‘The Bloomsbury Murder’ by Mike Hollow

Published by Allison & Busby,
23 October 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-7490-3200-5 (Hardback)

Crime is like taxes and the poor – always with us. Even when wars are at their most fierce, ordinary people are robbed, cheated and murdered. In 1941, when the Blitz was causing mayhem and sleepless nights, there was plenty of work for ordinary policemen like Detective Inspector John Jago of the Metropolitan Police.

The Bloomsbury Murder he is called to the scene of an apparently senseless killing in London’s bohemian quarter. The victim, Mrs Rosemary Webster, is guilty of nothing more than a generous spirit; she has allowed her home to be taken over to house refugees and people made homeless by the Luftwaffe’s bombs. Why anyone would want to kill such a kind and considerate person is a complete mystery to DI Jago and his earnest young protegé DC Cradock. 

The doughty pair traverse London in order to interview her relations, friends and recipients of Mrs Webster’s goodwill, and slowly a picture emerges of her life, and eventually of her death. Their enquiries take them not only to Bloomsbury itself but also to a well-known publishing house, the much-damaged premises of University College London, an ambulance station and an air base on the outskirts of London – and also to the White Elephant, wartime home of the Ministry of Information, and nicknamed partly for its size and appearance and partly as an indication of many people’s opinion of the work done there. All the locations come vividly to life, described in the kind of detail that speaks of meticulous research.

The enquiries reveal that though Rosemary Webster was well liked by most, even adored by some, she was less popular with a few. Her biggest fans are mainly people she has helped: Charles Buckleby, a shabby, nervy failed businessman; well-meaning Mrs McCready, her housekeeper; unassuming German refugee Nadelmann. There’s also Godfrey Masterson, a professor at UCL, who is engaged in good works: proud and a little pompous, but with an unexpected softer side. On the other hand, to her abrasive foster brother, a bigwig at the Ministry of Information, and his wife, Mrs Webster’s progressive views and liberal outlook are less acceptable.

Drugs, stolen paintings and student high jinks are all woven into the plot, which unfolds at a leisurely pace reminiscent of 1940s black-and-white films, and the deliberately dated dialogue is clearly intended to convey the spirit of the times: all no doubt researched with as much care and attention to detail as the background. The result is a richly and carefully crafted snapshot of a police investigation in wartime London, as much historical novel as murder mystery.  
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Mike Hollow studied languages at the University of Cambridge and worked for the BBC and Tearfund. Now a freelance writer, he lives in Hampshire, England, with his wife Margaret. He's also a popular poet whose work has been widely performed and published.

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.