Murder in Clichy

Linh, a Vietnamese nun has asked Aimee Leduc to contact a man on her behalf.  Aimee’s partner Rene readily agrees to her request.  Just as she is handing an envelope to a man in exchange for a backpack the sound of a motorcycle and gunshots ring out.  The man collapses into her arms as she falls down.  She manages to get away, although wounded in her arm.

Inside the backpack, Aimee discovers eleven  small jade statues of the oriental zodiac.  The one that’s missing is the dragon.  Rene tells her to get them to the Vietnamese temple the following day.  She may still be a target of the shooter.  Just as she arrived home she was accosted by members of the RG, and after searching her bag she was warned to turn the jade over to them.  Linh tells her that the jade needs to be returned to Vietnam.  She also gives Aimee a name of a soldier who had been in Vietnam when the jade disappeared.

Then Aimee receives a phone call threatening to send her parts of Rene if she doesn’t turn over the jade in forty-eight hours.  How was she going to get him released?

A client wants Aimee to tap into competing offers connected to oil developments in Vietnam.  Could this, in anyway be connected to the jade?

Once again author Cara Black has Aimee Leduc involved in a fast paced thriller.  How she manages to stay out of serious trouble will keep the reader on the edge of their seat.  A good, quick read.

After the Exhibition

Betty Wingate has come up to London to speak to Inspector Bill Rackham.  He decides to share her unusual story with his friend Jack Haldean.  Betty had seen a light in a house that was supposed to be empty.  She went inside to see if the owner had returned, however much to her dismay she discovered the owner dead!  When the police checked nothing was found.  Betty is sure that something is wrong.

From what Betty tells them, Rackham and Haldean are convinced that she was chloroformed.  Although Scotland Yard can’t investigate without an official request, Haldean can act on his own.  Evidence is found at the home that seems to point towards murder.  On the verge of arresting a suspect, the supposed victim walks into the room.

So, who was the missing victim?  Rackham and Haldean will have to take a different look at the case.  Then, the suspect that Rackham was going to arrest is killed.  He has a real conundrum on his hands.

Author Dolores Gordon-Smith has Rackham and Haldean going up a number of paths only to find a dead end before back tracking.  However, an artist’s sketch sets Haldean on the right track.  Another good, quick read.

The Dead Shall Not Rest

Lady Lydia Farrell has summoned Dr. Thomas Silkstone to her estate at Boughton near Oxford.  She wants him to exam an Irish man, who stands eight feet tall.  Charles Byrne is the man in question and Silkstone is sure that his health is waning.  Along with Count Josef Boruwlaski, she has freed Byrne from the freak show he worked in.

When Silkstone listens to Byrne’s lungs, he is sure that he suffers from tuberculosis.  It is Count Boruwlaski’s intent to show Byrne to the aristocracy for a substantial fee, which will then be used towards getting a royal pardon for Byrne’s father who had been falsely hung for the death of a woman in Ireland.

Meanwhile the renowned Dr. John Hunter also has his eyes on Charles Byrne, but for different reasons.  It is the former that orders a couple of his lackeys to beat up the latter.

Knowing that he is dying, and not wanting to be cut up, Byrne asks that his body be laid to rest at sea.  Boruwlaski and Silkstone agree to arrange that.

Author Tessa Harris’ second historical novel in this series is partially based on what happened to Charles Byrne and Dr. John Hunter.  It is full of plot twists and surprises. A very enjoyable read.

Murder in the Bastille

Aimee Leduc has been attacked in a side street in Paris.  Fortunately, he partner, Rene Friant had been on the phone with her at the time.  Unfortunately, the attack resulted in her needing brain surgery to repair a ruptured vein.  It also means that she has lost her vision!

Sergeant Loic Bellan has been assigned to Aimee’s case.  He has his own issues, which he is dealing with.

Aimee hears on the news that there had been a murder nearby to where she had been attacked.  The news accuses “The Beast of Bastille”.  She gets in touch with her godfather, Commissaire Morbier because she is sure that she wasn’t attacked by the Beast.  She feels that it was a case of mistaken identity.

While Aimee is in the hospital, Rene begins to investigate.  He learns that thugs are forcing people out of their apartments so that a company can come in and build anew. What Aimee and Rene are about to discover is a lot more than they expected to find.

Author Cara Black’s fourth novel in this series presents a unique way to solve a problem.  Although blind, Aimee’s mind is not dulled, and Rene adds his unique perspective to solving the mysteries.  A good quick read.

The Anatomist’s Apprentice

Lady Lydia Farrell has come to see Dr Thomas Silkstone regarding a very delicate matter.  He is a well known anatomist, and she wants him to exam her recently deceased brother to determine whether he was poisoned.  Rumour has it that he was poisoned by her husband so that he could gain her brother’s inheritance.

Silkstone must travel to Oxford to examine the body, which has been dead for a week now.  After presenting his credentials to the coroner, Silkstone is given the opportunity to  perform an examination of the body.  It is badly decomposed, but he is able to remove a few intact organs for further study.  He returns to London to do that.

The evening of his return to London Silkstone receives a letter telling him to stay away from Oxford.  The following morning, Lady Farrell’s cousin, Francis Crick, brings Silkstone a vial containing cyanide.  Could this be what killed the young man?  Working together, they eliminate it.  So what killed him?  The evening he returns to Oxford he is badly beaten.  Someone doesn’t want him giving his report to the coroner’s inquest!  Fortunately, he survived and was able to tell the inquest that the victim didn’t die as a result of cyanide poisoning.  However, he was sure that the victim was poisoned somehow, but he had yet to discover by what.

The brother-in-law is the prime suspect, and when he apparently takes his own life in jail, Silkstone is sure that he didn’t.  How will he be able to prove it when the deceased’s lawyer is preventing him from accessing the body or the widow?

Author Tessa Harris’ first novel in this series is intriguing and mind gripping.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the sequels.

Blood From a Stone

Dr. Mountford is making a regular visit to a patient when he is met at the door by a dishevelled housekeeper.  The mistress of the house isn’t answering the door of her room.  Mountford has to break the door open.  Inside the woman is found sitting in her chair, quite deceased.  It appears that she had taken a full bottle of a sleeping draught.  Accident, suicide or murder?

After the police begin their investigation, they find a will dated only three weeks earlier leaving everything to the deceased’s nephew, who disappeared the same night she died.  Dr. Mountford swears that the will is a forgery because both witnesses to it have been dead for some time.  Also, the brandy decanter contained evidence of a sleeping draught.  A warrant is issued for the nephew.

A couple of months later, a man is found murdered in a compartment on a train to London.  At his feet is a sapphire necklace.  Inspector Bill Rackham meets the train as it gets into London.  He is accompanied by Arthur Stanton, husband of the Isabelle who was in on the discovery of the body.  She is cousin to Jack Haldean, who also awaits the train.  Isabelle suggests that the jewels could be connected to the aforementioned murder, which was near the place where she and the victim had gotten on the train.

When Rackham and Haldean examine the body, they discover a French trench knife in the ribs, which would have gone directly into the heart.  Gloves with blood on them are found in the compartment of the train coach.  They have a potential identity for the victim; a man known as The Vicar, who was a well known thief prior to the war.  Could he have been bumped off by an accomplice?

Later, Isabelle is pushed into oncoming traffic in London.  The same thing happens to her co-witness.  Fortunately, both survive.  Who wants them dead?

Author Dolores Gordon-Smith has a real conundrum ahead for Haldean to solve.  Who can he trust beyond his cousin Isabelle, Rackham and Inspector Ashley?  People are not who they seem to be.  The reader will have a real tough time trying to solve this mystery ahead of Haldean.  A good, quick read.

Murder in the Sentier

Aimee Leduc has just received an enigmatic phone call from a woman who claims that she knew Aimee’s mother.  Aimee questions how the woman knew her mother.  The response is as a cell mate.  Moments later the woman is at her door.  When invited in, she informs Aimee that her mother served time as a terrorist!

The woman demands fifty thousand francs for an address book and further information. Aimee has to borrow the funds from a friend.  Upon arriving at the place where they had agreed to meet, Aimee finds the woman shot through the head.  She calls for emergency services and then runs.

In search of answers, Aimee turns to another man, only to find out that he had committed suicide.  She then speaks to his son, who hires her to find out who is stalking him.  When returning to his apartment one evening she discovers it in flames.  She is knocked over the head while escaping the blaze.

Will Aimee ever find any answers about her mother?  She does learn more about her father as her investigation progresses, however.  But author Cara Black has lots of terrifying action ahead as Aimee’s investigation leads her into the past and the actions of terrorists as they try to recover money and more hidden in a secret place.  A good, quick read.