‘In At The Death’ by Judith Cutler

Published by Severn House,
7 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-4483-1347-1

Harriet and Matthew Rowsley are the housekeeper and land agent for the Thorncroft Estate in Shropshire, but their roles are far wider reaching and complex than other housekeepers and agents. The owner of the estate, Lord Croft, is unable to undertake any of the traditional roles expected of a man of his birth and wealth because a dissolute youth has led to him contracting syphilis, which has severely damaged him physically and has caused him to become insane. He now resides in a wing of Thorncroft House which is known as the Family wing and is, in reality, a well-equipped hospital with round-the clock nursing staff. It has guards posted, so that Lord Croft cannot escape unsupervised and cause harm to himself or others. The Family wing also provides nursing care for any members of the household who are unwell or infirm and serves this function for local villagers who need medical help.

The management of the house and estate is overseen by a board of trustees, which includes Harriet and Matthew, as well as Montgomery Wilson, a Shrewsbury solicitor, and four respected local residents. However, everyday decisions are left to Matthew and Harriet who have to juggle their status as servants with acting as host and hostess when visitors are staying at Thorncroft House.

While digging the foundations for a new model village to provide the villagers with hygienic, well-built homes, several valuable archaeological artefacts were discovered. Now Harriet, Matthew and Wilson are staying in Oxford to attend the ceremony in which the chief archaeologist, Sir Francis Palmer, displays the treasures to the academic community. Harriet is enjoying this occasion and the opportunity to mingle with such interesting, well-informed people, and she is filled with joy when she encounters a dear friend whom she has not seen for many years. Lord Halesowen is now a county court judge but he has not forgotten Harriet and is delighted to meet her again.

Although the three trustees are scheduled to stay in Oxford for several days to discuss which academic institution could best care for the treasures they have unearthed, Wilson is torn between two conflicting duties. As Lord Croft is unable to produce a legitimate heir, for some time Wilson has been searching for a successor for when his lordship dies, now an American heir, Mr Claude Baker, has turned up in England and is demanding that Wilson makes himself available immediately. Wilson is unsure whether he should obey Baker’s summons or stay in Oxford to help decide the disposal of the archaeological treasures, but his companions persuade him that his skills are needed to oversee the negotiations, and the importunate heir can wait a few more days. However, a few days a summons arrives that none of them can refuse. The village constable sends them a telegraph informing them of the discovery of a body in the grounds of the Thorncroft Estate; the body has been beheaded and mutilated.

There now follows a period of great strain for Harriet. Mr Baker turns up unannounced and, although superficially charming, he soon reveals himself to be arrogant and opinionated, and Harriet suspects that he regards the servants with the same contempt that he treats his slaves on his plantation in America. He seems eager for Lord Croft to die, resentful of any money that the trustees spend, and furious when Harriet wears some valuable jewellery that had been bequeathed to her by the late Lady Croft, the present lord’s mother. Harriet fears that when Baker inherits the title and the Thorncroft estate, he will sell it and all the art works it contains and return to America, leaving the staff and villagers homeless and, in many cases, jobless as well.

To add to the stress, the police sergeant who is sent to investigate the murder is a buffoon, clearly out of his depth, and the Scotland Yard officer who later arrives is an arrogant bully. Worst of all, Harriet inadvertently glimpses the dead man’s head, which the police have recovered and stored in the estate’s icehouse. She recognises him at once as a figure from her past. She realises that a long-suppressed nightmare has become reality and knows that those with power will do anything to save this man’s reputation, even conniving at her imprisonment on a false charge.

In At The Death is the sixth novel in the series featuring Harriet and Matthew Rowsley. It is an excellent addition to an interesting Victorian mystery series. The characters are vividly drawn and engaging, the plot complex and the historical setting unusual and fascinating. A very good read, which I recommend.
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Reviewer:  Carol Westron

Judith Cutler was born in the Black Country, just outside Birmingham, later moving to the Birmingham suburb of Harborne. Judith started writing while she was at the then Oldbury Grammar School, winning the Critical Quarterly Short Story prize with the second story she wrote. She subsequently read English at university. It was an attack of chickenpox caught from her son that kick-started her writing career. One way of dealing with the itch was to hold a pencil in one hand, a block of paper in the other - and so she wrote her first novel. This eventually appeared in a much-revised version as Coming Alive, published by Severn House. Judith has seven series. The first two featured amateur sleuth Sophie Rivers (10 books) and Detective Sergeant Kate Power (6 Books). Then came Josie Wells, a middle-aged woman with a quick tongue, and a love of good food, there are two books, The Food Detective and The Chinese Takeout. The Lina Townsend books are set in the world of antiques and there are seven books in this series. There are three books featuring Tobias Campion set in the Regency period, and her series featuring Chief Superintendent Fran Harman (6 books), and Jodie Welsh, Rector’s wife and amateur sleuth. Her more recently a series feature a head teacher Jane Cowan (3 books). Judith has also written three standalone’s Staging Death, Scar Tissue, and Death In Elysium. Her new series is set in Victorian times featuring Matthew Rowsley. Death’s Long Shadow is the third book in this series.

http://www.judithcutler.com

Carol Westron is a Golden Age expert who has written many articles on the subject and given papers at several conferences. She is the author of several series: contemporary detective stories and police procedurals, comedy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries. Her most recent publications are Paddling in the Dead Sea and Delivering Lazarus, books 2 and 3 of the Galmouth Mysteries, the series which began with The Fragility of Poppies. 

www.carolwestron.com

‘Say Nothing’ by Erin Kinsley

Published by Headline,
27 February 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-472 29256-8 (PBO)

Some Small children go missing far too often, and in most cases they’re found unharmed. Four-year-old Adam Henthorn is one of the unlucky ones. His father Tommy is discovered holding the child’s lifeless body just a few hours after his disappearance was reported. DI Ryan Canfield is tasked to find Adam’s killer, and the obvious suspect is Tommy. The rest of Canfield’s team agree, as do the CPS, and ultimately a jury. Tommy is sentenced to life imprisonment.

And ten years later the real story begins. Tommy has always protested his innocence, and his case has come to the attention of a team of lawyers who pursue miscarriages of justice. New evidence comes to light; the verdict is quashed, and Tommy is a free man.

The search for the real killer follows, but that is only part of the story. Erin Kinsley is becoming known for creating rich and heart-tugging situations peopled by characters who could walk off the page into real life and Say Nothing is no exception. All the leading players and some of the minor ones have their own tales and agendas. Tommy Henthorn has a cast-iron alibi for his son’s death, but dared not admit it at the time. His estranged wife Gail has her own reasons for keeping quiet, and the guilt about her own failings as a mother is eating her up. There was just one other suspect, a young man on the autistic spectrum, and his life and that of his family has been torn apart. Ryan Canfield has already lost his marriage and the love of his life and now seems set to lose his career over mistakes made in the original investigation. Manny Pearson, his sidekick first time around, has left the force.

And then there’s the Derbyshire village setting: bleak, shabby, even more run-down ten years on, and a meticulously drawn and fitting backcloth for the misery Adam Henthorn’s murder has caused.  

Ryan Canfield’s guilt and persistence mean the real killer is revealed in the end, of course – but the novel is about much more. It explores the effect serious crime has, not only on the families affected by it, but on whole communities. And also, on the police who do the investigating, the pressure they work under to get results, and the emotional toll it takes.

The best kind of crime fiction is about the people involved and Say Nothing is up there with the best.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Erin Kinsley is a full-time writer. She grew up in Yorkshire and currently lives in East Anglia.

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.

‘The Collaborators’ by Michael Idov

Published by Simon and Schuster UK Ltd,
30 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-3985-3776-7 (HB)

The Collaborators is a modern, convoluted spy thriller that zips along at a good pace. It begins in 2021 following a report that a Russian-American billionaire, Pavlik/Paul Obrandt, had committed suicide by jumping into the sea off Tangier. Although the cold war had theoretically ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1995, trust between the USA, its European allies and Russia remains limited. CIA and Russian agents are still keeping an eye on each other and quietly doing their best to embarrass each other’s political masters.

In Berlin, CIA agent Ari Falk learns that his best asset has been “disappeared” ie probably shot after being whisked off a plane that had been diverted into Belarus. Ari immediately begins investigating who else was on that plane. Could Paul Obrant - now known to have scarpered with, or to have lost, billions of dollars of investors’ money - still be alive? Had he also been “disappeared” from that diverted flight? If so, who was responsible for these actions?

In Los Angeles, Maya Obrant, Paul’s daughter also challenges her father’s death.  Skipping his funeral, Maya flies off to visit a house in Portugal her father has bequeathed to her. The cryptic note she finds there convinces her that he is still alive.

Determined to find her father, Maya travels to Tangier where she and Ari meet unexpectedly whilst exploring a boat in the harbour. The couple swap information and passionate embraces. Given that others will undoubtedly be looking for Paul Obrant and the missing money, they agree that they would be safer apart. Circumstances contrive to bring them together. 

Harlow, Ari’s CIA boss, knows a lot more about Paul/Pavlik’s background than he is letting on. He watches as Ari and Maya travel to Moscow to contact a Russian banker and former GRU general Gennady Demin. For highly relevant, historical reasons of his own, Demin is anxious to trace the missing billions.

Neither Ari and Maya are happy with their lives, but both display a dogged and sometimes foolhardy determination to get at the truth as they wiz around between Riga, Berlin, Portugal, the USA, Tangier, London and Moscow. The story revolves around love and money. Set in the present era, like others of its kind it almost inevitably embraces long shadows from the past. Even avid readers of spy thrillers may fail to work out what is going/ has gone on or why. It is however, well worthwhile trying to find out.
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Reviewer Angela Crowther 

Michael Idov is an award-winning journalist, a screenwriter, and the author of the novel Ground Up (FSG, 2009). From 2006 to 2012, he was a contributing editor at New York magazine and won three National Magazine Awards for his writing; he edited GQ Russia from 2012 to 2014. Born in 1976 in Riga, Latvia, Idov moved to the United States in 1992 and currently lives in Berlin.

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.

‘One Man Down’ by Alex Pearl

Published by Roundfire Books,
25 February 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-803417172 (PB)

This highly enjoyable novel is set in the advertising world of 1984. Up and coming copywriters Angus Lovejoy (known to old friends as ‘Shaggers’) and Brian Finkle are the flavour of the month at the Gordon Deedes Rutter agency as their work for the real fires television advertisements has recently won a prestigious award. They have a setback at the start of the story, however, when their plans for promoting diarrhoea tablets are met with rejection by the prospective clients, and the comic tone of the novel is soon set when Finkle claims that ‘we can see this campaign of ours running and running.’ To help them get over this uncharacteristic failure, they are persuaded by an old friend to play in a cricket match (at the Hurlingham Club, no less). The team’s opening batsman, a leading photographer and an enthusiastic player who has never previously let the side down, fails to report for duty and this starts a chain of events which leads to murder. Along the way – amongst other things - we have a homosexual clergyman, a fraudster, bipolar issues, hypocrisy and blackmail.

The first thing to note is that this is not a typical crime story. You may have assumed from the foregoing that Lovejoy and Finkle are the heroes who solve the murders (there are two of them), but in fact they do nothing of the sort. And in truth nobody else does either. The police are allowed to make some very basic enquiries, but there is in general a marked lack of interest in solving the cases. We are left to read between the lines as to the perpetrators. 

None of this matters, as the real joy and focus of the novel is its depiction of life in the advertising world of 1984, something with which Alex Pearl is very familiar. There are many nods to contemporary events, such as Princess Diana giving birth, Tommy Cooper dying on stage, and a typically tedious exchange in the House of Commons between David Owen and Leon Brittan concerning the miners’ strike. There are also appearances by people such as Ronnie Scott (telling his usual jokes when introducing the musicians in his jazz club) and a young Julian Clary who regales us with a stream of double-entendres and who apparently gave the thumbs up to the passages in which he appears. There is also a cast of memorable characters created by Pearl. Amongst these are the other members of the agency (the reliable Penny is one of the most (few?) sensible people in the book) and the likes of fraudster Chaz (Charles Wainwright or Adams) and club owner Lou. There are many more. I particularly enjoyed the cricket obsessive Roy Pickering being more worried about who is going to open the batting than whether someone has been murdered or not.

Pearl writes with verve and humour, the plot runs along merrily and gets to the point quickly. You may find your powers of detection underused (I realised at times that I’d rather forgotten about the murders), but I’m sure you won’t worry as you’ll be swept along with the general jollity of this very entertaining novel.
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Reviewer: David Whittle

Alex Pearl is a retired advertising copywriter and has written four novels, compiled a compendium of 100 author interviews, and contributed a short story to a published anthology. He lives in London, UK. 

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then. He is currently convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.

‘The Frozen People’ by Elly Griffiths

Published by Quercus,
13 February 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-52943-333-3 (HB)

First it was Ruth Galloway. Then came Max Mephisto and Edgar Stephens. More recently there was Harbinder Kaur. And now there’s something completely different. And yet...

Ali Dawson is a detective sergeant. But she’s no ordinary detective sergeant, and not just because she dyes her hair pillar box red. Ali is part of a small team of cold case investigators nicknamed the Frozen People, who have a unique way of finding evidence. Through a mysterious and highly technical process which no one quite understands (not even Jones, the scientist who makes it possible) Ali and her team go ‘through the gate’ – which is code for time-travelling into the past. It’s all top secret and need-to-know, and so far, they’ve only gone back a few decades. 

But now the Frozen People, and specifically Ali, have been asked to investigate a 19^th century murder. After a detailed briefing she goes through the gate to 1850, with careful instructions about how to return to her 21^st century life twenty-four hours later. But though she follows them to the letter, nothing happens; she remains in 19^th century London with no means of contact and no idea what happens next. Meanwhile, back in the 21^st century, there are pressing reasons for retrieving her. 

Completely different, yes – but Elly Griffiths’s multitude of fans will find a lot that feels familiar. Every single character is a living and breathing person you’d recognize if you met them. Ali herself is a complex and colourful mixture of working-class grit, abrasive humour and barely hidden vulnerability. Her son Finn is warm, clever and cuts a bit of a dash. Each member of the Frozen People has a story to tell. Jones the scientist is no absent-minded professor, but a stylish Italian woman. There’s even a cat with a very distinct personality. In the 19^th century there’s Clara, the down-to-earth housekeeper, and an assortment of artists. And there’s Cain Templeton, rich, suave and curious, and the reason Ali is there. 

The settings in both centuries are just as real: Queen Mary University where Ali was a mature student; the featureless office block where the Frozen People are based; Finn’s boss’s luxurious office; the icy-cold 19^th century bedroom (surely no coincidence!); Cain Templeton’s elegant house; and the streets of London, busy and bustling in both centuries. 

The writing is warm, witty and unmistakably Elly. And though the science behind the time-travel is never explained in any kind of detail, there’s never any doubt that it happens. 

Murders are solved, or not, and the story is brought to a satisfying conclusion, but there are enough loose ends to hook us and leave us itching to know more about the Frozen People. No surprise there; this is Elly Griffiths, after all. There aren’t many authors who can take such an off-the-wall idea and not leave a shred of doubt that it could happen. Elly Griffiths is one. The Frozen People will not only delight the many fans she already has; it will earn her a whole lot more.  
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Elly Griffiths is the author of a series of crime novels set in England’s Norfolk County and featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway. The first in the series, Crossing Places, earned a good deal of praise both in Griffiths’ native country, England, and in the U.S. The Literary Review termed it “a cleverly plotted and extremely interesting first novel, highly recommended.  Since then, Elly has written fiourteen further novels in the series.  Recently she has written a second series set in Brighton in the 1950’s featuring magician Max Mephisto and DI Stephens. There are seven books in the series.

www.ellygriffiths.co.uk  

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.

‘The Killer in the Cold’ by Alex Pine

Published by Avon,
7 November 2024.
ISBN: 978-0-00-870681-4 (PB)

DCI James Walker is enjoying a quiet Boxing Day at home in the small village of Kirby Abbey, when a phone call shatters his peace.  A local dog walker has found a body in a Father Christmas costume.  It is Nigel Booth, a former police officer, whom James and his family know well.  As his colleagues arrive at the crime scene and start investigations, James walks to Nigel’s house to check on his wife, Elizabeth, as it seems odd that she has not reported her husband missing.  He finds her dead in the kitchen, stabbed as was her husband

The residents are naturally shocked and want to know what has happened and, as a well-known resident of the village, James knows that his role as the senior detective on the case will not be an easy one.  The investigation is far from straightforward.  There is little evidence to work with and the close-knit community is emotional, tense and fearful.  Rumours flourish and secrets and lies are revealed.  James and his colleagues come under increasing criticism as their failure to find a quick solution costs them the confidence of the villagers. 

There are constant twists and turns as bits of evidence turn up – the ex-friend who commits suicide, the unexpected involvement of a gangland boss, the son in need of money who resents his parents’ decision to move abroad to the sun.  James experiences the difficulties of running an investigation in his own village – people are constantly asking for updates, phoning his wife for information and it’s difficult to maintain friendships in such a situation.  But technology plays its part with door cameras providing useful information, as gradually and carefully the police sift the evidence and home in on an unlikely murderer.

This book, the latest in a series, opens with an introduction to DCI Walker and his team, providing a useful introduction for new readers and a reminder for those already following the series. It’s not a high-speed, high-tension story – it moves carefully along, as clues are identified, secrets are uncovered, and a community has to cope with a frightening situation. 
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books by this author:  The Christmas Killer, The Killer in the Snow, The Winter Killer, The Night before Christmas. 

Alex Pine is the pseudonym of a bestselling author who has also written books under the names Jaime Raven, James Raven and JP Carter. He was born and raised on a council estate in South London and left school at sixteen. Before becoming a full-time writer, he spent a career in journalism as a newspaper reporter and television producer. He was, for a number of years, director of a major UK news division and co-owned a TV production company. He now splits his time between homes in Hampshire and Spain with his wife. 

http://www.james-raven.com/

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.

‘The Return of Frankie Whittle’ by Caroline England

Published by Bullington Press,
8 February 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-73844486-1 (PB)

Gated communities. Upmarket, expensive, exclusive? Or slightly creepy, selective, with a hidden agenda lurking behind a calm façade? Maybe even both?

When Frankie Whittle discovers that the place where she was born has been redeveloped as Pavilion Gardens, a beautiful, gated estate close to where she was brought up in a leafy Manchester suburb, it feels like the answer to her prayers. Frankie is recovering from a miscarriage brought on by a terrifying experience in the London flat she shares with husband Toby. She is keen to get out of London, and wants the support of her mum Nina, who still lives nearby.  

Frankie and Toby move into a vacant house in Pavilion Gardens, and are quickly drawn into the community, which consists of young professional couples like themselves, and is overseen by an older couple, Ursula and Fabian. Frankie settles into life at Pavilion Gardens quickly, makes friends and is soon pregnant again, as are several of the other young women.

But things are not as perfect as they seem. Toby is less comfortable; he is ambitious, and it is important to him to be in London for his job, though Frankie can work remotely. Cracks begin to appear in their relationship, and she has already fallen out with her mother, who has been harbouring secrets.

One of the novel’s great strengths is a vivid, almost filmic sense of place. Caroline England clearly knows this area of Manchester very well indeed, and in Pavilion Gardens she has created a tight-knit community in startling visual detail. The neatly manicured lawns; Ursula and Fabian’s museum-like home; the slightly ominous brick edifice looming over the development, now an office block but historically the workhouse: it all contributes to a faint air of menace.

The characters, too, are distinctly in two camps: the well-polished, hospitable residents of Pavilion Gardens on one side, and the far less perfect people on the outside, such as Nina, and Toby’s over-critical mother. And then there’s Jerome, Ursula and Fabian’s son. More secrets lurk there.

The questions keep on coming. Why did Nina hide the letter that reveals the biggest secret of all? Why do Ursula and Fabian have so many old photographs of workhouse residents? What happened to their other son? When the seemingly perfect life of Pavilion Gardens goes pear-shaped, as inevitably it must or there would be no story, it happens in the most unexpected way. All the clues are there, but well masked, and it falls to Frankie to get to the bottom of a dangerous and destructive situation. It adds up to the kind of novel that will keep you guessing right to the end.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Caroline England was born in Yorkshire. She studied Law at the University of Manchester and stayed over the border. She writes multi-layered, dark and edgy ‘domestic suspense’ stories that delve into complicated relationships, secrets and the moral grey area. Her debut novel, Beneath the Skin, was published by Avon HarperCollins in October 2017, followed by My Husband's Lies, Betray Her and Truth Games.  Under the name CE Rose she has also penned gothic-tinged psychological thrillers The House Of Hidden Secrets and The House On The Water's Edge. Also, The Shadows at Rutherford House and The Attic at Wilton Place.  Drawing on her days as a divorce and professional indemnity lawyer, she loves to create ordinary, relatable characters who get caught up in extraordinary situations, pressures, dilemmas or crime. She also enjoys performing a literary sleight of hand in her novels and hopefully surprising her readers!  Caroline’s psychological thriller The Sinner was published in June 2022. Her most recent books are, The Stranger Beside me published in 2023 and The Return of Frankie Whittle published February 2025.

https://carolineenglandauthor.co.uk

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.

‘The East Ham Golem’ by Barbara Nadel

Published by Allison & Busby,
20 February 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-74903135-0 (HB)

Another wonderful addition to the Hakim and Arnold mysteries. 

The plot starts with the desecration of a grave in an East London cemetery.  Instead of revealing a body there appears a clay sculpture of a man - a golem - which is a term from Jewish mysticism for a supernatural being.  Arnold and Hakim are given the task of tracing the missing body which involves issues in War Time Czechoslovakia, Jewellery theft, Jewish mysticism, Far Right politics and East End villains.

The tone is bleak and brutal but has the ring of truth.  The detectives secure the help of two characters from previous novels - Detective Tony Bracci and retired detective Vi Collins.  

The plot is both intricate and engrossing and before the ends are finally tied up the reader has gained fascinating information on the history of this part of East London.

Barbara Nadel is a fine and compelling writer and along with the carefully plotted crime scenes we have the continuing saga of the romance between the two detectives.  What a series!  Can't wait for the next episode!
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Reviewer: Toni Russell

Barbara Nadel was born and brought up in the East End of London. She has a degree in psychology and, prior to becoming a full-time author, she worked in psychiatric institutions and in the community with people experiencing mental health problems. She is also the author of the award-winning Inspector Ikmen series and received the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger for the seventh novel in the series Deadly Web. There are now 24 books in the series. She is also the author of the award-winning Inspector Ikem series now adapted by the BBC as The Turkish Detective. Barbara now lives in Essex.

Toni Russell is a retired teacher who has lived in London all her life and loves the city.  She says, ‘I enjoy museums, galleries and the theatre but probably my favourite pastime is reading.  I found myself reading detective fiction almost for the first time during lockdown and have particularly enjoyed old fashioned detective fiction rather than the nordic noir variety.  I am a member of a book club at the local library and have previously attended literature classes at our local Adult Education Centre.  

‘Lie of the Land’ by Kerry Hadley-Pryce

Published by Salt Publishing,
6 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-78463331-8 (PB)

It seems, on the surface, a relatively straightforward story of relationships, jealousy and murder. Jemma and Rory are two colleagues working in an office in the Black Country. They have a fling - or what Jemma seems to have thought of as a fling - despite Rory having a girlfriend. But somehow, within six months, they are buying a house together. From there, incrementally, all hell breaks loose.

Except that is far too simplistic a summary. Yes, it accurately describes the plotline of the book, but no, it gets nowhere the narrative, and how the reader is plunged into a tormented, tormenting world of half-truths and possibilities.

The story is told entirely from Jemma's point of view, as if she is, maybe, relating the events after they have happened. It is an extraordinary stylistic tour-de-force which has the reader enmeshed from the very first page, and drawn uneasily, relentlessly through the shadowy, spiky world of Jemma's mind, and what may have occurred.

A slender, brilliantly original book, best read at one sitting.
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Reviewer: Sarah Williams

Kerry Hadley-Pryce was born in Wordsley, in the West Midlands, in 1960. She worked nights in a Wolverhampton petrol station before becoming a secondary school teacher.  She wrote The Black Country whilst studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the Manchester Writing School at MMU, for which she gained a distinction and was awarded the Michael Schmidt Prize for outstanding achievement 2013-14. She lives in the Black Country.

Sarah Williams has been a professional writer for most of her adult life. She started writing under the name of Sarah Matthews, publishing translations from the French, as well as children’s information books, school textbooks, and school editions of authors such as Conan Doyle and Mark Twain. Most recently, she turned to crime, and has published How to Write Crime Fiction (Robinson), a second edition of which is due in Spring 2025. There are also two crime novels in the offing.

Follow her on Substack at https://sarahwilliamsauthor.substack.com 

‘Bloodline’ by Priscilla Masters

Published by Severn House,
7 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-4483-1476-8 (HB)

The day that Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy has been longing for has arrived, after almost a year on sick leave, Joanna’s sergeant and dear friend, Detective Sergeant Mike Korpanski, is due to return to work. Joanna’s chief worry is that the injuries Mike received in a serious accident will have left him permanently incapacitated. She is relieved that, although Mike is still on limited duties until he is fully fit, he is still the same reliable, supportive friend he always was.

After a day dealing with two sad but unthreatening crimes, Joanna is lulled into thinking the only thing she has to worry about is her stepdaughter’s forthcoming graduation. As Joanna’s stepdaughter still blames her for the breakup of her parents’ marriage, Joanna has accepted that she and her baby son will be excluded from the event.

However, just a few miles from where Joanna, her husband and baby live, an elderly man has been taken hostage by an armed intruder. Joseph Holden lives alone in an ancient, secluded house called Cloud Mansion, which overlooks Rudyard Lake. Apart from his twice-weekly cleaning lady, Joseph’s only regular contact is Doreen Caputo who also lives near the lake and walks her dog around it every day. Doreen always stops to have a brief chat with Joseph and is concerned when he talks to her through the closed front door and calls her Mrs Caputo when they have been on first name terms for years.

Joseph attempts to walk the fine line between warning Doreen that something is wrong and not alarming or enraging his captor, aware that the man is armed with a high-powered rifle and Doreen’s life is at risk, as well as his own. After some initial doubts, Doreen succeeds in convincing the police that there is something seriously wrong at Joseph’s house and the police manage to establish contact with the intruder. However, the man insists that the only person he will negotiate with is Joanna. This horrifies Joanna, whose only experience of hostage negotiation is a four-day course, undertaken to enhance her cv and please her senior officer. To her surprise, from the start, the intruder seems to know more about Joanna than she can account for, and he also seems to know every move in the negotiation playbook. Even when she receives advice from the tutor on her negotiation course, Joanna feels the man is always one step ahead of her.

The situation grows tenser as armed police officers surround the house, ready to go in and capture the intruder. Joanna becomes acutely aware that not only is she responsible for saving the life of an elderly and potentially sick man, but also, she is afraid that the man’s detailed knowledge about her may place those she loves in danger.

Bloodline is the sixteenth book in the series featuring Joanna Piercy, but it works well as a stand-alone novel. The core characters are engaging, and the plot is complex and well-paced. It is a cleverly constructed novel that leaves both the reader and the central characters wondering what is justice and how is it best served. A fascinating read, which I recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron

Priscilla Masters was born in Halifax, and brought up in South Wales, one of seven multi-racial children adopted by an orthopaedic surgeon and his Classics graduate wife. Priscilla trained as a registered nurse in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. She moved to Staffordshire in the 1970s, had an antiques business for a while and two sons. She started writing in the 1980s in response to an aunt asking her what she was going to do with her life! Winding up the Serpent was her first Joanna Piercy story, published in 1995.  Although that series is still continuing the latest Crooked Street published 2016, she has also written several medical standalones and a new series featuring coroner Martha Gunn, set in Shrewsbury. Her latest book is An Imperfect Truth, a psychological thriller featuring Dr Claire Roget who is a forensic psychiatrist who has some very unpredictable patients. It is set in Stoke on Trent.

http://www.priscillamasters.co.uk/ 

Carol Westron is a successful author and a Creative Writing teacher.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  Her first book The Terminal Velocity of Cats was published in 2013. Since then, she has since written 8 further mysteries.
Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. interview

www.carolwestron.com
To read a review of Carol latest book click on the title
Delivering Lazerus