The Whitechapel Mystery by Tessa Harris

 

Combining plenty of horrific murders, set in the time of Jack the Ripper, the story brings to life the history of Whitechapel, of how people survived despite the squalor and poverty of the time, and mirrored the terror faced by working women who did what they did to just survive.

There was one more strand which made it different from other Ripper stories. It brought in a genre of spiritual mediums into the story with the very plausible flow of messages from Emily, a teacher to Constance a young girl who was stronger in character and tenacity and who proved to be a conduit as a medium.

Victorian England described well.

Sent by dp books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

Murder Stage Left by Verity Bright

 

Lady Eleanor her husband Hugh and Clifford the butler along with their entourage have descended on Stratford upon Avon. Everyone awaits a play of Macbeth with a brilliant new cast. They certainly did not expect the burning of the theatre, a murder and loss of priceless artifacts.

Like most murders, all the suspects have “histories” which they’d like to hide, links between them that they’d also like to keep quiet about. An arsonist amongst the suspects adds to the complications in the case, along with an antagonistic Police Chief who does not like having the trio around.

With lots of humour and plenty of good food, the detectives go to work to solve the murders. Always a bright read despite the deaths around.

Sent by Bookouture for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

Sisters at an Exhibition by Claudia Hagadus Long

 

A heist, a forgery of a sketch by Caravaggio and two sisters who pull apart but fiercely loyal to each other. A mystery how the sketch goes missing from a highly secured facility, its appearance and then the forgery. The FBI involvement, amusing the bungling and then everyone appearing in Alsace, where all the villains are.

Fast paced, very interesting and conveying the strong bonds of family over riding everything else.

Sent by Sibylline Press for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

Dramatic rocks called Lovers Leap in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.

Murder in St James’s Park by Vanessa Riley

 

I am trying to vary my reading by going into more modern settings for the detective/mystery genre but I seem to getting into the Regency or Victorian era more and more.

1807 and Lady Abigail wants nothing more than to have her husband out of her life permanently. She did not want to be the one to find his body in the park, murdered. Clues left behind seemingly point to Abigail being the main suspect. No small detective herself, Abigail must use all her wits to find the murderer, especially when the ones plotting her downfall are her own family.

With a regency setting and mixed race ancestry in the story, it features abolitionists, the history of slave plantations and the mystery of what James was actually involved in. Fast paced and quite out of character, the women in the story are very different.

Sent by Joffe Books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

Killing in the Countryside by Maria Malone

 

Of all things Sergeant Ali and her help Wilson are being called to help out with a pride of peacocks who have shifted residence and are terrorising a particular household. The small village is divided on the issue with some supporting the animals right to freedom as they have been there for years. But for Gina and her husband it is a deep rooted fear of the birds.

When a vicious murder takes place, the situation changes because there seems to be many suspects who cannot be ruled out and in a small village like Heft, gossip and rumours flourish.

We get the cozy mystery genre and the idyllic English village in equal measure and discover that everyone has secrets that they will like to stay hidden. How much they will go to ensure that those secrets stay hidden is the issue here.

Very comfortable reading of the genre.

Sent by Crooked Lane Books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

Death on the Pier by Pauline Rowson

Detective Alun Ryga is an introspective, quiet man. He has survived a gruelling time in a WWII camp and now serves Scotland Yard. A peculiar case of a missing corpse sees Ryga sent to the small coastal town of 
South End On Sea in Essex. A small town atmosphere where everyone seems to know everyone 1951 England is still recovering from the brutality of the War.

The man who calls himself a Commander who discovered the body is shifty, and it is not easy to befriend him. Unraveling the puzzle of the missing body is an even bigger mystery and with Ryga working undercover, it is not possible to have access to navy records or the local police, until the Commander himself is found murdered and then Ryga is forced to divulge his identity.

A slower paced detective story, reminiscent of the times and people and lifestyle of the age, it made for very pleasant reading.

Sent by Joffe Books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

The Last Retreat by Marina Palmer

 

Starting in Ukraine with a brutal shooting, and ending in a luxurious manor retreat in England the story is a mix of espionage, journalists getting a little too curious and the complicated and probable (now) world of computer wizardry.

Trying to recuperate at her mother’s home at Belford Abbey Tash was not exactly relaxing. Her mother’s clients include Elliot Drake and his entourage. Tash was also approached by M16 to spy on Elliot and she a novice to the game was going to get double dealt with by someone. 

The story develops from this base and deals with probable scenarios where clever people can eventually with the aid of artificial intelligence dominate the world.  It was a very absorbing theory and made for good reading.

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for the book, the review is unbiased. Thanks to Netgalley.