‘The Mystery of the Gold Rings’ by Judith Cutler

Published by Joffe Books,
5 January 2026
ISBN: 978-1-80573443-7 (PB)
Originally published as
Ring of Guilt, March 2013. 

Lina Townend is the partner in an antiques business, alongside her unofficially adopted grandfather, Griff Tripp. Lina is returning from an auction with a van full of items she has just bought at an auction when she sees a body lying in an isolated field. Lina is more capable of defending herself than most young women, but she is also aware of the dangers of leaving her van to check out the body, which could result in the theft of her valuable, and at this point, uninsured cargo. Unfortunately, she cannot get a phone signal, and there is nobody around to help her, so Lina takes a long-distance photograph of the body, and goes to find a signal to phone the police. When the police arrive, the body has disappeared. Although they would like to dismiss Lina’s story, the photo prevents them from doing this, and they say that they will investigate and be in touch. 

Before Lina came to live with Griff, she had endured a disrupted childhood, living in numerous foster homes, but now she is settled with Griff, who has educated her and encouraged her belief in her self-worth. He has also helped her do informal apprenticeships with antique dealers and restorers, so that she has become highly skilled and respected in her career. Lina also has a gift that cannot be learned, she is a ‘divvy’, a diviner who can instinctively sense precious objects. One of the least impressive things she bought at the auction is a box full of battered and broken household articles, but in it she discovers a gold ring of great antiquity. Soon afterwards, by chance, Lina buys a similar ring from a dealer in dress jewellery at an antiques fair. She and Griff take the rings to London, to show them to an expert at the British Museum, Sir Douglas Nelson, who is an old friend of Griff. Lina thinks that Douggie, as Griff calls him, is very distant in his manner, but she assumes this is because he disapproves of Griff taking her into partnership, an attitude she has encountered before. 

However, a few days later, Detective Sergeant Will Kinnersley, Kent Police’s Heritage Officer, turns up to question Lina, not about ‘her body’ as she first assumes, but to interrogate her about the rings. To Lina’s fury, Douglas Nelson has reported her to the police for illegally acquiring the rings, possibly by digging in an archaeological site. Fortunately, she and Griff always keep immaculate records and receipts, and they are able to prove Lina’s innocence. 

It is evident that Will Kinnersley admires Lina, but she is less keen, as the last attractive police officer she considered starting a relationship with, returned to a former relationship when his previous partner told him she was pregnant with his child. However, Lina has another admirer in high-end antiques dealer, Harvey Waverley, who seems to admire both her personal charms, and her skill as a restorer and her knowledge of antiques. 

The queries around the gold rings could be the sort of misfortune that can happen to even the most reputable dealers in antiques, but strange things continue to happen, which could endanger the professional reputation of Tripp and Townend. It seems that Lina has a powerful enemy who will go to great lengths to discredit her and may even go further and attempt physical harm. Lina and Griff are determined to discover the truth, but they have no idea of the identity of this ruthless adversary, or how the attacks could be connected to the body that Lina had seen. 

The Mystery of the Gold Rings is the third book in the series featuring Lina Townend. It is an interesting addition to a lively series, based in the fascinating world of antiques. Lina is a delightful and engaging protagonist, working tirelessly to improve her memory, knowledge and vocabulary, and she is surrounded by many regular characters that are likeable and eccentric. This is an enjoyable cosy crime novel, 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 

‘The Blood We Share’ by Morgan Greene

Published by Canelo Crime,
17 July 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-80436-975-3 (PB)

Dark deeds can lie concealed under the most peaceful and benign façades. Jacob Taylor has lived in Devil's Lake all his life, and despite the small town's sinister name, he's never had cause for concern. Until one life-changing night. He's driving home, very carefully, in an alcoholic haze when a young woman, barefoot and covered in blood, stumbles into his path. She begs for help, and he takes her home with him.  

Next thing he knows, the woman has disappeared and he's in a police cell accused of murder and kidnapping, and two burly officers are trying to kill him. It's all downhill from there, and not only for Jacob. 

On the outskirts of town is a large house shrouded in mystery. Most people avoid it, and all the locals know about it is that top-quality soft fruit is grown in the extensive grounds and sold in the shops and markets. But the young woman has painted a very different picture, and after Jacob escapes from his captors they meet again, and she fills in even more horrifying detail. With the help of his capable sister and a police officer who still has scruples, he sets out to investigate. 

There are four main players: Jacob himself, the young woman, Jacob's sister Steph, and Todd Ellis, the policeman with a conscience. They come across as ordinary people who want to get on with their lives but find themselves entangled in a difficult situation. In the background various others include corrupt policemen and gullible – or trapped – women, but they are less distinctive and more stereotypical. 

The scenario which emerges is fraught with danger and convoluted to the point of labyrinthine, and it's matched by a narrative structure which is almost as complex, jumping from one viewpoint character to another and in more than one timeframe. None of that detracts from the horror of what Jacob discovers. The entire story is not one for the faint-hearted or weak-stomached: a mounting body count and explosive denouement are only part of it. This is crime fiction of the down and dirty variety.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick 

Morgan Greene is the pen name of British author Daniel Morgan. He studied Creative Writing and English Literature at Swansea University with a focus on narrative structure and theory. Author of the bestselling Detective Jamie Johansson series, Daniel currently lives in South Wales with his partner. Has strong ties to Scandinavia. 

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 American Suspect’ by Jim Kelly

Published by Allison and Busby,
19 March 2026.
ISBN 978-0-7490-3264-7 (HB)

The American Suspect is the fifth novel in this author’s Nighthawk series. It is set in and around Cambridge during 1942. American GIs are stationed in the area building airfields from which to launch bombing raids on Nazi Germany. A buried body, identified only by his dog tag, is found in an unmarked and curious spot as a runway is being extended at one of these airfields. Detective Inspector Eden Brooke is called from Cambridge to investigate. No recent burial, it transpires that it took place during the Great War (Brooke is a veteran of that conflict and has disturbing flashbacks to his participation). It appears that this is a case of murder, although there are complications. Albert Ball-Proctor was a pilot who went missing in action, presumed dead, in 1918. How, then, did his body end up in an unmarked grave on an airfield? 

We are soon introduced to a number of other important characters. Amongst them are Molly Curtin, a young and attractive member of the WAAF, and her bedridden mother Ede. Major Gerry Brogan is a detective in the US military police. Two further murders are committed, and Eden becomes convinced that the three deaths are linked. A black US serviceman is arrested and charged with murder. Brooke has reasons for doubting his guilt and has to work quickly as capital punishment is, of course, on the statute book.                                        

There are a number of other strands to the novel. Cats, particularly black ones, are regularly being abducted in Cambridge for their fur. Expensive wine is going missing from college cellars, and cigars are also targeted. All plot lines are drawn together as the novel reaches its conclusion. 

The novel is marked by a series of contrasts which are central to the story. There is, for example, tension between the local police and the US officials. Although Brooke gets on well in the main with Brogan, on one occasion he finds it necessary to deliver a lecture: ‘The law, Major – that is, the United States of America (Visiting Forces) Act – stipulates, as I’m sure you know, that US servicemen operate under US law in the United Kingdom, supervised by the US military police. It does not say that any UK citizen falls under your authority.’ There is also tension between the coloured (a term used in the novel) and white US soldiers; the two groups are usually kept apart by being given different evenings off. In the same lecture, Brooke says ‘Most people find coloured troops friendly and good-mannered, less boastful perhaps than their counterparts in white units. We don’t like ‘swank’, Major. The coloured troops don’t act like they own the place. That can’t always be said of their white counterparts, can it?’ Molly Curtin’s relationship with a coloured US soldier is complicated by these racial stresses. 

Kelly writes with an assured grasp of the period. The background of wartime eastern England is a constant, whether it be the deprivations of some or the machinations of others. The fears of families with sons on active service, including Brooke’s, are ever-present. This is an intelligent and, despite some of its subject matter, a civilized novel whose plot retains the reader’s interest. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it enthusiastically.

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Reviewer David Whittle

Jim Kelly was born in 1957 and is the son of a Scotland Yard detective. He went to university in Sheffield, later training as a journalist and worked on the Bedfordshire Times, Yorkshire Evening Press and the Financial Times. His first book, The Water Clock, was shortlisted for the John Creasey Award and he has since won a CWA Dagger in the Library and the New Angle Prize for Literature. He lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire. 

www.jim-kelly.co.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. 

‘The Case of the Petrified Potter’ by Cathy Ace

Published by Four Tails Publishing,
16 March 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-99055064-5

Renowned The four women of the WISE Investigation Agency have been reduced to two active agents: Mavis is on sick leave, having injured her hand; and Christine has just had a baby, and is on maternity leave. This means that Carol and Annie have to work together to tackle the agency’s latest case. This proves to be one of the most difficult and emotionally draining cases that any of the women have ever had to undertake, but fortunately Carol and Annie trust each other implicitly, and make an excellent team. 

Their client is retired head teacher, Iris Lewis, who is a good friend of all the WISE women. Now Iris wishes to employ them on a professional basis, to solve a cold case involving a crime that was committed in 1984. Iris has always been an active member of the Anwen Social Committee, but now she plans to step down, and, to honour her years of service, the Duchess of Chellingworth has invited her to select the person who will officially rename the old school when it reopens as an artisans’ hub. Iris has found the perfect person to open the hub, but she needs the services of the WISE women to persuade this magnificent artist to participate. Penelope Llewellyn, now Penelope Pennington, had been a pupil at Iris’ school, and had later become a world-renowned potter under the pseudonym ‘Anwen’, although very few people know the potter’s true identity. Iris has managed to track down Penny, and she has agreed to abandon her anonymity, but only if Iris can help her to find some peace before she dies, by discovering the truth about the death of Penny’s young sister, Linda. The time available to solve this tragedy is short, not just because of the imminent opening of the artisans’ hub, but because Penny is dying from liver cancer. 

The death of twelve-year-old Linda Llewellyn took place at the village of Pontyrhydyfen, the birthplace of Richard Burton. In August 1984 the village was packed with mourning fans, who wished to attend Burton’s memorial service. Linda had been foisted on her seventeen-year-old sister, Penny, and two of her friends, who were attending the memorial with two of their boyfriends. Linda had been whining, and Penny had bought her an ice cream and left her, planning to pick her up again later. However, when the teenagers looked for Linda, they could not find her. There was a delay in contacting the police, but when they found Linda, three days later, she was dead, having apparently fallen from the local aqueduct. The coroner brought in an open verdict, which meant there was insufficient evidence to show whether Linda died by accident, suicide or murder. 

Carol and Annie are deeply moved when they meet Penny, and she explains that, over the years, many people have accused her of murdering Linda, including her own irrational mother. Penny is desperate for the truth to be discovered before she dies, so that her children know what really happened, rather than having to live with the false accusations that have been levelled against her. 

In the meantime, Christine feels rather bored. She adores her baby daughter, but as her partner, Alexander, is doing over half the childcare, she has not got enough to engage her. Fortunately, Alexander discovers a historical mystery for Christine to research, when he discovers an interesting and potentially valuable artefact at Chellingworth Hall, the property of Henry Twyst, the eighteenth Duke of Chellingworth. Alexander is devoted to Christine and is pleased that she is interested in her research. He is glad to immerse himself in the care of their baby daughter, which helps to distract him from his fear that a business contretemps in London may have placed his life in danger. On a lighter note, Annie’s busybody neighbour, Marjorie, amazes Annie when she asks her to undertake a very unusual investigation into an online crush. Annie and Carol are so busy that this has to be put on the backburner while they concentrate on Linda’s death, which means that Annie has to keep avoiding Marjorie, who expects immediate service even when the investigators are doing her a favour. 

Annie and Carol manage to track down Penny’s two old friends and the surviving boyfriend, but nobody can offer any insights into Linda’s death. It is only when they get permission to widen the investigation and confide in a few trusted people, including some who were in Pontyrhydyfen on the day of the memorial, that the tragic truth is revealed. 

The Case of the Petrified Potter is the thirteenth book in the series featuring the WISE women. It is a fascinating addition to a delightful series, with a strong, emotionally powerful storyline. The characters are warm and likeable, and the protagonists and their community grow and develop with each book in the series. It is especially pleasant to see Annie and Carol taking such masterly control of an investigation and working so well together. This is a thoroughly enjoyable page-turner, which I thoroughly recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron 

Cathy Ace was born and raised in Swansea, South Wales. With a successful career in marketing having given her the chance to write training courses and textbooks, Cathy has now finally turned her attention to her real passion: crime fiction. Her short stories have appeared in multiple anthologies. Two of her works, Dear George and Domestic Violence, have also been produced by Jarvis & Ayres Productions as ‘Afternoon Reading’ broadcasts for BBC Radio 4. Cathy now writes two series of traditional mysteries: The Cait Morgan Mysteries (TouchWood Editions) and The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (Severn House Publishers)

http://cathyace.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 

‘The Terror of Tannery Lane’ by M.R.C. Kasasian

Published by Canelo,
19 March 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-80436906-7 (PB)

The Terror of Tannery Lane is the third novel in this author’s series featuring the diminutive Lady Violet Thorn, daughter of Lord Thetbury and author of penny dreadfuls set in Victorian Suffolk. I read, reviewed and enjoyed its predecessor The Montford Maniac. I have not yet read The Horror of Haglin House, the first of the series. 

At the very start a man is assumed to have drowned in floods caused by torrential rain, despite the best attempts of Lady Violet to save him. What this has to do with later events only becomes clear well through the story. Shenanigans during the visit to the town of the Prince of Wales, celebrating Queen Victoria’s jubilee a mere 17 months late, lead Lady Violet to visit a nursing home where she overhears a disagreement between a patient and her visitors. She befriends Cherry Bight, the young lady patient, who claims that her parents are missing (she presumes they have been murdered) and their home, Maccabee House, sold under duress to her visitors, the Brutons. Matters quickly descend into relative chaos. A mannequin with a knife sticking out of it appears in Lady Violet’s house, body parts are discovered and the Brutons disappear. The search for Cherry Bight’s parents goes on. 

As in its predecessor, Lady Violet is aided in her investigations by some eccentric characters. Her two retainers, the faithful manservant Gerrund and the outspoken maid Agnust, remain idiosyncratic. The hansom driver Faithless and his horse Old Queeny continue to potter about. Inspector Alfred Stanbury of the local police is by comparison relatively normal. We learnt in The Montford Maniac that Lady Violet had been jilted by her fiancé, but she now appears to be going sweet on Anthony Appleton, a dapper thespian who appears to specialise in joining rather hopeless touring companies (‘I cannot recall a production in which the prompt has been so frequently employed,’ he quoted ruefully from the Crimplesham Clarion. ‘Mr Anthony Appleton appeared to be the sole member of the company who had taken the trouble to learn his lines.’) Some of the dialogue is in what one assumes to be a Suffolk dialect, and one or two of the locals are given to strange expressions and/or mangling well-known sayings (‘One nod is as good as another to a deaf goat’ Agnust announces at one point). 

Again, as in its predecessor, leading characters from Lady Violet’s own novels continually pop up in her head to give advice and comment on her actions or those of others involved in the story. Prominent are Ruby Gibson, her lady adventuress, and Inspector Havelock Hefty of Scotland Yard. ‘For too long I had sought solace in the company of my characters but even they brought me no comfort now,’ Lady Violet says at one point. She continues to enjoy absinthe and the elaborate ritual it requires. 

Voodoo, sewage, drowning, tanning hides, misidentifications and a lunatic asylum are some of the subjects covered, and considerable violence and savagery occur (particularly towards the end) in a novel whose general flavour is nonetheless light-hearted and comic. For once I had my suspicions about one character early on (I’m not usually a forensic reader) and was proved right, not that I foresaw the closing circumstances at all. The novel joins The Montford Maniac in being a very entertaining and well-plotted novel which can be recommended with enthusiasm to those who like a bit (in truth, quite a lot) of fun.
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Reviewer: David Whittle 

M. R. C. Kasasian  was raised in Lancashire, and has had careers as varied as factory hand, wine waiter, veterinary assistant, fairground worker and  dentist. He lives with his wife in Suffolk in the winter and in a fishing village in the south of Malta during the summer. He is now a full time author. 

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 then.

‘Better Off Dead’ by Sean Watkin.

Published by Canelo Crime,
22 January 2026. 
ISBN:  978-1-83598-132-0 (PB)

DCI de Silva and DS Barclay first appeared in Black Water Rising and are still coping with the personal consequences of their involvement in a case which has now been taken over by the National Crime Agency.  de Silva is coping with the loss of her husband – there are unanswered questions about his life, perhaps main one being  whether she had ever really known him.  Barclay’s own marriage has broken up and he is trying to come to terms with this and how his relationship with his daughter will move on.

They are reassigned to a cold case involving a dismembered body found in Formby woods some years before.  Their investigations suggest that there are links between this and other bodies found in the region.  There also seem to be a link to the current case.  As they continue their work, secrets are revealed - a tangled web of awful crimes with massive consequences for those involved.  

As the introduction says, this is a dark and gritty crime thriller.  The plot is well-written, and moves smoothly between the criminal investigations and the lives of individual characters.  The pace reflects the different storylines, but overall the tension does not let up, as even the smallest specks of light and hope are quickly extinguished.  The drama continues to the final page and, tantalisingly, leaves the reader still waiting for some resolution. 

This is the second in the de Silva and Barclay series and, though it does work as a stand-alone, readers may well feel that starting with Black Water Rising may provide background information to the key figures and their back stories and prepare for the continuing story. 
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books by this author:  Black Water Rising. 

Sean Watkin is an author and internal communications specialist from England. He grew up in Liverpool and studied a BA and an MA in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University, where he began work on his debut novel, a police procedural. He has guest-lectured with undergraduate and MA Creative Writing students and teaches writing courses in the community. He currently lives in Liverpool with his partner. 

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.

‘Blood on Old Stones’ by Alex Gray.

Published by Sphere,
12 March 2026. 
ISBN:  978-1-4087-2189-6 (HB)

DSI William Lorimer and his wife Maggie are visiting the Isle of Mull again.  It’s somewhere they love – the windswept coasts, the picturesque lochs, the wildlife, all combine to make it a magical place. But this time they are coming to attend the funeral of their friend Mary.  After the funeral they join friends and relatives at the wake. Here they meet Chrissie McPhail, the Tobermory postmistress, and Lorimer is surprised when she whispers to him that she needs to speak to him because something is not right….  She arranges to meet him the following morning at Leiter Cottage (where they have often stayed) to talk about Mary’s death. 

Lorimer and Maggie arrive at the Cottage as arranged, but the only sign of Chrissie is a warm kettle.  They check the rooms and then look outside, where Lorimer finds Chrissie lying in the garden.  He calls the police and, whilst awaiting their arrival, he looks closely at the scene and begins to suspect that it doesn’t look like a straightforward accident.  Then he is contacted by Culum, one of Mary’s sons, who informs him that her house has been burgled. 

And so, he and indeed Maggie, become involved in a police inquiry which spreads to both deaths.  As the investigation progresses, interesting information comes to light – Mary has left her house to the recently-arrived young wife of the local GP, leaving no explanation for her two sons, who are understandably bewildered. 

The plot cleverly drip-feeds information, suggesting various lines of inquiry.  The characters are neatly drawn, reflecting their backgrounds and their places in Tobermory society.  The setting itself is, as so often the case in these island places, an important part of the story, lending more than a background to the activities, but a strong sense of history and locality.  The fact that Lorimer and Maggie have visited often means that they do not stand out so much as the new officers brought into to handle the cases, helping the numerous outsiders to fit in a little bit more easily. The story itself unfolds in a tense but controlled way, as the police pick through the evidence to an unexpected conclusion. 

The 23rd book in this popular series, this will please regular readers.  For first-time readers it works, as a stand-alone, with the story providing the relevant background information about the Lorimers, their links to Tobermory and their relationship to other characters, and may well entice them into looking at previous stories.
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Books by this author:  The William Lorimer Series:  this currently comprises 23 novels of which the first 5 are:  Never Somewhere else; A Small Weeping:  Shadows of Sounds:  The Riverman.  Ebook:  The Bank Job.

Alex Gray was born 27 May 1950, in  Glasgow.  She studied English and Philosophy at Strathclyde University and worked for a period in the Department of Health & Social Security before training as an English teacher.  In 1976 she lived in Rhodesia for three months, during which time she got married, and she and her husband returned to Scotland. She continued teaching until the 1990s, when she gave the profession up and began to write full-time. Her novels are all set around Glasgow and featuring the character of Detective Chief Inspector Lorimer and his psychological profiler Solomon Brightman. She has been awarded the Scottish Association of Writers’ Constable and Pitlochry trophies for her crime writing and is the co-founder of the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival. 

www.alex-gray.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 Dangerous Stranger’ by Simon Mason

Published by Riverrun,
12 March 2026.
ISBN: 987-1-52943959-5 (HB)

The place: Oxford. The protagonists: two detective inspectors. One is Oxford educated, sophisticated, socially aware, thoughtful; he's called Ray. The other is inarticulate, ungainly, intuitive and was brought (or dragged) up on a trailer park; he's called Ryan. All they have in common is their surname; they're both called Wilkins. And they're both fathers. And they get results. Quite how that happens may be a bigger mystery than any they have to solve, especially to the Chief Constable.

 The Dangerous Stranger is the fifth book in the series, and though they'll never be friends exactly, by now they've sort of settled into an uneasy partnership. So when a horrific incident occurs outside a hotel given over to asylum seekers, they're the ones who are sent to investigate. They discover that the victim wasn't an asylum seeker at all, but a visitor to Oxford who turns out to be French. The Chief Constable is appalled: a potential major diplomatic crisis on his own doorstep, and his two least favourite detectives looking into it.

It gets worse. The French visitor's upmarket London hotel is unco-operative. The French Embassy call in one of their own. And to cap it all, Ray Wilkins's wife takes their baby twins and leaves him, and his father announces that he has a terminal disease. And Ryan's violent dad is out of prison. 

Lurking in the background are a genuine asylum seeker on the run from some unknown danger, a man called Dogs and someone called the Head-Hunter who seems to scare the daylights out of half the criminal underworld. 

The question is, who will pull all these threads together and avoid the diplomatic crisis? One guess should do it. 

Simon Mason has created one of the most engaging sets of characters crime fiction has thrown up recently. Oxford mysteries aren't thin on the ground, but not like this. You'll be reading into the small hours, desperate to know  not only who committed the crime, but also whether the rookie DC on the team will ever make a decent detective, if Ray's wife will come back, and most important of all, if four-year-old Ryan, big Ryan's endearing son, will build the best castle for his school project.  

This is crime fiction at its most quirky – and it's unputdownable.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Simon Mason is an author of children's and adult books. His first adult novel, a black comedy entitled The Great English Nude, won the Betty Trask first novel award and Moon Pie was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction prize. Running Girl is his first story starring Garvie Smith. Simon lives in Oxford with his wife and their two children.

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.

‘Watch Them Fall’ by Marion Todd

Published by Canelo London,
12 March 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-83598322-5 (PB)

When Dennis Gibb’s body is found floating in St Andrews harbour, DI Clare Mackay wants to give his death priority. Her boss, Superintendent Penny Meakin, has other ideas. Penny insists Clare prioritises a burglary reported by Rex and Erika Freeman, architects who are overseeing a controversial and expensive housing development. There is a shortage of affordable homes in the small university town and a protest march has been organised against the development. 

Clare and Sergeant Chris West visit the Freeman’s posh house. They are told that nothing has been taken and, although they suspect the burglary is a hoax designed to get the protest march banned, they send forensic experts to examine the supposed crime scene. The search of the Freeman’s house revealed a camera hidden in a false smoke alarm in the sitting room.  Two other similar break-ins, where nothing was taken and spy cameras were installed, were reported. Who was spying on these people and why? Where was the recorded data stored? Would it provide useful information if they could find it? 

Once the pathologist’s report showed that Dennis Gibb had been drowned deliberately, the Freemans and Gibb’s son, Steve, and his wife Jenny, became suspects. They all stood to benefit from Dennis’s death because he had owned a cottage in the middle of the proposed development area. The situation is further complicated by a second death in the Gibb family, the discovery that Steve Gibb had never divorced his first wife, and that he had an older brother, Brad whom nobody has seen for years. Is Brad still alive? Could he be the murderer? 

Superintendent Penny Meakin remained a constant thorn in Clare’s side. Despite it being obvious that the St Andrews police force lacked the resources to manage a large protest march safely, Penny insisted it went ahead.  Clare’s partner Detective Alistair, Al, Gibson had told her in strict confidence that Penny was using the event to lure and arrest professional agitators. Her intransience had devastating results. 

In the police station the desk sergeant, Jim Douglas, is a steady and reliable presence and Patch is the new ‘weightlifting’ girl on the block. Sergeant Chris West and his constable wife Sarah, whilst happily married, have an issue they need to resolve. As indeed does Clare herself. Alistair is now living and working away from home four days a week. Clare misses Al and finds his absence difficult. Her little dog Bengy, whilst very affectionate, can’t quite fill the gap.  Watch them fall is a great read although it comes with a warning. You might just want to keep a hanky ready when you reach the end of the book.
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Reviewer: Angela Crowther. 

Marion Todd studied music and worked for many years as a piano teacher and jobbing accompanist. A spell as a hotel lounge pianist provided rich fodder for her writing and she began experimenting with a variety of genres. Early success saw her winning first prize in the Family Circle Magazine Short Story for Children national competition and she followed this up by writing short stories and articles for her local newspaper. Marion has also worked as a college lecturer, plantswoman and candle-maker and now is a full-time writer, penning the DI Clare Mackay series of crime fiction novels set in St Andrews. Marion lives now in North East Fife, overlooking the magnificent River Tay.  

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.

‘In At The Death’ by Judith Cutler

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

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