Category: Fiction

The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Croft

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

I’m trying to catch up with writing about the books I’ve read so far this year. So this is a short post about one of them.

The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts, the 10th Inspector French book 4*.

This is a British Library Crime Classic, first published in 1933, during the Golden Age of detective fiction between the two world wars. Dr James Earle and his wife live near the Hog’s Back, a ridge in the North Downs in the beautiful Surrey countryside. When Dr Earle disappears from his cottage, Inspector French of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. At first he suspects a simple domestic intrigue – and then begins to uncover a web of romantic entanglements beneath the couple’s peaceful rural life.

I’ve only read two Inspector French books before. They’re puzzle-type mysteries. French is a most meticulous and methodical detective – maybe too meticulous and methodical, but he is a very likeable character. It begins leisurely introducing the characters and setting the scene. He pays great attention to all the information as he discovers it. This slows the pace down, going over and over the clues several times and he even lists them, giving the page numbers they appear on towards the end of the book. Crofts’ descriptions of the countryside are outstanding, giving it a great sense of place.

The more he (Inspector French) had explored the country, the more it had appealed to him. He loved the tree-edged out lines of its successive ridges,showing up solid beneath one another like drop scenes in a theatre. He loved its quaint villages with their old red-roofed half-timbered buildings and their still older churches. He liked following the narrow twisting deep-cut lanes. But most of all he delighted in the heaths, wild and uncultivated, areas of sand and heather and birches and pines over which one could wander as entirely cut off from sight or sound of human habitation as if one was exploring a desert island. (page 61 in my paperback copy)

Ideal countryside for burying a dead body.

Although this is a slower paced novel than I usually prefer to read and the detail is rather repetitive in places, I really enjoyed reading this book, and I’ll be looking out for more of Inspector French murder mystery novels.

Indefensible by James Woolf

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

Bloodhound Books| 5 January 2024| 413 pages| E-book review copy| 3*

Synopsis from Amazon UK

A lawyer crosses a dangerous line with a former client and discovers that some decisions are indefensible…

Daniel, a criminal barrister, is working all hours on a sensational trial, defending a client he believes is wrongfully accused of a grisly murder. Determined to keep Rod out of prison, he begins to neglect his wife—and soon suspects she’s having an affair.

After Daniel triumphs in court, the bond with his newly acquitted client grows even stronger. And when Rod offers Daniel a favour that he really shouldn’t accept, things take a catastrophic turn.

Daniel realises the lethal consequence of his actions and now his dream case threatens to become his worst nightmare…

My thoughts

I received a copy of Indefensible from the author, James Woolf for review. It’s his debut novel, although 30 of his short stories have appeared in magazines and books, including four in the longstanding arts magazine Ambit. James also writes stage plays (about 15 have been professionally produced) and has written radio plays for Radio 4 and LBC. He has worked in professional ethics within the law for 20 years, including taking calls from barristers when they have a question about their code of conduct. So his book explores the consequences of not following the code of conduct.

After a dramatic opening it took me a while to settle into this book. I couldn’t warm to Daniel at first, a barrister, recently appointed as a QC. He is a complex character who comes across as very needy, insecure and vulnerable, having left his wife on acrimonious terms. This has knocked his confidence and he finds personal relationships difficult. He is disappointed as his clerk is not getting him the cases he wants. But then he gets his first major case defending Rod, accused of a particularly grisly murder. During the course of the trial he meets Michaela, who is a crime reporter, and the two develop a relationship. I was never sure about the characters, were they telling the truth, and were they really what they seemed.

I enjoyed the setting – London in the 1990s with reference to real court cases, such as the trial of Fred and Rosemary West. For me the strength of this book is the court case, keeping me guessing about the outcome and eager to find out who was telling the truth. But as Daniel says the trial process is about testing the evidence – it’s the test that is important and not the truth. As the trial continued I began to fear the worst, that the truth was being obscured. What happened afterwards was not quite what I expected, as Daniel’s decisions and subsequent choices proved to be indefensible.

After a slow start I found this book compelling reading and I’ll be looking out for more books by James Woolf.

My thanks to James Woolf and Bloodhound Books, the publishers, for sending me the Kindle edition for review.

The Flower Arranger at All Saints by Lis Howell

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

The Flower Arranger at All Saints by Lis Howell was one of Prime Reader’s free books last year that I downloaded. I loved it! it’s my first 5* read of the year.

Synopsis

In quiet Tarnfield, local rivalries and parish feuds simmer under the genteel surface. It’s the sort of place where everyone knows each other’s business. And a new vicar wants to shake things up in the community. Then Phyllis the church flower arranger is found dead before the big Easter service.
With fingers pointing and tensions rising, the village is in turmoil.

Chaotic mum-of-two, Suzy Spencer, has just arrived in Tarnfield. She needs a fresh start after her husband betrayed her. Now she finds herself entangled in the mystery along with quiet widower, Robert Clark. The killer is set to strike again with another floral flourish. Despite their differences, can Suzy and Robert stop the murderer before anyone else suffers?

My thoughts

There is a lot to like in this book. The setting is Tarnfield, a fictional Cumbrian village. The setting is described so well that I could ‘see’ it all. It’s picturesque, quiet and secluded, where everyone knows everybody’s business. The church plays a huge part in village life, but traditions are being upended by the new vicar and his fondness for playing the guitar during sermons.

And the characters are so ‘real’. I believed in them and even though there are many of them they’re all easily distinguishable and I loved the biblical references and flower clues – they’re intriguing. The plot too kept me keen to carry on reading, wanting to know the identity of the murderer. As Suzy and Robert try to get to the bottom of the mystery many secrets are revealed – and it looks as though a relationship between the two of them is developing.There are more deaths and red herrings with several twists and turns before the culprit is found.

Why haven’t I come across this author before and her Suzy Spencer mysteries? The Flower Arranger at All Saints is the first in the series and luckily there are four more for me to read!

About the author

Lis Howell is from Liverpool, UK. She is the author of the Suzy Spencer cozy mysteries. They are set around the fictional town of Norbridge, Cumbria in the North of England. In her varied life, Lis has spent a short time running a post office in a Cumbrian village; and she lived for several years near Hadrian’s Wall between England and Scotland. Lis is an award-winning TV journalist based in London and is now an academic. Like Suzy, she’s a confused churchgoer, although she married a churchwarden! Anglican traditions feature in her books, along with modern media, family life and village intrigue.

I’m taking part in the  What’s In A Name Challenge? this year and this book fits into the category of a NFL team (New Orleans Saints).

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin is number …

20

which for me is The Invisible Man by H G Wells. The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by 3rd March 2024

Synopsis from Amazon

‘The man’s become inhuman … He has cut himself off from his kind. His blood be upon his own head.’

One night in the depths of winter, a bizarre and sinister stranger wrapped in bandages and eccentric clothing arrives in a remote English village. His peculiar, secretive activities in the room he rents spook the locals. Speculation about his identity becomes horror and disbelief when the villagers discover that, beneath his disguise, he is invisible.

Griffin, as the man is called, is an embittered scientist who is determined to exploit his extraordinary gifts, developed in the course of brutal self-experimentation, in order to conduct a Reign of Terror on the sleepy inhabitants of England. As the police close in on him, he becomes ever more desperate and violent.

In this pioneering novella, subtitled ‘A Grotesque Romance’, Wells combines comedy, both farcical and satirical, and tragedy – to superbly unsettling effect. Since its publication in 1897, The Invisible Man has haunted not only popular culture (in particular cinema) but also the greatest and most experimental novels of the twentieth century.

I was hoping I’d get one of the shorter books on my list – this one is just that at 192 pages. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Did you take part in the Classics Spin? What will you be reading?

Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56: The Hog’s Back Mystery

Published on by Margaret8 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.

I’m featuring The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts one of the books I’m currently reading. I’ve read about half of it and am enjoying it although it is a bit repetitive. It’s a “Golden Age” mystery, first published in 1933.

Book Beginning:

‘Ursula! I am glad to see you!’ Julia Earle moved forward to the carriage door to greet the tall, well dressed woman who stepped down on the platform of the tiny station of Ash in Surrey.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. 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:

‘Well,’ said Sheaf, with a keen glance,what does it look like to you?’ ‘

This was the sort of question which on principle French never answered. He was certainly not to give an opinion until he had had time to think over the facts and come to a reasoned conclusion.

Description from Goodreads:

Dr James Earle and his wife live in comfortable seclusion near the Hog’s Back, a ridge in the North Downs in the beautiful Surrey countryside. When Dr Earle disappears from his cottage, Inspector French is called in to investigate. At first he suspects a simple domestic intrigue – and begins to uncover a web of romantic entanglements beneath the couple’s peaceful rural life.


The case soon takes a more complex turn. Other people vanish mysteriously, one of Dr Earle’s house guests among them. What is the explanation for the disappearances? If the missing people have been murdered, what can be the motive? This fiendishly complicated puzzle is one that only Inspector French can solve.

~~~

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

Munich Wolf by Rory Clements

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

This is yet another one of my short posts about books I’ve read this year. This one is a review copy by one of my favourite authors, due to be published in January:

Bonnier Books| 18 January 2024|400 pages| E-book review copy| 3.5*

Description

Munich, 1935 – The Bavarian capital is a magnet for young, aristocratic Britons who come to learn German, swim in the lakes and drink beer in the cellars.

What they don’t see – or choose to ignore – is the brutal underbelly of the Nazi movement which considers Munich its spiritual home. When a high-born English girl is murdered, Detective Sebastian Wolff is ordered to solve the crime. Wolff is already walking a tight line between doing his job and falling foul of the political party he abhors. Now Hitler is taking a personal interest in the case. Followed by the secret police and threatened by his own son, a fervent member of the Hitler Youth, the stakes have never been higher. And when Wolff begins to suspect that the killer might be linked to the highest reaches of the Nazi hierarchy, he fears his task is simply impossible – and that he might become the next victim.

I’ve enjoyed several books by Rory Clements. Munich Wolf is a standalone murder mystery, a police procedural investigation set in Hitler’s Munich in 1935. I enjoyed it although I found the first half slow moving and disjointed, but the pace picks up in the second half. It is a darker novel than his Tom Wilde books, with some unsavoury and definitely unlikable characters, some of whom I found difficult to identify. The murder mystery takes second place to the historical setting. The novel is full of tension and suspense, some of which made it an uncomfortable read but conveyed what a dangerous time and place Germany was in the 1930s.

However, I really liked Detective Sebastian Wolff (Seb), and the way he investigates the murder of a young English woman, under orders from Hitler to close the case as soon as possible. And I really want to know more about Unity Mitford’s involvement. The time period seems well researched – I’m not familiar with the situation in Germany between the two World Wars as Hitler rose to power – and I found that fascinating.

I do hope Rory Clements will write more books featuring Seb Wolff.

Many thanks to Bonnier Books for a review copy via NetGalley.