Silent Scream

DI Kim Stone has been called out to a house where the body of a woman has been found drowned in her bathtub.  Since the house was some distance from the nearest neighbours, the killer had set fire to nearby trees to draw attention.  Why do that?

The victim was the principal at a boys’ school, so she and DS Bryant begin interviewing the staff there.  When they go to speak to a professor of archeology who the victim had been in contact with, they find out that he’s been missing for forty-eight hours.  He later shows up, and informs Stone that he had gone into hiding because his dog had been killed, and a note had been stapled to its ear warning him not to go ahead with a dig, and threatening the professor’s wife.

When a second body turns up, the victim in this case had worked at an former girls’ home near where the proposed dig is proposed.  Stone orders a dig to go ahead without authorisation, which could mean her job.  Bones are found in the pit.  An archaeologist informs Stone that the victim in the pit had been decapitated. 

Moments after questioning a elderly drunk, Stone and Bryant have to rush to his aid because he was hit by a car which sped away.  Stone is sure that it was no accident.  They have only one adult left connected to the former girls’ home.  Then it is time to start questioning the girls who had been at the home.

A second body is discovered in the field, and after speaking to one of the girls, Stone is sure that there is a third awaiting discovery.  The archeologist on the site informs Stone that the second body is a girl and she had been pregnant.

Author Angela Marsons leads Stone on a troubled path as she and her team investigate the old deaths and the current ones.  How are they connected?  It will be difficult for Stone to make those connections, and she is in for some surprises along the way.  This was a book I could not put down.  I thoroughly enjoyed the read and look forward to reading the sequels.

Death Wore White

DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine are on the coast outside of King’s Lynn looking for yellow drums of potential hazardous materials when Shaw sees a raft floating in toward the shore.  Something about the way it is bobbing about tells him that there is something in the raft.  When it runs aground he removes his shoes and socks and wades out to it.  Aboard the raft he discovers the body of a man.

While exploring the area, Shaw notices a string of vehicles stranded on the road behind the beach.  Then a blizzard blows through, hampering the CSI unit from getting out to the beach.  Shaw and Valentine go over to check on the vehicles.  He checks to see that the drivers and passengers are okay.  One appears to have had a heart attack, so he gets Valentine to radio for a helicopter.  As he proceeds to the truck at the front of the string, which had been stopped by a fallen tree, he realises that he has a corpse in it.

Who could have killed the man as their are no footprints in the snow?  When the helicopter arrives to take the heart attack victim away, the young man in the last car runs away.  After questioning all of the people in the string of cars, they receive confirmation that the last car, a Ford Mondeo had been stolen.

The following morning Shaw is informed that the tree came down as a result of three blows of an axe.  Not long after, at low tide, another body is found in the sand on the beach.

The heart attack victim having recovered, but still in hospital, informs Shaw and Valentine that there was a young woman with the murder victim.  He provides Shaw with a description of her.  Shaw is able to draw her likeness.

Justina Kazimierz, the pathologist, informs them that the first beach victim died from the bite of a venomous snake.  Is there a snake out there somewhere in a warm container?  By that evening Shaw’s team was starting to find links.  But will it lead to the killer or killers?

Author Jim Kelly’s first mystery in the Shaw and Valentine series is a confusing plot.  Whodunnit, is a question that Shaw seems unable to solve because it would seem that nobody at the scene could have done it.  Could this be the perfect murder?  In the end Shaw is able to unwind the mess and reassemble things so that they make sense. A good mysterious read.

Path of Gods

In Book 3 of the Valhalla Sag, Ulfar and Audun have joined up with Sigurd and Sven from Stenvik, who are on their way to join Forkbeard’s army to the north so that they can do battle with King Olav.  On the way they join Jolawer Scot and Alfgeir who are on the same mission.

To the north, at Trondheim, King Olav is gathering an army, too.  But can he really trust those who have come to join him?

Further north, Valgard is preparing to cause trouble for everyone.  He felt his power growing as he neared Trondheim.  He has Loki at his back.  When Valgard gets to Trondheim with his trolls and wreaks death and destruction, King Olav refuses the help of Odin, who then leaves.  Olav is forced to sail away with only sixty men.

Hearing that Olav is going south, Forkbeard and his crew also turn south, while Sven, Sigurd, Ulfar and Audun continue north.

Author Snorri Kristjansson has a major battle awaiting Ulfar and Audun, but who will win?  Only the gods know for sure. 

I’m not really a fan of fantasy, but this Valhalla Saga was a fun read.  A good read for fans of fantasy.

False God of Rome

Jerusalem, 33 A. D., where a man by the name of Yeshua has been condemned by Pontius Pilate to be crucified for claiming to be a king of the Jews, however he states that he has never said that, rather others have.  Questor Sabinus is warmed that it is the dawning of a new age.

A year later Vespasian is in Cyrenaica hoping to be able to travel to Egypt, but Emperor Tiberius forbids it.  Vespasian’s mind is taken from that task when he meets Flavia Domitilla.  Vespasian is determined to make her his wife.  She demands that he take men into the desert to bring back her man.  He agrees to do so, but it will not be an easy task.

Having successfully released many captured people, Vespasian is thanked especially by one Yosef, who was related to the man crucified in Jerusalem.  Yosef will be vital in putting down a riot in Cyrene when they get back.

Back in Rome, Vespasian has to carefully consider his next move.  Does he trust Antonia or the senate with the information he has gleaned on his expedition?  His only option is Antonia, and from her he learns of a conspiracy to wrest power from the emperor.  What can they do to halt the conspiracy?

Despite unscrupulous means, Vespasian comes out the conspiracy mess unscathed.  Two years on and Tiberius has died.  Caligula claims the throne.  Since Vespasian was a good friend of Caligula, Caligula expects his friend to be with him.  What will it mean for Vespasian?

Caligula spends profligately, quickly depleting the treasury.  However, the people and his army are happy with their newfound funds, so they aren’t bothered by his sexual depravity.  As time goes by, Caligula’s madness deepens; no one is safe from his whims.

What can be done with an emperor out of control? Assassination would mean immediate death for the assassin.  Author Robert Fabbri has written an intriguing historical fiction tale about Rome at the time of one of its worst emperors, showing the machinations of those in power and those ambitious for power.  A thoroughly enjoyable read, making the reader wonder what will come next, but I will have to wait until I have the next book in the series.

The Flesh Tailor

DI Wesley Peterson and his wife are at his sister and brother-in-law's for a dinner party, at which one of the guests hasn’t shown up. When he receives a call to attend a crime scene, Peterson is relieved to get away.  However, when he arrives at the scene, DCI Gerry Heffernan informs him of the victim’s name and Peterson understands why the dinner guest hadn’t shown up - he had been shot in the head.

The following day while interviewing a woman who was close to the victim, Peterson received a call about two skeletons being dug up while a local businessman was having a services trench excavated.  Dr. Neil Watson is called in to do an archaeological survey of the area.  He is also interested in the nearby Tudor house.  He asks the owners if he can look more closely at it.  He discovers a mysterious room up in the attic that gives him the creeps.

Two neighbours to the shooting victim suddenly disappear and Watson has discovered another skeleton near the first two.  What is going on, and what went on?  When Dr. Watson discovers a fifth body, everyone is shocked to find out that it was a male child, and the death was more recent.  This now makes it into the realm of a modern murder and therefore a case for Heffernan and Peterson to follow up on.

Author Kate Ellis’ latest murder mystery has several twists, which tie the old murder to the current death in a surprising way.  It also closes with an enigmatic thought.  All-in-all, a very good read, which was hard to put down.

The Girl in the Ice

DCI Erika Foster has just arrived at Lewisham Row Police Station in London and is immediately plunged into the investigation of a missing young woman whose body has just been found in a small lake frozen in the ice.  Foster is going to be taking the lead on the investigation.

After the parents have been informed by Foster and the two detectives working with her of their daughter’s death they demand DCI Sparks be put back in charge of the investigation.  Because they are wealthy, they seem to feel they have that kind of power.  However her Superintendent Marsh stands behind her.

Sparks presents circumstantial evidence, which Superintendent Marsh prefers to go with rather than the evidence that Foster has gathered, which upsets her.  Sparks’ suspect is quickly eliminated by the team, Foster highjacks the press conference, which upsets both Sparks and Marsh.  Then one of her witnesses is found in another pond.  The witness is a well known prostitute.

At the scene, shortly after her arrival, Sparks arrives and claims to now be the SIO.  Foster is then called onto the carpet, and then officially suspended pending a psychological assessment.

Frustrated, Foster approaches the pathologist, Issac Strong.  He informs her that he has come up with three cases in the past in which prostitutes were killed in the same manner as her two victims.  Foster’s former team members start feeding her information.  They don’t agree with Sparks’ theories.

While at the funeral for the witness, Foster gets a potential lead.  That night, she is attacked in her own flat.  Has the killer found her?  Will Foster be the next victim?

Author Robert Bryndza’s first novel in this series is well written, exciting and will leave the reader on the edge of their seat.  Hints of the perpetrator are given, but nothing is revealed until the final pages, and therein lies a surprise.  An excellent read, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequels.

The Devil's Breath

The weather has been hot and dry in England for some time.  Dr. Thomas Silkstone has also noticed that things do not seem to be as they should.  He asks the gardener at Boughton Hall if he’s noticed anything.  Amos Kidd says that the butterflies and bees seem to be missing from the garden.  He also mentions to Silkstone that a mysterious cloud had covered the land to the north somewhere and people were choking and coughing because of it.  It was apparently known as the devil’s breath.

At the same time, Lady Lydia Farrell of Boughton Hall has enlisted the help of Silkstone to find her son, who was born out of wedlock.  Lydia’s deceased husband had placed the child with a wet nurse, but after payments for his upkeep stopped, she placed him in a workhouse.  At the workhouse they find out that someone else may have the boy.

Returning to Boughton Hall, they find it enclosed in a toxic fog, which makes it hard to breathe.  There are strange greyish snowflakes on the ground and the temperature has dropped.  After doing some tests on the material in the fog, he confirms his fear that it is acid rain.  It begins to take the lives of those caught out in it.

Lady Thornton asks Silkstone to attend her.  He goes, assuming that she also has been caught out in the fog.  Unfortunately, she forces him into a compromising situation.

Afterwards Lydia’s search for her son takes her to London.  Every place they go they seem to behind someone else who is also searching for her son.

Author Tessa Harris’ novel includes a phenomenon, which was the result of a volcanic eruption in Iceland, which works well with the machinations of the rich and powerful.  We are shown the underbelly of London at the time, contrasted with the benefits of being wealthy.  A thoroughly enjoyable read, and hard to put down.