‘The Day of the Serpent’ by Cassandra Clark

Published by ‎Severn House,
26 August 2021.
ISBN: 978-0-72789090-0 (HB)

Following her Abbess of Meaux murder mystery stories, Cassandra Clark is now writing another medieval series, The Broken Kingdom Trilogy, featuring Brother Chandler. The Day of the Serpent is the second novel.

Set in 1400, as Henry IV takes the throne from Richard II, the story starts with the murder of Richard and the journey of the royal cortege from Pontefract to London. During this and later a number of Henry’s men-at-arms are picked off by an unknown bowman (or bowmen). This may be the result of a quarrel, but Henry’s stepbrother, Sir Thomas Swynford, is concerned that it could be the start of a rising against the usurper. He summons Rodric Chandler, a friar in the order of St Serapion, and orders him to find the killer(s) with threats of dire consequences if he fails. Chandler is a reluctant sleuth and spy with his own secrets and divided loyalties. The early passages show his regard for Richard, but he is in the pay of Henry. There is also the complication of his relationship with Mattie, a maid in the household of Geoffrey Chaucer, who also has her secrets as a result of the suspicion the authorities have of her employer’s activities.

As one would expect given Clark’s back catalogue, she is clearly at home in the period and there is a wealth of detail. This makes for a convincing setting of her story. Given that it is set in what was such a fractious period of English history, the novel is in many ways as much a study of the unsettling atmosphere of suspicions, plots and loyalties as it is a tale of murder – and is none the worse for that. Indeed, the killers are unveiled but there remains some doubt about exact details, and we are left in wondering about Chandler’s future and what has happened to Chaucer and his household. All will be revealed, one assumes, in the final novel.

I confess that I have not read the first story in the series (The Hour of the Fox), but I am certainly now keen to do so to find out what I have missed about Brother Chandler and Mattie. I am also eager to read the final novel (The Night of the Wolf) that is out very shortly. Clark’s writing, switching between first and third persons as well as interspersing Chandler’s chronicles, keeps the action galloping along. If medieval mystery is an enthusiasm, you will not be disappointed.
------
Reviewer: David Whittle

Cassandra Clark was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire where she grew up in a village near the ancient medieval market town of Beverley. For several years she wrote scripts for the theatre, radio and television as well as contemporary fiction while tutoring at the Open University. She won a Directors' Guild Award for a stage play and ran a lunch-time theatre in a Tudor inn in York.  She is the author of the acclaimed series featuring Abbess Hildegard. There are 13 books in the series. Her most recent series features Brother Chandler. The latest book is The Night of the Wolf, which will be published in June 2023.  Her childhood spent in Yorkshire was her inspiration for the series.

https://www.cassandraclark.co.uk

David Whittle wrote his doctorate on that fascinating character and composer Bruce Montgomery, better known as Edmund Crispin. As David is a musician, he concentrated in the thesis more on his music, but later published (as he had originally intended) his biography which gave, his variety of work equal balance. As someone who has always enjoyed crime writing, David felt he was a very appropriate person to write about!  David was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for 32 years and, although classically trained, he is also involved in folk and big band music.

‘In the Shadows’ by Jane Isaac

Published by Legend Press,
25 May 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-91564389-6 (PB)

The book opens with a lone shooter, firing at a crowd of teenagers and twenty-year-old youngsters as they leave O’Malley’s a pub in the small midlands town of Hampton. At least four are killed and many more injured.

Detective Chief Inspector Helen Lavery is having dinner with her newly returned boss, Superintendent  Jenkins, when she receives news of the shooting. They both head straight over there. It’s carnage, blood and bodies everywhere.

At first it seems likely to be terror related, but why hasn’t a group or faction claimed responsibility? Also, why pick such a relatively quiet place in town, how come a cinema or shopping centre was not targeted for maximum impact?

Caught up in the terror is Ashleigh, a young woman out with two friends. She survives but is too traumatised to want to leave the apartment she shares with her fiancé Noah.

Meanwhile, Helen has other things to worry about, up and coming is the trial of “Chilli” Franks a notorious organised crime boss against whom she is to give evidence. Her family and Franks have history, and he still resents them. Problems increase, when Helen’s son, Robert befriends Frank’s nephew Zac at school, and when suspicions arise that Franks may have some sort of involvement in the shooting, the past rears its ugly head.

It seems every faction comes under suspicion, now a neo-Nazi organisation is suspected as they were known to have planned an attack on a gay bar elsewhere. The owners of the pub were a gay couple.

Then Ashleigh receives threatening emails, what can these possibly have to do with the case? Suddenly her apartment doesn’t feel so safe.

The more Helen investigates, the more confusing it all becomes. She even suspects at one time; a member of the force may be involved.

Will the shooter strike again, it seems quite likely, but can Helen and the team solve the case and arrest the perpetrator in time to prevent a repeat attack?

A really great fast paced, first rate, edge of the seat thriller, full of red herrings.I highly recommend this latest Detective Inspector Helen Lavery book.
------
Reviewer: Tricia Chappell

Jane Isaac lives with her husband, daughter and dog, Bollo, in rural Northamptonshire, UK. Her debut novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, was nominated as best mystery in the 'eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook awards 2013.' The Truth Will Out was nominated as 'Thriller of the Month - April 2014' by E-thriller.com and winner of 'Noveltunity book club selection - May 2014'. Jane's latest title, A Deathly Silence is her latest book published by Legend Press on the 15 October 2019. Jane loves to hear from readers and writers. Visit her website at.

www.janeisaac.co.uk

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.

‘The Last Songbird’ by Daniel Weizmann

Published by Melville House,
25 May 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-68589-030-8 (PB)

Accidental sleuths come in many varieties, but until now I’ve never encountered a cab driver.  That’s what Adam Zantz is. He’s also a musician and songwriter but has discovered the hard way that the music business is one in which success is hard to find. Small wonder, then, that when legendary and now mostly retired singer Annie Linden listens to his songs and thinks they have something, she becomes Adam’s favourite client. When Annie needs a ride, she calls Adam direct instead of going through the app.

But when he arrives by appointment one evening, he finds her house surrounded by police. Annie and her security guard have been murdered, and her long-time, on-off assistant is missing. Adam is left wondering where she planned to go that night, and also what she meant when she sent him a text saying she needed his help.

Bix, her assistant, is arrested for the murders, though it’s hard for Adam to see him as a killer. He finds himself under arrest too, as an accessory, and that and the cryptic text make him determined to find the real killer and clear Bix’s name and his own. In his own words, he is as hard-boiled as scrambled eggs, but that doesn’t stop him setting off to delve into Annie’s past in search of answers. It’s a journey which unearths former lovers, friends and enemies, and a shocking secret, and asks questions about the nature and costs of celebrity, and most of all about Annie herself.

Weizmann is primarily a journalist and editor, but he adopts the mantle of novelist as if he was born to it.  The novel is peopled with eccentric characters: ex-partners, family members, Adam’s own friends and associates, and they all live and breathe. Even assorted policemen are quite distinct from each other. The story is located in parts of Los Angeles known only to its denizens and cab drivers, all brought vividly to life: apartments and seedy streets, a shabby yacht which is the home of Adam’s best pal Double Fry. 

It’s not a book to race through at a sitting; indeed, it’s probably best savoured in small bites to ensure you don’t miss any of the elegant detail. Weizmann’s writing style is unusual in a crime novel: quirky and distinctive, almost poetic at times, and owes a lot to his background in the punk era. For this if for nothing else I’d recommend the novel – but there’s plenty else to enjoy as well.
------
Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Daniel Weizmann is a writer  and editor who work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Jewish Journal, Times of Israel, and several anthologies of fiction and humour.  He lives in Los Angeles, California.

 https://www.danielweizmann.com/

 

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.

‘Good Husbands’ by Cate Ray

Published by September Publishing,
25 May 2023. 
ISBN: 978-1-9146133-02 (PB)

Three happily married women who love their husbands are each sent a copy of a letter claiming that about two decades previously their husbands, then only students themselves, were involved in the gang rape of a young student called Nicky. The letter also claims that the student they supposedly raped became pregnant as a result of the men’s/boys actions: one of the men had a daughter he didn’t know about. By the time the women receive the letters, both Nicki and her daughter are dead. However, Nicki’s daughter has provided them with a key to a lockup that contains clues about their lives.

Not surprisingly the ladies, who do not know each other, react differently to their letters - Interestingly none of them rushes to confront their husbands with the information. Jess, who works for a small agency selling works of art, takes it upon herself to track down and contact the other two, Priyanka, who teaches PSHE – personal, social, health and economic education – and Stephanie who is a receptionist at a dental practice.

Neither Priyanka nor Stephanie are desperately keen to pursue the matter – Stephanie hides her letter in an old coco tin and tries to forget it. However, once Jess gets all three of them together none of them of them seems prepared to dismiss the matter out of hand. Obviously, they want to know what will happen if they confront their husbands. They each have at least one child. Presumably if what the letter claims is correct it would mean the end of their marriages and depriving their children of a father, and who would want to trust their children to a rapist?

Good husbands is thought-provoking story that doesn’t flinch from addressing the heart- breaking issues that arise from the predicament the three women are presented with.  It is not so much a who-done-it, as a searching treatise on what should be done about it. The question of why the women had been sent the letters only after Nicki and her daughter were dead and presumably had nothing to gain from the action is answered, but you must read right to the end to understand the twisted and teasing reasoning behind it.
-------
Reviewer Angela Crowther

Cate Ray  is the author of four previous novels published in the UK as Cath Weeks and was named an "Author to Watch" by ELLE.  She lives in Bath with her family.

 

 

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.