Tag: mystery

‘The Graves of Whitechapel’ by Claire Evans

Happy August, everyone! And happy Saturday!

This book, published in June 2020, is one of my five star reads for the year so far. Highly recommended!

I really liked Claire Evans' debut novel, 'The Fourteenth Letter', but I think this one is even stronger.  It's a twisty and tense murder mystery set on the streets of Victorian Whitechapel - what's not to love?!

It's 1882 and Cage Lackmann is a corrupt lawyer.  Although he does some work to defend the innocent, he also fights legal cases to acquit gang members as he is in the pay of a powerful man.  When one of his 'innocent' defendants is accused of committing a second murder, Cage is in trouble.  The police want to frame him, his customers are abandoning him and he is in a race against time to get the evidence he needs.  Everyone has secrets and Cage has to work out who he can trust with his own.

I loved everything about this book!  I kept thinking I'd figured it all out, only for the rug to be pulled from under my feet the next second.  The depiction of gritty, grimy, seedy Whitechapel is great - this is a place where loyalties can be bought and sold, everyone has a price and violence is rife.  That said, this isn't a depressing book - it's clever and engaging and fast-paced.  I read this in a day and would recommend that any lovers of historical crime do the same - clear some time in the diary and settle down for an absolute treat.

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Photo by Nicole De Khors from Burst

‘Midnight at Malabar House’ by Vaseem Khan

This book will be released on 20th August and is well worth a read! A fascinating moment in India’s history and the first female police inspector – a perfect combination! 

I really hope this book marks the start of a new series by Vaseem Khan. It's a great story and one book featuring the indefatigable and charming Inspector Wadia is simply not enough!

The story opens on New Year's Eve, 1949 in Bombay.  As the clock ticks over into a new decade of Indian independence, Inspector Wadia is called in to investigate the murder of an important British diplomat, Sir James Herriot.  Initially, it seems that Inspector Persis Wadia has been called precisely because no-one has any faith in her to actually solve the crime (she is India's first female police officer), or in the bunch of misfits she works with at Malabar House.  However, she is determined to prove her worth and unwilling to give in until she has uncovered the truth.

It's this determination that makes the pioneering Inspector Wadia such an interesting character.  She really has the odds stacked against her, but uses her intelligence, humour and sheer bloody-mindedness to take on an extremely politically sensitive case - Khan does not skimp on the history of India and Empire that have led to this precarious situation so there is plenty of explanation for those of us less well-versed in the politics.  However, the book is far from being simply a history lesson - in Persis Wadia, we are treated to a very human and realistic character grappling admirably with a situation way beyond her control.  We see her own struggles - including her strained relationship with her father and a rather sweet and inept flirtation with another investigator - and like her all the more for it.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes historical crime fiction with plenty of heart.  The setting is interesting, the characters are engaging and the plot is well-constructed.  You - like me - will end the book wondering what is next for Inspector Wadia and very much looking forward to finding out.

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Photo by Shanu D from Burst

‘The Art of Dying’ by Ambrose Parry

Here is my five star review of this fabulous book! This was published in January 2020.

This is the second book in the Will Raven/Sarah Fisher series after the truly excellent 'The Way of All Flesh'.  They are written by a husband and wife team - he's an award-winning thriller writer and she is a medical doctor with an interest in the history of medicine, so they really know their stuff on all fronts.  I could not wait to read this book after loving the first one.

This is a fascinating, pacy and engaging story set in Victorian Edinburgh a while after the first book.  Dr Will Raven has just returned to the city after a period travelling in Europe developing his medical knowledge.  He returns to the house of Dr James Simpson, leading developer of chloroform as an anesthetic, where his former partner in investigations Sarah has been elevated above her status as housemaid and is learning medical skills for herself.  It's an awkward reunion between the two former allies, although they soon have to work together when they notice a worrying pattern of deaths occurring in the city.

This book met all my high expectations.  It's cleverly plotted and brings alive the setting of Victorian Edinburgh, from the hospital wards to consulting rooms, from the wealth of the doctors' lives to the less salubrious areas lived in by some of their patients.  Sarah is a very appealing heroine, fighting for her right to learn medicine in a time and place that denied women such education.  In comparison, Will is a rather infuriating hero who makes bad decisions and whose motives are not always pure, yet he also seems real and flawed and interesting; he definitely developed as a character during this book in a positive way.

I would whole heartedly recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction or who has an interest in medical history.  However, the book should have much wider appeal - it is engrossing and well-researched and engaging, albeit a bit graphic in relation to the medical issues.  Anyone and everyone should give it a go!

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Photo by Adrien Olichon from Burst

‘Death in the East’ by Abir Mukherjee

Published towards the end of 2019, this is my review of book 4 in the Wyndham and Banerjee series. As I promised in my review, I’ve caught up the missed books and absolutely love this series! 

I don't know why it took me so long to pick up this book!  Now I've read it - the fourth in the series featuring Captain Sam Wyndham and his Sergeant, Surrender-Not Banerjee - I've fallen in love with the series and shall immediately be making up for lost time with the other books.  Although it would have been good to read these in order, I didn't feel that I was disadvantaged by reading this one first - it works as a standalone, I think.

At the start of this book, Captain Sam Wyndham of the Calcutta Police is in a state - he is an opium addict who is taking himself off to an ashram in rural India in order to break his addiction through a frankly barbaric vomiting cure.  It's 1922 and the story mostly covers Wyndham's experiences at the retreat and then afterwards in a neighbouring town where he gets embroiled in investigating a crime.  However, the story is also partially set in 1905 in Whitechapel in the East End of London where a young Sam Wyndham, a new Metropolitan police officer, is involved in solving a crime that has echoes and repercussions for him later in India.  

I really loved the Indian setting of this book - it seemed at once exotic and interesting, but there was also a sense of the simmering resentments around the British Raj which added a frisson of danger to the proceedings.  It was interesting to see the white privilege in action in the way that Wyndham was treated very differently to Banerjee in the expat community, even though Banerjee was meant to be the main investigating officer at one point.  The characters are well drawn and I cannot wait to get into the other books to find out more about Banerjee in particular as he does not feature heavily here.  There's clever plotting, peril and vibrant description - what more could you want?!  My only quibble was that I solved the murder and worked out the method well ahead of poor Captain Wyndham, but when the novel is so beautifully written as this then that really doesn't matter.

Overall, this is an excellent historical crime novel with real depth and interest.  I would recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who enjoys this genre or who wants more insight into the British Raj in India - it certainly is an eye-opener on this front!

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Photo by Shanu D from Burst

‘Broken Silence’ by Liz Mistry

Today’s post is about an absolutely brilliant police procedural by Liz Mistry. It’s an absolute edge-of-your-seat page-turner and I can’t recommend it enough! 

I'd not read any books by Liz Mistry before this, but I'll certainly be looking for more!  This is the second in a series featuring DS Nikki Parekh and, although there are references to the backstory, I don't think its essential that you have read the previous novel.

After a multi-agency conference, police officer Felicity Springer leaves the venue for her drive home.  As she heads through the country lanes, she sees someone trying to get her attention from inside the van in front.  Felicity Springer doesn't make it home and an investigation is launched into her disappearance.  However, that proves just the tip of the iceburg and DS Nikki Parekh and her team are thrown into a complex and dangerous investigation in Bradford's criminal underworld.  

I'll admit that this is a bit more gritty and grim than my usual reads, but it's also compelling and very pacy - I kept planning on reading one more chapter to see what happened until I realised it was 3am and I should just finish the book!  I liked the portrayal of multicultural Bradford and the diversity within the police team and Nikki herself is an interesting protagonist.  Often the personal lives of the police officers can overshadow the actual crime story in this kind of novel but this never happens here - the plot is tight and twisty throughout.

I'd recommend this to anyone who likes police procedurals, especially those with a feisty female police officer in charge.  Just don't pick up this book unless you have a clear run of reading time in which to finish it because you absolutely won't want to put it down.

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Photo by Shopify Partners from Burst