‘Murder Most Welcome’ by Nicola Slade

Published by Robert Hale,
30 May 2008.
ISBN: 978-0-7090-8569-0 (HB)

In an engrossing crime novel Nicola Slade introduces an unusual heroine.  The Victorian setting of 1858 is well portrayed both physically and emotionally.  The central character, Charlotte Richmond, is a young widow who has travelled to England from India to live with her husband’s relatives.  Charlotte is not a fainting heroine unable to manage for herself - her upbringing in Australia has made her self-reliant and resourceful.  She is, however alone in the world and very pleased to settle into the English country life of her middle-class in-laws.

The book is well paced as the development of Charlotte’s happy involvement in village life is interrupted by a surprising event.  Some of the characters are grotesque examples of the period - the hunting vicar, the mysterious Indian, the lower-class grandmother and the mother-in-law in a wheelchair. 

The characters are listed at the beginning in typical Victorian fashion, but their descriptions are brutally direct.  I enjoyed the careful establishment of setting, the gradual revelation of Charlotte’s dark past and the shockingly climactic murder.  Charlotte makes her own efforts to discover the cause of the death which she knows is murder while everyone else assumes it to be natural.
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Reviewer: Jennifer S. Palmer
This is Nicola Slade’s first historical crime novel though she has published short stories and a novel Scuba Dancing.  

Nicola Slade (1943-2020) was brought up in Poole, Dorset. She wrote children’s stories when her three children were growing up. Winning a story competition in Family Circle galvanised her into writing seriously. Scuba Dancin, a romantic comedy was her first published novel. A series of Victorian mysteries followed: Murder Most Welcome was published by Robert Hale Ltd, 2008, featuring Charlotte Richmond, a young widow in the 1850s. Charlotte also features in the second of the series: Death is the Cure, (Robert Hale Ltd, 2009). The third of Charlotte's adventures, The Dead Queen's Garden, was published in December 2013. Murder Fortissimo came out January 2011. This is a contemporary 'cosy' crime novel, featuring former headmistress, Harriet Quigley, and her sidekick and cousin, Rev Sam Hathaway. A Crowded Coffin', is the second adventure for Harriet and Sam.

www.nicolaslade.wordpress.com

 

‘Murder Across the Lines’ by Janice Frost

Published by Joffe Books,
9 December 2021.
ISBN: 978-1-80405054-5 (PB)

Special Constable Jane Bell witnesses a young girl of about thirteen being stabbed as she waits at a busy crossing in Lincoln city centre. Jane rushes over to her and as she lays dying, the girl whispers the name Nate.

We then learn of Detective Inspector Steph Warwick a month earlier being called to the scene of the suspected torture and murder of a Nicholas Burke, known as Cole. It is believed his death was related to drugs and the increase of county lines dealing. Gangs have been moving into lots of quieter towns and rural areas, recruiting children sometimes as young as eight or nine. A neighbour of Cole’s tells of seeing youngsters visiting him during school hours.

We then go back to Jane after witnessing the stabbing of the young girl, Warwick arrives and joins Jane in the cafe owned by Jane’s friends opposite where it happened. Steph and Jane have a bit of history, neither is keen on the other and it’s a bit strained. However, they now have to pull together in unravelling the two deaths and the involvement of the gangs running the county lines. The only real clue they have to work on is the name Nate. We then learn of how he and his alcoholic mother moved to Lincoln recently and that he is being groomed by an older boy and then dragged into the drugs trade.

Throughout the book, each chapter is devoted to the story of one of the characters. As things develop, we learn how so many vulnerable children are tricked into working for greedy, evil, very violent gangsters only interested in making a fortune.

Steph and her team, together with Jane have an exceedingly difficult case to solve. Steph grudgingly accepts that Jane really can be a great help. However, can they find young Nate before he is also publicly murdered?

A very disturbing story of too real a problem of the increasing cases of county line drug crimes. At first, I found the devotion of each chapter to one character rather confusing, but I must admit after a while I felt it was a clever way of describing each of the individuals’ depths of feelings, helping to understand their actions and reactions.

Recommended especially for readers interested in this very real problem. It’s told so realistically that I feel the author must have a deep knowledge of the subject.
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Reviewer: Tricia Chappell

Janice Frost is the author of two crime/mystery books featuring Detectives Jim Neal and Ava Merry. Dead Secret and Dark Secret are set in the imaginary East Midlands city of Stromford. Dead Secret sees Jim and Ava pairing up to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. It is their first major case together and the two soon discover that they have very different personalities. Neal is intellectual and considered, Ava clever and occasionally reckless. Both are passionate about the job they do but have to work hard at being an effective team.

Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.

‘Buried Too Deep’ by Jane Finnis

Published by Poisoned Pen Press.
10 June 2008.
ISBN:978-1-59058399-9

This series gets better with every book, and it was very good to start with.  Buried Too Deep is the third book in the series of murder mysteries set in Roman Britain in which Aurelia Marcella fights to uncover the truth and protect those she cares about. 

In Buried Too Deep Aurelia struggles to discover the hidden agenda behind the pirate raids that are wreaking havoc on the North British coast.  The matter is especially urgent as these raids are endangering Aurelia's dearly loved sister, Albia, and Albia's husband and children.  Aurelia is a down-to-earth realist, and she is astonished to realise that the present troubles may be linked to a hunt for buried treasure, the existence of which she believed was merely legend.  What is more, it appears that this hidden gold has a link to a secret in her own family.  Soon Aurelia finds herself trapped between two ruthless and ambitious enemies, who will stop at nothing to gain ultimate power and it is clear that at least one of them is happy to kill her if it serves his purpose.  Fortunately, life cannot be too grim for Aurelia when her dearest friend and lover turns up to help with her enquiries.

Aurelia manages to discover many truths and secrets that have been deeply buried, including one that will change the lives of her whole family.  As to whether the hidden treasure was buried too deep for even Aurelia to uncover, I suggest you read the book to find out.  I don't think you'll regret it; I found Buried Too Deep a page-turner and I can't wait for number four.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron
Jane Finnis' two previous novels featuring Aurelia Marcella are Get Out Or Die and A Bitter Chill, both published by Poisoned Pen Press.

Jane Finnis read history at the University of London before working as a radio producer for the BBC.  Her four Roman mysteries are about life (and death) in first-century Roman Britain. They feature Aurelia Marcella, who runs an inn on the road to York, and keeps getting drawn into solving mysteries in what is still a new frontier province of the mighty Roman Empire. Jane now lives in  east Yorkshire and spends her time researching and writing about the Roman Empire. To read a review other most recent book Danger In The Wind, click on the title.

 www.janefinnis.com

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 5 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. To read the interview click on the link below. 

https://promotingcrime.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/carol-westron.html www.carolwestron.com
http://carolwestron.blogspot.co.uk/

To read a review of Carol latest book This Game of Ghosts
Cick on the title.

‘The Curse Of The Concrete Griffin’ by Carol Westron

Published by Pentangle Press,
19 February 2022.
ISBN: 979-841630281-8 (PB)

Carol Westron’s new mystery, The Curse Of The Concrete Griffin, brings readers the start of a wonderful cozy mystery series featuring a most unusual pair of sleuths.

Setting the series amidst the charming cottages of the Clayfield Retirement Estate was an inspired choice. The modern cottages give residents their privacy and maintain their independence, within the shelter of a community setting and provide just the kind of closed setting Christie would employ.

Westron introduces readers to two unlikely sleuths who are a study in contrasts to head her series. Maddie Summer is artistic, flamboyant, and definitely a risk-taker. She a young grandmother with an attentive family, and very happy to keep her independence living alone. The more subdued Grace Winton is her counterpoint, the supposed voice of reason who, to Maddie’s mind, needs to be loosened from the strict constraints under which she’d been raised, fulfilling a deathbed promise to her dying mother as a young woman that saw her drop out of university to care for her mean-spirited father until his death.

But the two women have a common bond when they both receive threatening anonymous letters. And despite a fond look in their eyes for the newest single male resident, they soon learn they are not alone in having received poison pen letters—and soon set out to find who is the culprit.

The men in the community include charming Joel, cantankerous Norman, Ron, a crime enthusiast, and Freddie Fell, whose concrete griffin outside his house is the cause of much anxiety among some residents, more for its ugly appearance than the whisper of its curse. Among the women, Nell, Rose and Mrs. Mountjoy, and Ron’s wife Amy are a few of the residents the two sleuths have their eyes on.

Then a murder occurs, and it spurs this dynamic duo to enlarge their snooping from poison pen letters to blackmail to a murder investigation.

The novel is filled with humor, despite the sometimes-sniping tensions of an older community that makes it feel totally realistic. There is the pathos of aging, too, but the book never sinks into being maudlin, but rather, gives a clear-eyed picture of how viable people of a certain age continue to be, with real change possible. Each character is fully-realised, and readers will be yearning for the next installment to see where these two unlikely sleuths will find themselves. This is a strong start to what promises to be an enchanting series.

Westron, who teaches creative writing and is a rich source of Golden Age authors and their mysteries, has worked as an editor and publisher, and written short stories, Victorian and contemporary mysteries. She is a frequent contributor to Mystery People, and will be resurrecting the Deadly Dames panel at Portsmouth Bookfest on  21^st February 2022.
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Reviewer: Marni Griff

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 5 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. To read the interview click on the link below. 

https://promotingcrime.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/carol-westron.html www.carolwestron.com
http://carolwestron.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Marni Graff is the author of the Nora Tierney mystery series, set in the UK. She is also co-author of Writing in a Changing World, a primer on writing groups and critique techniques. A member of Sisters in Crime, Graff runs the NC Writers Read program in Belhaven and founded the group Coastal Carolina Mystery Writers. She has also published poetry, last seen in Amelia Earhart: A Tribute; her creative nonfiction has most recently appeared in Southern Women’s Review. Her latest book is Death at the Dakota: A Trudy Genova Manhattan Mystery."  

 http://auntiemwrites.com/