Crime Fiction – Page 22

The Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor

Published on March 17, 2023 by Margaret8 Comments

London 1671
The damage caused by the Great Fire still overshadows the capital. When a man’s brutally disfigured body is discovered in the ruins of an ancient almshouse, architect Cat Hakesby is ordered to stop restoration work. It is obvious he has been murdered, and Whitehall secretary James Marwood is ordered to investigate.

It’s possible the victim could be one of two local men who have vanished – the first, a feckless French tutor connected to the almshouse’s owner;
the second, a possibly treacherous employee of the Council of Foreign Plantations.

The pressure on Marwood mounts as Charles II’s most influential courtiers, Lord Arlington and the Duke of Buckingham, show an interest in his activities – and Marwood soon begins to suspect the murder trail may lead right to the heart of government.

Meanwhile, a young, impoverished Frenchwoman has caught the eye of the king, a quiet affair that will have monumental consequences…

My thoughts

The Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor is historical crime fiction, the 6th book in his James Marwood and Cat Lovett Restoration series. I’ve read all of the previous books, set in 17th century England, during the reign of Charles II, and thoroughly enjoyed each one So I was delighted to find that this one is just as good, maybe even better. Although it does work as a stand-alone book I do think it’s best to read them in sequence to get the full background of the Restoration period and the relationship between James Marwood and Cat Hakesbury (formerly Lovett).

At the beginning of the book there is a list of the main characters, which I find very useful. It includes where they live and their professions and relationships with each other, including the real historical characters. There is also a Historical Note at the end of the book in which Taylor explains that the origins of the novel had germinated over a number of years following the Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein cases, whilst the catalyst came when he read Dr Linda Porter’s Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II. In one chapter Dr Porter focuses on the career of Louise de Keroualle, who became Charles II’s chief mistress during the second half of his reign. In The Shadows of London the story of Louise’s seduction with its political implications, based on fact, is interwoven with the mystery of the murder of the man found dead, brutally killed, in the grounds of a ruined almshouse that Cat’s workman were restoring.

The murder mystery is complicated first of all because the victim had no face, and nothing by which he could be identified. Both the characters and the settings are well described and the mixture of fact and fiction works well. It is fast paced, full of action and intrigue. The narrative is told from both Cat’s and James’s viewpoints switching from one to the other throughout the book. Their relationship continues to develop as they work together to find the culprit and it reaches a turning point in this book. I hope that there will be a 7th book as I really want to know what happens next …

One of the things that I really enjoyed in this book is the picture it paints of John Evelyn, the writer and diarist, bibliophile and horticulturalist. He was a contemporary of Samuel Pepys. His diary covers the years from 1640 to 1706 when he died. And now I want to find out more about him.

Andrew Taylor is a bestselling crime and historical novelist, and the winner of the Diamond Dagger of the Crime Writers Association, the Gold Crown of the Historical Writers Association and many other awards. He’s written nearly fifty books, listed here, three of which have been televised. I’d leave to see the Marwood and Lovett series adapted for television!

My thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for my review copy.

The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter

Published on March 11, 2023 by Margaret4 Comments

Description

The gripping No. 1 Sunday Times crime thriller She runs

A woman runs alone in the woods. She convinces herself she’s safe. He watches

But a predator is watching from the shadows. Waiting for the perfect moment to attack.He waits

They thought they caught him. But another victim has just been found.

The hunt has only just begun. And the killer is ready to strike again…

I hadn’t read any of Karin Slaughter’s books, but I thought I’d try this one when I saw it on NetGalley, as I know they are very popular. But for a number of reasons I did not enjoy The Silent Wife at all! First of all I hadn’t realised this was part of a series until I started reading it, but once I did I hoped it would read well as a standalone – but it doesn’t. Then it’s a serial killer story and I’m never keen on that.

But the main reason is that it is very graphic, very dark, extremely disturbing with rapes and murders described in great detail, and just far too gruesome for me. I was really struggling to make myself read it – so I gave up and didn’t finish it!

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy, anyway.

Book Beginnings & The Friday 56: The Summer That Never Was by Peter Robinson

Published on March 3, 2023 by Margaret6 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

One of the books I’m currently reading is The Summer That Never Was by Peter Robinson, the 13th Inspector Banks book, following on from Aftermath. I am really enjoying it, so far, which is a relief as I really disliked Aftermath.

My Book Beginning:

Trevor Dickinson was hung over and bad-tempered when he turned up for work on Monday morning

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Page 56:

‘Did he have many friends?’

‘He made quite a few around here,’ Joan answered. She looked at her mother. ‘Who was there Mum?’

‘Let me remember. There was the Banks lad, of course, they were very close, and David Grenfell and Paul Major. And Steven Hill.’

Blurb

A skeleton has been unearthed. Soon the body is identified, and the horrific discovery hits the headlines.

Fourteen-year-old Graham Marshall went missing during his paper round in 1965. The police found no trace of him. His disappearance left his family shattered, and his best friend, Alan Banks, full of guilt.

That friend has now become Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, and he is determined to bring justice for Graham. But he soon realizes that in this case, the boundary between victim and perpetrator, between law-guardian and law-breaker, is becoming more and more blurred.

What do you think, does it appeal to you? What are you currently reading?

Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry

Published on March 2, 2023 by Margaret11 Comments

Synopsis:

Have you ever been the custodian of a story no one else believed?’
‘Oh yes,’ he said.
‘You have?’
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘Then I can tell you.’

Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children.

But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past.

A beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God’s Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.

My thoughts:

I’ve enjoyed all Sebastian Barry’s books and Old God’s Time is no exception. It’s set in Dalkey, a small coastal town south of Dublin, where Tom, a recently retired policeman is living in a tiny flat annexed to a Victorian castle. One afternoon he was sitting in a sun-faded wicker chair, enjoying a cigarillo, listening to the sound of the sea below. He was quite content to just gaze out, watching the cormorants on the rocks to the left of Dalkey Island, when two of his former colleagues disturbed his peaceful afternoon, asking for his help on a cold case he had worked on. He doesn’t want to, knowing it will open up painful memories he would rather forget.

So this appears to be a detective story, but the main focus is Tom, himself as the narrative reveals in streams of consciousness. It soon becomes clear that his memories are unreliable and for a while I was confused, not knowing what was going on, whether Tom was remembering, or imagining what had happened in his life. It is beautifully written, showing the beauties of the landscape. It takes us right inside Tom’s mind, highlighting the horrors that Tom had experienced both in his childhood and family life as well as in his professional life. The past had not been kind to him. But now it was as though enough time had gone by and it was as if it had never happened; it had receded away into ‘old God’s time’, and Tom didn’t want to reach back into those memories. They were locked away, preserved in the long-ago.

It is a tragic story, not shying away from describing the horrific details of child abuse, nor the despair and sadness as the details of Tom’s family life are gradually revealed. It is a harrowing book, made even more so as I had to read it slowly making sure I fully understood what I was reading, even going back to re-read some passages. It is bleak, but Tom’s story is also one of love and immeasurable happiness, of strength and goodness, alongside grief and pain.

WWW Wednesday: 15 February 2023

Published on February 15, 2023 by Margaret6 Comments

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently I’m reading three books:

The Children’s Book by A S Byatt. This is one of my oldest TBRs, a book I’ve owned since 2009. I did start reading it as soon as I got (it was a birthday present) but I didn’t get very far! It’s a big book with 624 pages and at the time I was in the middle of reading Wolf Hall and I couldn’t cope with to such long and complicated books, so I temporarily put down The Children’s Book to read later – then other books got in the way. It begins in 1895 in the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) and ends with the end of the Great War. There are lots of characters and it’s about children, about books, about art, about the writing of children’s books, about the telling of children’s stories, and about the clash between life and art. It’s detailed and richly descriptive full of fascinating facts. I’ve only the first three chapters so far and I’m loving it.

I’m also reading The City of Tears by Kate Mosse, one of my NetGalley books that I ‘should’ have read long before now. It’s another long book, the second in The Burning Chambers trilogy. I’ve read the first book, which began slowly and developed into a fast moving story with a dramatic climax. There’s a huge cast of characters and it continues the story of Minuo Reydon-Joubert and Piet Reydon during the Catholic and Huguenot conflicts in the sixteenth century. It looks to be just as good as The Burning Chambers (my review).

The other book I’m reading is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I usually avoid hyped books, but this one interested me. It’s about Elizabeth Zott, who is described as ‘not your average woman’. I had a look at the sample and liked the beginning so I borrowed it from the library. It’s also described as ‘laugh-out-loud funny’, but I’m not finding that at all and I’ve read 13 chapters so far. In fact I’m finding it a bit irritating.

The last book I read is A Death in Tuscany by Michele Giuttari. Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, head of Florence’s elite Squadra Mobile, is investigating the death of a young girl, whose body was found in the picturesque Tuscan hill town of Scandicci, lying by the edge of the woods.When he delves deeper he believes the girl was murdered, And then his close friend Massimo Verga is accused of murder and has disappeared, so Ferrara is desperate to find him, and it appears both the Freemasons and the Mafia are involved.

Next I’ll be reading – It’ll be a while before I’ve finished the books I’m currently reading so it’s too soon to decide what I’ll read next.

Although this is a weekly meme I’m only taking part occasionally.

Underworld by Reginald Hill

Published on February 12, 2023 by Margaret1 Comment

Deadheads is the 10th Dalziel and Pascoe novel first published in 1988, set in the small mining town of Burrthorpe (a fictional town) in Yorkshire. The setting is excellent and Hill paints a compelling account of the mining community and gives a convincing insight into the period a few years after the Miners’ Strike of 1984. The majority of the book is about the miners, their families, their hatred of the bosses, and their distrust and dislike of the police.

There are two mysteries facing Dalziel and Pascoe. One is current and the other is a case that had appeared to have been resolved several years earlier, when Tracy Pedley, a young girl disappeared. Her body was never discovered and some of the residents believed that Billy Farr, who was the last person to see her alive, was responsible for her death. But then Donald Pickford committed suicide leaving a letter confessing to killing several young girls in the area and although he hadn’t mentioned Tracy by name, she was counted as a probable victim. Even so, some people still thought Billy was guilty and their suspicions were confirmed when later on it appeared that he committed suicide when he fell to his death in an abandoned mineshaft.

Matters are brought to boiling point when the local newspaper serialises the memoirs of ex-Deputy Chief Constable Neville Whatmough, who had been in charge of the Pickford case. This incenses Colin Farr, Billy’s son. And then another man is found dead in the mine …

Dalziel has just a minor role as Pascoe leads the investigation. Ellie, Pascoe’s wife, also plays a major role. Her involvement comes about when she tutors some of the miners as part of the union-sponsored day release courses and meets Colin Farr, Billy’s son. He is an angry young man and Ellie is attracted both to his intelligence and his physical masculinity, despite the strength of her feminist views. She really is an irritating character, an angry young woman and for most of the book it looked as though the Pascoes’ marriage was about to come to an end. It’s left to Dalziel to bring a touch of humour to the book and his down to earth approach to the miners gets more results than Pascoe’s middle class attempts to understand them.

I thoroughly enjoyed Underworld.

Note:

The title appears as ‘Under World‘ in some editions and as ‘Underworld‘ on others. On the front cover of the paperback I read it is ‘Under World‘ but on the title page it is one word -‘Underworld‘. The Underworld or Hades in ancient Greek and Roman Mythology was where the souls of the dead resided. Hill divides Underworld into three parts and begins each part with verses from Dante’s The Divine Comedy, thus equating the mine with hell.