This is my first "Peculiar Crimes Unit" mystery. Fowler has four in this series so far and is working on another one. "Bryant & May on the Loose" finds the two modern-day Holmes and Watson clones casting about to restart their disbanded police department special unit which has fallen to the budget ax. The old partners are not doing well in retirement and when May is called out to the scene of a beheadded body in the Kings Cross district, he jumps at the chance to bring back his old unit.
As someone who has not read one of Fowler's May and Bryant series before I did get a bit confused about some of the characters and police protocol, but I found myself absorbed in the details of London ancient lore, the history of different districts and buildings and the like.
I will definitely pick up the next in this series and go back to see what I missed with the first few books in this series.
Fans of British police procedurals and those who enjoyed the antics of Sherlock Holmes and his associates will get a kick out of this mystery. Same is true for those who enjoy reading about London, its history and lore.
Liz Nichols
Showing posts with label British mysteries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British mysteries. Show all posts
Friday, June 4, 2010
Monday, October 19, 2009
Death of a Witch by M.C. Beaton
British author, M.C. Beaton has spun another tale about Scottish bobby, Hamish Macbeth, and the small Highland village of Lochdubh. This tale is also appropriately read in the fall when we are thinking about the ghosts and goblins of Halloween.
The hero is called to investigate the murder of a woman considered by many to be a witch, Catronia Beldame. Beldame has been giving local men a potion that is supposed to enhance a certain part of the anatomy, but actually just creates an itchy rash. Hamish is about to investigate the potion complaints when Catronia turns up dead. Is she killed by a jealous wife, an angry client, or someone who knows something more about her past?
Vying for Hamish's attention and assisting in assessing the murder clues are Priscilla, the daughter of the local innkeeper, and Hamish's former girlfriend, Elspeth Grant, a journalist for one of the area newspapers.
It's fun as an American to read the Scottish dialect in this book and to try to beat Hamish at solving the case.
Liz Nichols
The hero is called to investigate the murder of a woman considered by many to be a witch, Catronia Beldame. Beldame has been giving local men a potion that is supposed to enhance a certain part of the anatomy, but actually just creates an itchy rash. Hamish is about to investigate the potion complaints when Catronia turns up dead. Is she killed by a jealous wife, an angry client, or someone who knows something more about her past?
Vying for Hamish's attention and assisting in assessing the murder clues are Priscilla, the daughter of the local innkeeper, and Hamish's former girlfriend, Elspeth Grant, a journalist for one of the area newspapers.
It's fun as an American to read the Scottish dialect in this book and to try to beat Hamish at solving the case.
Liz Nichols
Friday, June 12, 2009
Black Ship by Carola Dunn
It's been awhile since I've read one of Dunn's prolific Daisy Dalrymple Mystery series. I'd forgotten how much I like Daisy and her Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher husband. They make quite a team.
The theme is interesting and fresh. A man who claims to be a U.S. Treasury agent looking for people who are supplying shipments of alcoholic beverages to American crime families during the Prohibition of the 1930's shows up on the Fletcher doorstep in their new Hampstead Heath neighborhood. He's quite bumbling and has had his identity papers, passport and money stolen. Is he a real U.S. agent, or is he mixed up in the murder that very quickly happens in the communal garden on the Fletcher's street? If this Agent Lambert isn't involved, then what do the neighbors and their servants know and what have they seen? Are any of the neighbors involved?
Alec and his team of investigators do the usual thorough and methodical job that Scotland Yard and local bobbies do in Britain to investigate murder-- and they usually get the suspect in the end. It's also fund to see how Daisy interjects herself in the investigative team, and how Alec and his men use her skills without admitting too much publicly how much she helps them out.
Dunn's characters, right down to the minor ones, are always finely drawn and very memorable so it is easy to keep interest and easy to develop strong positive and negative feelings for the people you meet through her books.
The plot also raises a thought-provoking question about the role of British wine merchants in supplying American gangsters with merchandise during the Prohibition Era, and the different viewpoint that the British public had during that time about the use of alcoholic beverages versus that of Americans.
I recommend "Black Ship" for anyone who likes the quaintness of 1920's era British mysteries and that historical period.
The theme is interesting and fresh. A man who claims to be a U.S. Treasury agent looking for people who are supplying shipments of alcoholic beverages to American crime families during the Prohibition of the 1930's shows up on the Fletcher doorstep in their new Hampstead Heath neighborhood. He's quite bumbling and has had his identity papers, passport and money stolen. Is he a real U.S. agent, or is he mixed up in the murder that very quickly happens in the communal garden on the Fletcher's street? If this Agent Lambert isn't involved, then what do the neighbors and their servants know and what have they seen? Are any of the neighbors involved?
Alec and his team of investigators do the usual thorough and methodical job that Scotland Yard and local bobbies do in Britain to investigate murder-- and they usually get the suspect in the end. It's also fund to see how Daisy interjects herself in the investigative team, and how Alec and his men use her skills without admitting too much publicly how much she helps them out.
Dunn's characters, right down to the minor ones, are always finely drawn and very memorable so it is easy to keep interest and easy to develop strong positive and negative feelings for the people you meet through her books.
The plot also raises a thought-provoking question about the role of British wine merchants in supplying American gangsters with merchandise during the Prohibition Era, and the different viewpoint that the British public had during that time about the use of alcoholic beverages versus that of Americans.
I recommend "Black Ship" for anyone who likes the quaintness of 1920's era British mysteries and that historical period.
The Matters at Mansfield by Carrie Bebris
I generally enjoy period mysteries where characters are either real historical figures or characters we came to know and love from 19th century novelists. This is the case with Bebris' take-off on Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park" and the characters Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy.
The problem is, this novel is both plodding and forgettable. I found it difficult to care whether Darcy and his wife solve the mysteries of what has happened to a star-crossed relative's lover, and to others at Mansfield Park.
Instead of following Bebris' "A Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery" I recommend instead, Stephanie Barron's "Jane Austen Mystery" series, which I have always found delightfully in step with the spirit and language of Jane Austen herself.
Liz Nichols
The problem is, this novel is both plodding and forgettable. I found it difficult to care whether Darcy and his wife solve the mysteries of what has happened to a star-crossed relative's lover, and to others at Mansfield Park.
Instead of following Bebris' "A Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery" I recommend instead, Stephanie Barron's "Jane Austen Mystery" series, which I have always found delightfully in step with the spirit and language of Jane Austen herself.
Liz Nichols
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton
This is Bolton's first novel, and she promises to be a mainstay of British thrillers for a long time to come.
The author blurb indicates that the novel is borne out of Bolton's fascination for British folklore, and the basis for this book is a blood curdling folktale from the Shetland Islands that goes back to the Viking heritage of the isles. The heroine, obstetrician, Tora Hamilton, is a transplant from the mainland who moves to the Shetlands with her native born husband, Duncan Guthrie and discovers while trying to bury her fallen horse on their newly purchased farm a dead body of a woman who has both recently given birth and had her heart torn out from her body while she was still alive. Naturally, this sets off a forensic hunt for the killer or killers.
The frigid land and reserved people are finely drawn in this chilling tale. It is hard to know who to trust and whether most of the people Tora meets are in on a huge conspiracy to hide an ancient, bloody practice.
I must confess this book was hard to put down and I read it cover to cover in only two or three sittings, ignoring all kinds of other things I should have been doing.
This book is not for the squeamish, but those who can stomach a little gore will be well rewarded by the intrigue and twists and turns in the plot.
I can't wait for more by this new British author.
Liz Nichols
The author blurb indicates that the novel is borne out of Bolton's fascination for British folklore, and the basis for this book is a blood curdling folktale from the Shetland Islands that goes back to the Viking heritage of the isles. The heroine, obstetrician, Tora Hamilton, is a transplant from the mainland who moves to the Shetlands with her native born husband, Duncan Guthrie and discovers while trying to bury her fallen horse on their newly purchased farm a dead body of a woman who has both recently given birth and had her heart torn out from her body while she was still alive. Naturally, this sets off a forensic hunt for the killer or killers.
The frigid land and reserved people are finely drawn in this chilling tale. It is hard to know who to trust and whether most of the people Tora meets are in on a huge conspiracy to hide an ancient, bloody practice.
I must confess this book was hard to put down and I read it cover to cover in only two or three sittings, ignoring all kinds of other things I should have been doing.
This book is not for the squeamish, but those who can stomach a little gore will be well rewarded by the intrigue and twists and turns in the plot.
I can't wait for more by this new British author.
Liz Nichols
Monday, January 5, 2009
"A Royal Pain" by Rhys Bowen
One of my favorite new series Rhys Bowen's "A Royal Spyness Mystery" featuring the Lady Georgiana Rannock. In this second of the series our heroine is saddled with entertaining a royal princess from Bavaria at the Queen's behest. The Queen hopes that this young royal, who has just come out of convent school, will attract the attention of her son, David, and get him out of the clutches of Wallace Simpson. (Well, we know how successful that was.)
I like novels set in this particular period in history. With the depression and political upheaval in Europe, there's lots to add to the backdrop of this story. The first in the series concentrated a great deal on the mores of post-Victorian England. While this book continues to focus on the differences between the classes in Britain, it adds the political intrigue of the rise of communism and facism to the plot of this book.
A jolly good read for those who like English cozys and Rhys Bowen's work.
Liz Nichols
I like novels set in this particular period in history. With the depression and political upheaval in Europe, there's lots to add to the backdrop of this story. The first in the series concentrated a great deal on the mores of post-Victorian England. While this book continues to focus on the differences between the classes in Britain, it adds the political intrigue of the rise of communism and facism to the plot of this book.
A jolly good read for those who like English cozys and Rhys Bowen's work.
Liz Nichols
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