The Red Hill

Thomas Berrington is a surgeon employed by Sultan Abu al-Hassan Ali in Gharnatah, Spain.  The sultan wants Thomas to investigate a number of attacks and deaths which have occurred in the harem.  A couple of serving girls have been killed.  The sultan wants the killer found before he kills someone more important.

Jorge, a eunuch in the Sultan’s palace, informs Thomas that the murders had been investigated by the Vizier’s clerks.  However, he is sure that it was simply to cover things up.  It would not be good to have it known that there had been killings in the palace.

While beginning the investigation, they hear screaming.  Both run to its source.  They find the sultan’s pregnant wife Safya with her arm severed.  She is dying, so Thomas immediately begins a Caesarian to save the baby.  While doing that, guards and the sultan arrive.  Thomas is arrested.  Will he, Jorge and the two girls who were with Safya at the time be beheaded?

Fortunately, the sultan still wants Thomas to continue his investigation.  Upon reaching the room where the deadly incident had occurred, he and Jorge find that it has been cleansed.  No evidence of the killer can be found.  Jorge lists who could have entered the room without anyone noticing.  While examining the body of the servant girl, Thomas discovers that the killer had grasped her with his left hand and it is missing two fingers.

As Thomas and Jorge close in on their target, they endanger themselves.  Thomas is attacked and injured.  The vizier wants to send him away, but Thomas refuses.  As a result he is cast out of the palace.  

With no where to turn, will Thomas and Jorge continue their search for the killer or will they become the hunted?  Author David Penny’s first in this series has danger awaiting the pair and those close to them.  How many more will die as their quest progresses?  Penny has written an excellent historical thriller, full of deceit, treachery and a complete plot twist at the end.   I found this story hard to put down.  I look forward to reading the sequels.

Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner

Tom Wasp, a chimney sweep, was on his way to work early, when mudlarks informed him of a body in the mud of the Thames.  He sent his assistant, Ned, to get the police while he walked into the mud to see.  It was the body of his friend, Bessie Barton.

Tom had met Bessie when he was at a house cleaning chimneys.  The master of the house was an artist who painted people.  When Tom went to look at the chimney in his room he discovered Bessie posing for the artist.  Mr. Drake, the artist, decides that he wants Tom included in the picture he is painting of Bessie.  As they sit for Drake, Tom gets to know Bessie.

The police inform Tom that Bessie had been strangled before being tossed in the river.  Tom vows to find out who killed her.  In Covent Gardens, Tom learns that Bessie was known there as Lizzie Watkins.  The cabbage seller is sure that she was running away from someone called Moonman.

The day after the funeral the police arrest Drake.  He asks Tom to find the killer.  Like a spider, Tom begins to spin some webs in the hopes of gathering information.  He learns of a sister, and from that sister he learns of a boy.  What has happened to him?  When Tom discovers where they had lived, he learns that the Moonman has taken the lad.

Mudgwick, Drake’s lawyer hires Tom to investigate further, paying his expenses for so doing.  Tom’s sources find Bessie’s brother for him, and from him, he learns more about Bessie.  But, that doesn’t bring him any closer to the killer.  Will more women die before Tom can find the killer?

Author Amy Myers’ novel is a good historical thriller, the first in a trilogy.  Myers shows the dirty underside of Victorian London while presenting an unusual and determined detective.  Be prepared for some surprises.  A good, quick read.

Alexander’s Legacy - To the Strongest

Babylon, the summer of 323 BC.  Alexander is dying.  Who will the greatest conquerer of all name as his successor?  Unfortunately, he dies without naming anyone.  There are six possible bodyguards of Alexander who could be named his successor.  How will he be chosen?  And what of his unborn child currently being carried by Roxanna?

Roxanna reaches out to the most prominent of the guards - Perdikkas.  He quickly points out to her that he doesn’t regard her as his queen.  She offers him the regency of the child.  She also wants Alexander’s two other wives dead.

Ptolemy suggests that the army be governed by a group of four.  Would that work?  He also suggests that the army choose the four.  Peithon declares that Macedon must have a king, which has agreement.  They also agree that they will wait for the birth of Roxanna’s child, and that Perdikkas will be the regent for fourteen years.  It is a compromise, but will the infantry and cavalry agree to it?

The infantry doesn’t and immediately declares Arrhidaeus king!  Can Meleagros get them to change their minds?  Meleagros takes advantage of the situation, and crowns a new Philip, the third of that name.  As Eumenes realises, Meleagros is in reality setting himself up as regent because the new king is a half-wit.

The council of four is made up of Perdikkas, Leonnatus, both in Babylon, Antipatros in Macedon and Krateros in Cilicia.  Will they work together or start to pull Alexander’s empire apart?  The empire is slowly divided.  Ptolemy will get Egypt.  Perdikkas will stay in Babylon to oversee Asia.  On the other hand, Meleagros is executed.

And so, the scheming, treachery and counter- treachery begins.  What is to become of the body of Alexander in its expensive catafalque?  Each leader is now for himself and war is on the horizon.

Author Robert Fabbri goes on to detail the ensuing battles for control of Alexander’s body and his empire.  Lots of blood is spilled as his empire is broken apart.  Fabbri based the novel on actual people and events.  A thoroughly enjoyable read for fans of historical fiction.

Murder in the Holy City

A hot day in July 1100 in Jerusalem; Sir Geoffrey Mappestone and his group of soldiers have come upon some people confronting a young woman who has a bloody knife in her hand.  She tells him that there is a dead soldier in her house.  When he sees the dead man, Geoffrey realises that he knows him.  Is the woman the killer? He takes the body and the woman to the Advocate.  Is the killing connected to one that had occurred earlier?

That same evening, a priest is killed by an unknown person, but they used the same kind of knife as had killed the victim that the woman had found in her home.  Geoffrey is called to the Patriarch’s palace by the Advocate.  There Geoffrey meets his liege lord, Tancred, who asks him to continue learning Arabic and to look into the murder of three priests and two knights; all killed in the same manner.  When Geoffrey gets back to his little room in the citadel he is shocked to find a heart pinned to the wall by a jewelled dagger!

The following morning Geoffrey is approached by a monk named Courrances, to investigate the murders on behalf of the Advocate.  Geoffrey agrees because it gives him a bit of an advantage.  His friend, Roger, offers to help, while his other friend, Hugh, is wary.  And so, Geoffrey begins his investigation.  

The investigation takes a turn when another monk is killed.  This time he was strangled.  Is someone trying to scare the Crusaders out of Jerusalem?  In this case, the monk was the scribe for the Patriarch.  This man now asks Geoffrey to investigate the murders on his behalf.  Geoffrey is now working for three of the most important men in Jerusalem, who just may be at odds with one another.  Roger, who had accompanied him, is now in the pay of his lord, Bohemond and the Patriarch.  This puts another powerful man into the mix.

Who can Geoffrey trust?  Is his friend, Roger, trustworthy?  Knights from different jurisdictions are definitely not.  How can he solve the cases if he can’t trust anyone?

Author Simon Beaufort’s first in this historical series has conceived a thriller based on fact.  Conspiracy, ambition and treachery were foremost amongst the issues facing the Crusaders, not just the Saracens.  An enjoyable read full of action, and hard to put down.

The Skeleton Man

Reporter Philip Dryden is participating in a live fire exercise with the Territorial Army.  Their objective is the abandoned town of Jude’s Ferry.  Unfortunately, the artillery was off and hit some targets that they weren’t supposed to.  The action is called off, and the troops advance into the town to put out fires and assess damage.  Inside one cellar they discover a body hanging from a hook.

The major that Dryden is with is sure that the body is a woman because at the time of the evacuation an older woman had gone missing.  When Dryden looks at the army maps, he notices that there is no cellar indicated in the pub where the body had been found.

Dryden begins an investigation into the missing woman.  He learns a lot about her from her daughter.  Two days later, a fisherman discovers two severed fingers in his net.  Who do they belong to, and could the person still be alive?  As Dryden is working on that story, news comes in that the skeleton was a man.  They have also found the man to whom the fingers belong, and he is still alive.

Deciding to focus on the skeleton man, Dryden goes to the army to check their records of the removal of the people from Jude’s Ferry.  He creates a list of eight men who could possibly be the victim.

The following day Dryden receives a phone message from a group threatening a local farm where guinea pigs and rats are raised for academic studies.  When he speaks to the owner, he doesn’t seem overly concerned, plus the police are aware.

Shortly after this, he meets with DI Peter Shaw, who is in charge of the case.  Shaw presents Dryden with details of another incident, which is shocking.  It is related to an animal rights group.  Dryden understands now why the police want him to sit on the story.  But, are all the incidents tied together?

Dryden feels that they are, however will his quest for the answers lead him to the solution or will DI Peter Shaw solve the cases first?  Author Jim Kelly has a very convoluted storyline in this mystery which will leave the reader wondering where they are being led.  A good, enjoyable read.

The Thursday Murder Club

PC Donna De Freitas has just given a talk to a group of pensioners.  Four of them invite her to lunch with them afterwards.  There they inform her that they are the Thursday Murder Club.  The four members of the club are:  Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim.

The Thursday Murder Club has taken on cold case files smuggled out to them by a retired police officer.  Not that they ever solved any of them.  Now, they have a real case on their hands.  One of the developers of their retirement village has been killed by blunt force to the head.  They decide to help the police with their investigation.

Elizabeth and Joyce approach PC De Freitas.  Unfortunately, she isn’t part of the investigating team.  However, Ron and Ibrahim are in the process of convincing DCI Chris Hudson to add her to the team.

Elizabeth has her connections and gathers the financial records of the business partner of the victim.  She and Joyce travel to London to visit Joyce’s daughter Joanna, who just happens to be a financial expert.   They learned that the business partner mad £12 million upon the death of the victim. 

But, then suddenly the business partner is dead.  What is going on?  And are all the residents of the pensioner village suspects?  Because they were all nearby at the time he collapsed from a fentanyl overdose.  The Thursday Murder Club has a list of thirty suspects.

On top of these two cases, the Thursday Murder Club has another body on their hands.  A set of bones has been found in a grave, however what is unusual about the bones is that they are on top of a very old coffin.  Are the bones associated with the death of the two men?

Can a set of amateur sleuths, well into their seventies and eighties solve these mysteries or will the police do all the work?  Author Richard Osman has written a charming murder mystery, which was complex, and had some surprises.  A thoroughly enjoyable read and hard to put down.

At the Going Down of the Sun

It is the summer of 1914 and Rex Sheridan is the first of the three brothers home to Tarrant Hall.  Rex had ambitions in aviation, but his father had sent him to university to get a degree. Roland, the eldest, arrived the following day.  He was studying to become a surgeon.  Two days later the youngest brother, Chris, came home, despite having told everyone he was headed to Greece.  He has plans of attending Cambridge in the fall.

A few days later, they received a telegram that their father had committed suicide.  Roland was now head of the family.  It was the same day that Archduke Ferdinand was killed by a Serbian student.

The death of their father brings reality to the three boys.  Roland as head of the family decides to give up his studies, while he and Rex decide that Chris must go on to university.  However, those plans are kiboshed when it is revealed that Chris has made Marion, the daughter of the local doctor, pregnant.  They are to get married as a result.

On the day of the wedding, Rex shows up in uniform.  He has joined the R. F. C.  It wasn’t until February 1915 that Rex would make it to France.  He soon learned of the dangers of flying and the loss of friends in battle.

To get away from a wife and child he didn’t want, Chris tries to join the army.  However, his poor eyesight excludes him.  He learns the eye chart by memory and goes to a different recruiting station and manages to get in.  However, his poor eyesight lands him in trouble.  Fortunately, that leads him to a promotion and an attachment to the Intelligence Corps.  He only tells Rex where he is.

Roland continues to run Tarrant Hall, growing food to help with the war effort.  Despite that, and offering part of the hall for recuperating officers, the locals began to shun him.  He also began to receive white feathers in the mail, a sign of cowardice.

Due to Chris’ intelligent capabilities, he is shipped out to Gallipoli.  What happens to him there influences Roland to join the army in the medical services.

What follows in Elizabeth Darrell’s novel is a moving tale of a family, community and world caught up in a gruesome, brutal war.  Each man experienced the war in a different way, and it affected those around him to a great deal.  Darrell is very descriptive in writing about their experiences through the Great War.  This is the first in a trilogy.  A good, long read.