‘The Final Countdown by Sheila Quigley

Published by Burgess Books, 

December 2012.   
ISBN: 978-095665467-0

The third in the trilogy featuring DI Mike Yorke, finds a group of people coming together determined to stop the destruction of the world as we know it by a group of families spread across the world who have infiltrated all walks of life for centuries, becoming ever more powerful as time passes.  

The story switches between London, Norwich , Northumberland, and Holy Island, as Aunt May assisted by a number of willing recruits whom we have met in the two previous book. The damaged Smiler, Brother David, Ella, Kristine, Shelly and frightened Danny come together. But with time running out Mike Yorke is missing and no one seems to know where he is.  To further compound the problems no one is sure just who they can trust.  Can Aunt May hold them together.

With a host of fascinating characters this is storytelling at its best. I hope that with this final book in the trilogy it will not be the last we hear of Aunt May, Smiler, Borther David and Mike Yorke, all who have grown and changed throughout their recent experiences and  I would like to hear more of them.

A gripping thriller this race against time will have you on the edge of your seat as the twists and turns of the story unfold and long kept secrets are finally revealed. Highly recommended.

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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Sheila Quigley was born in Sunderland in 1947 and has lived and worked in the north east all of her life. Undertaking many and varied jobs from picking potatoes to selling frozen food door to door, her true calling as an author came later on in life in 2004.  Sheila has a very busy schedule of signings and is always popular both at store events and within libraries and festival panels.

www.theseahills.co.uk/‎

‘The Boyfriend‘ by Thomas Perry

Published by The Mysterious Press,
March, 2013.
ISBN 978-0-8021-2606-1 (Hardcover)

The protagonist and his adversary in this newest terrific, suspenseful read from Thomas Perry have many similarities:  Both Jack Till, retired LAPD homicide detective now working as a private investigator, and the man he nicknames The Boyfriend are both highly intelligent, patient, meticulous, proficient with various kinds of weaponry, and very lethal.  Mostly they are both loners.  Till, however, has a daughter with Down Syndrome of whom he is very protective.  His wife had left them and divorced him shortly after she was diagnosed, unable to cope.  Holly is now 28 years old, employed at a florist shop and living in a group home where she is well looked after.  Till had retired after 23 years as a cop, and now embarks upon a relentless search for a killer.

The man Till is seeking is completely cold-blooded.  He preys upon young, beautiful women, all of a very similar physical type, and all ‘working girls,’ albeit highly-paid escorts earning several thousand dollars a day, as opposed to streetwalkers.  And all very vulnerable to the young, good-looking charmer, to their peril.  He has apparently killed several of them in all different parts of the country.  He has come to Till’s attention when the parents of the latest victim seek his help, when the police have, literally, no clues as to his identify.  He agrees to take the case and undertakes the investigation, and soon uncovers the connection to the other murders.  After 23 years as a cop, he “had an instinctive sense that this man was something he hadn’t seen before.”

Thomas Perry is the author, among his 21 previous books, of the wonderful Jane Whitefield series, and his newest is as much a page-turner as were those novels.  He manages an ending that is wonderfully elegant.  This was a terrific read, and is highly recommended.

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Reviewer: Gloria Feit

Thomas Perry was born in Tonawanda, New York in 1947. He received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Rochester in 1974. He has worked as a park maintenance man, factory labourer, commercial fisherman, university administrator and teacher, and a writer and producer of prime time network television shows.  Perry is the author of 20 novels including the Jane Whitefield. He won the Edgar for The Butcher’s Boy, and Metzger’s Dog was a New York Times Notable Book. The Independent Mystery Booksellers’ Association included Vanishing Act in its “100 Favourite Mysteries of the 20th Century,” and Nightlife was a New York Times bestseller.  He lives in Southern California.

http://www.thomasperryauthor.com

Ted and Gloria Feit live in Long Beach, NY, a few miles outside New York City.  For 26 years, Gloria was the manager of a medium-sized litigation firm in lower Manhattan. Her husband, Ted, is an attorney and former stock analyst, publicist and writer/editor for, over the years, several daily, weekly and monthly publications.  Having always been avid mystery readers, and since they're now retired, they're able to indulge that passion.  Their reviews appear online as well as in three print publications in the UK and US.  On a more personal note: both having been widowed, Gloria and Ted have five children and nine grandchildren between them.

‘Falconer and the Rain of Blood’ by Ian Morson

Published by Ostara Publishing, 2013.
ISBN 978-1-906288-97-6

In 1275 Oxford is a city with much to trouble it. The quarrel between King Edward I and the Welsh leader Llewellyn and Edward's determination to rule Wales leads to a hotbed of political intrigue and violence against Welsh inhabitants of Oxford. A madman is stealing classical manuscripts in order to destroy them and is willing to employ any violent means to achieve his ends. Worst of all, a knight with plague has entered the city, unwittingly bringing danger of contagion to all who live there. The City Constable, Peter Bullock, is at his wits end and calls upon his friend, Regent Master William Falconer to help him.

Falconer responds to Bullock's summons but, at this time, he has a personal preoccupation. He was an orphan, brought up by Augustinian monks, but now his curiosity about his parentage has been roused by questions from his mistress, Saphira, and he is determined to trace his origins. Saphira is Jewish and has a deeply rooted sense of heritage and for this reason she is attempting to learn all she can of cures and poisons from Samson, the best doctor in the city, who is growing old. Saphira is determined that Samson's knowledge will not die with him.

The leaders in Oxford place the city in quarantine. The city is soon rife with dark prophesies, a fatal disease and murder. Falconer solves the crime but only after a personal loss that helps to lead him to a life-changing decision.

Falconer and the Rain of Blood is a dark book, full of chilling prophecy. The historical detail is fascinating, as is the character of Falconer and his relationship with Saphira, and it makes an interesting read.

I would recommend that anybody who wishes to read this book buys it on Kindle, where it is possible to adjust the size, as the paperback has very small print and tightly-packed line spacing.

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Reviewer by Carol Westron

Ian Morson was born in 1947 in Derby. In 1965 he won a scholarship to Oxford where he studied the Russian language and literature. He started writing for real at the age of 42, after having dabbled in (unperformed) radio plays and (unpublished) poetry.  The first in the series of Falconer novels was published in 1994. He promotes his own novels with radio interviews, and bookshop talks along with the Medieval Murderers group of writer. He lives in Hastings.

http://www.ianmorson.co.uk/

 

Carol Westron is a successful short story writer and a Creative Writing teacher.  She is the moderator for the cosy/historical crime panel, The Deadly Dames.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  The Terminal Velocity of Cats is the first in her Scene of Crimes novels, was published July 2013

‘Kinsey and Me’ by Sue Grafton

Published by Pan,
26 September 2013.
ISBN: 978-1447237655

For Kinsey Millhone fans, like me, this is a real treat – nine short stories starring Grafton’s feisty heroine, and incidentally showing that Grafton’s as much of an ace at short fiction as she is at novel length.  This collection made me want to start again at A is for Alibi.  For readers who’ve missed the alphabet murders so far (vacationing on Mars, maybe?), now’s your chance to meet wise-cracking, gun-toting, villain-outwitting PI Kinsey Millhone in her Santa Teresa background.  Each story is a classic short, with the clues fairly presented, and a neat twist at the end.

The second half of the book is almost unbearably moving.  It’s thirteen short stories based around the life and death of Grafton’s mother, a depressed alcoholic.  The stories are reflective, and so beautifully written that they could be included in any literary anthology.  While telling us about Grafton’s own life, they also explain a good deal about the character of her alter-ego, Kinsey, whose toughness is in part because of her childhood experience.

A great stocking-filler book for Kinsey fans – just don’t expect them to join in with the Christmas afternoon Cluedo.

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Reviewer: Marsali Taylor

Sue Taylor Grafton was born 24 April 1940 in Louisville, Kentucky. USA.  She is a contemporary American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the 'alphabet series' featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. She is published in 28 countries and 26 languages—including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian.

www.suegrafton.com/

Marsali Taylor grew up near Edinburgh, and came to Shetland as a newly-qualified teacher. She is currently a part-time teacher on Shetland's scenic west side, living with her husband and two Shetland ponies. Marsali is a qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by history, and has published plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as a history of women's suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own 8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group.  Marsali also does a regular monthly column for the Mystery People e-zine.

‘Wicked Autumn’ by G M Malliet

Published by Constable & Robinson Crime,
18 July 2013.
ISBN: 978-1-4721-0623-0

Wanda Batton-Smythe is the forceful and extremely unpopular leader of the Women's Institute in Nether Monkslip. The only person who appears to have any affection for her is her long-suffering husband, Major Batton-Smyth, whose army career was distinguished by his inefficiency. Even so, the couple's relationship seems to the suffering from the strains of his retirement and Wanda has been considering whether she is wasted on such a small village and upon such a dull husband. Their son, Jasper, a promising artist, (although not yet so successful that he does not need financial hand-outs from his parents) has not been seen in the village since he grew old enough to leave.

As the autumn days grow shorter and the Harvest Festival Fair approaches, the villagers' dislike of Wanda's bossy self-aggrandisement increases, and in many cases verges on hatred. The vicar, Max Tudor, is aware of the feelings of unrest but does not realise how deep and dangerous it has become. Max was an MI5 agent whom, after the death of his partner, left MI5 and took holy orders. He regards his parish as a place of refuge from the evil he has witnessed.

Then, in the midst of the fair, Wanda, who is allergic to peanuts, dies of anaphylactic shock, Max is convinced that she has been murdered. The police concur with this view and allow Max to help investigate the crime, keeping him informed of their discoveries. Max goes from house to house, talking to his parishioners and attempting to discover who has introduced the serpent of murder into his Eden. Most of the people he speaks to have some sort of motive and nobody has an unimpeachable alibi. However, on the day of Wanda's funeral, the evidence slots into place and Max and the killer confront each other in St Edwold's Church.

Wicked Autumn is a very slow-paced, gentle, cosy crime story, which is more concerned with beautifully crafted and detailed descriptions of the old-fashioned, stereotypical, English village and the people who live there, rather than the horror and violence of murder and the details of investigation. It is a pleasant, undemanding read.

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Reviewer: Carol Westron.

G M Malliet  won the Agatha Christie for best first novel for Death of a Cozy Writer, which initially won the Malice Domestic Grant..

Carol Westron is a successful short story writer and a Creative Writing teacher.  She is the moderator for the cosy/historical crime panel, The Deadly Dames.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  The Terminal Velocity of Cats is the first in her Scene of Crimes novels, was published July 2013.

Happy New Year

‘Every Deadly Sin’ by D M Greenwood

Published by Ostara Publishing, 2013.
ISBN: 978-1-906288-83-9

You would think that a Christian retreat house in a remote, beautiful part of north Yorkshire would be safe from the worst excesses of the human psyche. D M Greenwood clearly knows different.

It takes a while for the murder and mayhem to begin in Every Deadly Sin, but by the time the inevitable body is discovered it’s already plain that the motley collection of clergy and faithful who have gathered for a week of prayer and contemplation at St Sylvan’s-at-Rest aren’t quite as pure in heart as they should be.

This is the fifth of the author’s nine-volume Theodora Braithwaite series, first published in the 1990s and revived by a small press dedicated to ensuring the survival of deserving out-of-print crime novels.  And on this showing, deserving is what this series is, especially for devotees of ‘cosy’ crime which focuses on quirky characters and beautiful locations rather than fast-paced plots with lots of action and gore.

In the mid-1990s the role of women in the Church of England was still a matter for controversy, a factor D M Greenwood uses to advantage. Theodora Braithwaite herself, deacon and curate in the Church of England, is all self-aware down-to-earth common sense, and arguably the only ‘normal’ person in the group. This, alongside her knowledge of Church tradition and lore, makes her very useful to a floundering detective inspector when the retreat house cook is found with her head bashed in.

All of Church life is there, slightly pastiched, from the self-important bishop through several idiosyncratic clergy to the downtrodden vicar’s wife, with side trips to take in a boisterous party of travellers, a ‘considerable woman’ who keeps the village shop and a taciturn handyman who makes a convenient initial suspect.

Greenwood succeeds in casting a sardonic eye over the Church and its denizens without ever losing sympathy for them. She also has a keen eye for background; St Sylvan’s well is made to sound idyllic, and the car-unfriendly terrain surrounding the retreat house is also vividly realized. And of course she has a neat way with a plot; little is given away in the early stages of Every Deadly Sin, but it’s clear from the outset that all is not as it should be, and when all is finally revealed, the clues have been there all along.

If you’re a fan of saving-the-world action, sexy heroes and feisty heroines, this series probably isn’t for you. But if small-scale but well-crafted plots and well-drawn characters are your thing, there’s much here to enjoy.

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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

 

Dr Diane M Greenwood came originally from Norfolk in England. She took a first degree in classics at Oxford University, then as a mature student, a second degree in theology at London University. She taught at various schools before working for the diocese of Rochester. She retired as diocesan director of education for the diocese of Rochester in 2004.

She has been described  as "a classics teacher of terrifying erudition and eccentricity".  Between 1991 and 1999 she published nine books featuring Deaconess Theodora Braithwaite (in her thirties).  D M Greenwood was last heard of living in Greenwich with her lurcher.

 

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 on the edge of rural Derbyshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.

Happy Christmas to all Crime fiction lovers.

Here's a Christmas mystery

A Christmas Mystery

‘The Santa Klaus Murder’ by Mavis Doriel Hay

Published by British Library Crime Classics.
ISBN: 978-0-7123-5712-8

The members of the Melbury family gather at their country residence Flaxmere to celebrate the Christmas festivities.  The introduction and background to the various family members is provided in the first chapter by Philip Cheriton, who at that time had been engaged to Jennifer Melbury for three months. Although he had not voiced approval, the engagement had not been forbidden by Jennifer’s father Sir Osmond Melbury. He had made that mistake with his eldest daughter Hilda, and she had eloped.  Philip is keen to lure Jennifer to a house of their own, but then who in the family will take care of Sir Osmond.   Hilda seems a likely candidate

The narration is then picked up in chapter two by Hilda Wynford, Sir Osmond’s eldest daughter, who does not seem totally opposed to returning to her childhood home, but she has her daughter Carol to consider. In chapter three Jennifer takes up the story: she clearly has no illusions about her father or indeed any of her family.  They are all concerned about Osmond’s will, particularly as while most of the family have left the
family home to pursue their own lives, Sir Osmond has in the main been cared for by Miss Grace Portisham, his  secretary and housekeeper, who has made herself indispensable in the absence of the family.  Just how indispensable is Miss Portisham, and how grateful is Sir Osmond? She takes over the story in chapter five.

An unfortunate mix-up with his Santa costume puts Sir Osmond in high dudgeon and the job of playing Santa falls to Oliver Witcome, one of the guests. But as in Christmas family gatherings the world over, all did not run smoothly, Kit the elder child challenges the existence of Santa Klaus and the other children end up in tears. In the midst of  the melee, Sir Osmond is discovered shot and the whole day dissolves into chaos.

Apart from two, the following chapters are told by Col Halstock, the Chief Constable of Haulmshire, who has known most of the family since childhood, but maybe not as well as he thought.  As his investigations proceed it becomes clear that nearly everyone present benefits from Sir Osmond's death.  Except Santa Klaus, who seems to have had every opportunity to shoot Sir Osmond, but has no apparent motive.

This is a classic country-house mystery set  in 1935 and now being made available by The British Library to readers for the first time since its original publication in 1936. This reader who had never heard of Mavis Dorel Hay, but has so greatly enjoyed this mystery, is grateful.

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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Mavis Doriel Hay (1894–1979) (Helen Elizabeth FitzRandoph) was a novelist of the golden age of British crime fiction. Her three detective novels were published in the 1930s and are now rare and highly collectable books. She was an expert on rural handicraft and wrote several books on the subject. She was born in Barnet, England; died in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Other Books:

Death on the Cherwell

Murder Underground

Interview with the Deadly Dames

Interview

The Deadly Dames
chatting with Stevie Carroll

From left to right Nicola, Eileen, Carol, Joan, Charlie and Leigh

The Deadly Dames are a group of cosy crime authors: Charlie Cochrane, Joan Moules, Eileen Robertson, Nicola Slade and Carol Westron and they love to talk about crime fiction. I caught up with the five of them, plus honorary ‘Dame for the Day’ Leigh Russell, at the  Havant Literary Festival on the 6th of October.

Stevie: Which Dame are you (Sporty, Scary, Ginger, Baby, Posh or something else)?
Charlie: I suppose technically I’m Baby, although I think Joan should be that because she has such a young girl’s face. I’ll be sporty, for the obvious reason that I can’t resist watching or listening to sport whenever I can.
Joan: Dizzy Dame (that’s what my husband calls us, the Dizzy Dames!).
Eileen: Scary Dame.
Nicola: I’d like to be Scary Dame.
Carol: As the bossy moderator I guess I’d be Scary Dame.
Leigh: I’m a Scary Dame!
(That's a lot of Scary Dames there!)

Stevie:What’s your sub-genre (in 3 words if possible)?
Charlie: Cosy Edwardian gay.
Joan: Mystery Romantic Fiction.
Eileen: Comedy crime.
Nicola: Mystery with history.
Carol: Contemporary police procedural.
Leigh:Psychological Suspense.
(And a wide variety of sub-genres for you all to choose from!)

Stevie: What’s your latest release? What’s it about?
Charlie: Lessons for Suspicious Minds, which is an Edwardian country house type of mystery with my sleuths, Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith, having two mysterious suicides-which-might-just-be-murders to look into. The twists in the tale don’t just come in the storyline – my amateur detectives are both fellows of an august Cambridge college, and madly in love with each other. Not easy in an age when their love dare not speak its name.
Joan:  Turn of the Tide, which is about surrogacy: Tim is easy-going and contented but Katie refuses to be thwarted in her desire to move up in the world. Her drastic solution to finding money to fund the first steps on the property ladder though rebounds on her with devastating effects. Meanwhile Gordon and Maureen move to the affluent area of the South Coast town with their small baby when Gordon’s firm relocates from London.
Eileen: We’ll Be Watching You, which is based on Aesop’s Fables, and the story of ‘Cry Wolf’. When Neighbourhood-Watch-obsessed Christine sees a supermarket robbery, no one will believe her.
Nicola: Forthcoming (31st Dec 2013) is The Dead Queen’s Garden, the third in the Charlotte Richmond series and set in 1858; the young widow, Charlotte, has lately found herself tripping over the occasional corpse, but surely the festive season, beginning with a christening party, can’t present the same hazard? There are some strange incidents and a death, apparently from natural causes, that leaves Charlotte puzzled and anxious over questions that seem to have no answers. Over Christmas, she manages to learn a surprising amount about mediaeval gardening, some unusual and unpleasant ailments, London property values, and how to conduct a rat-hunt. To cap it all, Boxing Day finds the resourceful Charlotte in a garden dedicated to a long-dead queen, fighting for her life and armed only with what is possibly the least likely weapon ever.Carol: The Terminal Velocity of Cats, in which archaeologist turned Scene of Crimes Officer, Mia Trent, is summoned by Detective Inspector Oliver Sutton to examine a pit of bones that have been turned up by a digger on a building site. Amongst numerous cat bones, there is a human body, and the skull has modern dentistry. Newly arrived in the area, Sutton is hampered by resentment and obstruction from most of the C.I.D. team, but Mia likes him. Together they solve the crime that led to the body in the pit of bones, but Mia’s presence at the crime scene has attracted the attention of a relentless and vicious killer and soon she is in danger of becoming his next victim.Leigh:  Cold Sacrifice, which is the first in the Ian Peterson series, a spin-off from the Geraldine Steel series: When three dead bodies are discovered in quick succession, DS Ian Peterson becomes too busy with a complex murder investigation to worry about his deteriorating marriage. From middle class housewife to prostitute, there seems to be nothing to link the victims, and no clue to the killer’s identity. Meanwhile Stop Dead, released June 2013, is the 6th book in the bestselling Geraldine Steel series: when a businessman is murdered, the police suspect his glamorous wife and her lover. Then the victim’s business partner suffers the same gruesome fate. The only clue is samples of DNA that lead to two women: one dead, the other in prison.

(More titles for the Wish List? Incidentally, Women and Words regulars, Geraldine's sergeant in London is a lesbian, first appearing in Death Bed. Maybe she'll get a spin-off series eventually too.)

Stevie:If you could take two of your characters anywhere, where would you go, who would you take and who would you absolutely not tell your travel plans to?
Charlie: Jonty Stewart (from the Cambridge books) and Rory Carter, my very well bred werewolf (from Wolves of the West). Both of them men you could depend on in any situation and who’d be excellent company. We’d go to Jersey (old not New) of course, for the beaches and the castles and the excellent restaurants. I wouldn’t tell my weresloth character (from ‘Sollicito’ in Lashing of Sauce) as he’d come along and shift into sloth guise. That would either be endearing or totally revolting depending on the slothy things he’d be doing at the time.
Joan: Annie and Johnny from my book Tin Hats and Gas Masks. Where – On a cruise or to the seaside (they could argue it out between them). I’d definitely not take Annie’s mum.
Eileen: I’d take Christine and Harry off to New Zealand, but I certainly wouldn’t tell Alun.
Nicola: I’d take my two protagonists, Charlotte Richmond (the Victorian widow) and Harriet Quigley (a contemporary former headteacher) to a fabulous hotel where we’d have great food and drink and talk non-stop. I’d have to hope they managed not to trip over any corpses while we were there. Far too many unreliable characters to choose from when it comes to not telling!
Carol: I’d take Mia and Oliver Sutton to a Greek island, which would be fun for an archaeologist, and maroon them in a small village together so that they could sort out how they felt about each other away from the speculative eyes of their colleagues. I definitely wouldn’t tell D.C. Liz Murphy or D.S. Dave Bycroft, who’d use their knowledge to make trouble.
Leigh: I would go to a Greek island with my protagonists Geraldine Steel and Ian Peterson and spend time really getting to know them both. I wouldn’t tell anyone!

[Some more great stories in the making there?]

The Deadly Dames are happy to give talks to writers’ groups, libraries, bookshops and any group that loves to read or talk about mysteries. They can be contacted via Mystery People (www.mysterypeople.co.uk). Not sure whether they’ll cross the Atlantic to talk to you, but you never know…

[I'd recommend you go and see them separately or as a group, because they're all jolly entertaining.]

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Stevie Carroll was born in Sheffield, England's Steel City, raised in a village on the boundary of the White and Dark Peaks, and nourished by a diet of TV drama and science fiction, along with books, most notably Diane Wynne-Jones and The Women's Press, from the only library in the valley. Stevie's first solo collection, A Series of Ordinary Adventures was published by Candlemark and Gleam (www.candlemarkandgleam.com) in May 2012. Stevie blogs regularly at Women and Words, reviews books at The Good, the Bad and the Unread  and waffles about writing and life on Livejournal

http://stevie-carroll.livejournal.com/