‘The Soho Murder’ by Mike Hollow

Published by Allison & Busby,
24 October 2024.
ISBN: 978-0-7490-3039-1 (HB)

It is December 1940, and the imminent New Year celebrations hold little hope of peace and happiness for the people of Britain, who are enduring nightly bombing raids from the Luftwaffe. However, a body is discovered of a man who has not been killed by the German bombing of London; antiquarian bookseller, Samuel Bellamy, has been shot in his own home. Bellamy’s flat in Soho is situated in one of the most dangerous and crime-ridden areas of London.

Detective Inspector John Jago and his assistant, Detective Constable Peter Cradock, are assigned the case. Having visited the scene of crime and inspected the body, Jago’s priority is to find Bellamy’s wife, who is the owner of her own family-inherited bookshop. He discovers Mrs Bellamy sitting despairingly amongst the rubble of her shop, which has been destroyed in the Blitz. Having broken the news, Jago is reluctant to add to her grief by questioning her, but a murder investigation cannot be delayed. Mrs Bellamy married late in life and has always had her own independence, and, despite her distress, she proves a co-operative witness, although she insists that she knows little about her husband’s business and cannot tell whether any valuable books have been stolen. However, she does tell the detectives that her husband had not accompanied her to examine the damage to her shop because he was expecting a visitor, to whom he hoped to make an important book sale.

Mrs Bellamy also suggests some people that had known her husband for longer than she has, and this starts Jago and Cradock on an exploration of the life, interests and character of Samuel Bellamy. This leads them to record shops, a late-night Jazz club, an Italian cafe (which has changed its name since Italy entered the war on Germany’s side), Bellamy’s own bookshop, and the London residences of several wealthy collectors of antique books. Slowly Jago pieces together a picture of Bellamy’s life and realises that his character had many sides. Bellamy was a man who was angry if anyone tried to barter about the price he had set for a book, because he regarded that as an attempt to cheat him, but he was often unscrupulous in his own methods when acquiring books or customers. They discover that Bellamy has been involved in several questionable activities, but Jago thinks a likely motive is that he acquired a valuable book, and somebody has killed him to gain possession of this mysterious treasure. However, he cannot be sure of this and still has to resolve which of Bellamy’s many potential enemies has resorted to murder, a quest that leads him and his constable into peril.

The Soho Murder is the ninth book in the series featuring Jago and Cradock. It is an excellent series, which captures the darkness and desperation of life in the Blitz. The Soho Murder is a fascinating addition to the series, with a superb historical setting and an added dimension of a being located in one of London’s least salubrious areas. The plot is complex and interesting, highlighting many social and political issues of the time. Jago and Cradock are engaging protagonists, who are doing a difficult job under appalling conditions’ Jago often finds dealing with death and violence especially hard because he is one of the men who fought and suffered in the trenches during the First World War and still bears the mental and emotional scars of that time. The Soho Murder is an excellent read, which I wholeheartedly recommend.
-------
Reviewer: Carol Westron

Mike Hollow was born in West Ham, on the eastern edge of London, and grew up in Romford, Essex. He studied Russian and French at the University of Cambridge and then worked for the BBC and later Tearfund. In 2002 he went freelance as a copywriter, journalist and editor. He's a published poet, and nowadays when not writing about the Blitz Detective he makes his living as a translator. He lives in Hampshire, England, with his wife Margaret. 

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
Death and the Dancing Snowman