 5 000 cavalry were involved in the charge.  When they crested the ridge they were met by the famous British squares and guns firing case-shot.  The charge was devastating on both sides, but more so to the French.

Late in the day, Napoleon was left with but one option, and that was to send The Old Imperial Guard into the centre of the British line.  In order to do that he would have to take the farm of La Haie Sainte.  The British-Dutch contingent was unable to hold it primarily because they ran out of ammunition.  The French were now able to bring their guns up close to the British-Dutch line.  Ney wanted reinforcements, but Napoleon refused because he was dealing with the Prussians on his right flank.

When Napoleon ordered his last attack, he lied to his troops telling them that the Prussians reinforcing the Allies were actually French troops coming.  The advance began at about 7:30 p. m.  An hour later it was all over.  Wellington had kept men hidden on the reverse slope and they now fired relentlessly into the advancing Guard.  The Guard panicked and fled the field.  France was lost to Napoleon!

Bernard Cornwell's "Waterloo" is an excellent read.  As Wellington stated, "It is hard to describe a battle.", such is true for Waterloo.  Cornwell does it justice through the extensive research he did into the days leading up to the battle and the battle itself.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.