A Notable Omission by Isabella Muir (Guest post: Who is Janie Juke?)

 

It is my pleasure to welcome Isabella Muir to my blog today.

 A Notable Omission

A 1970s debate on equality is overshadowed by a deadly secret...

Spring 1970. Sussex University is hosting a debate about equality for women. But when one of the debating group goes missing, attention turns away from social injustice to something more sinister.

It seems every one of the group has something to hide, and when a second tragedy occurs, two of the delegates – amateur sleuth Janie Juke, and reporter Libby Frobisher - are prepared to make themselves unpopular to flush out the truth. Who is lying and why?

Alongside the police investigation, Janie and Libby are determined to prise answers from the tight-lipped group, as they find themselves in a race against time to stop another victim being targeted.

In A Notable Omission we meet Janie at the start of a new decade. When we left Janie at the end of The Invisible Case she was enjoying her new found skills and success as an amateur sleuth. Here we meet her a few months later, stealing a few days away from being a wife and mother, attending a local conference on women's liberation to do some soul-searching...

Purchase Link

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Notable-Omission-Janie-Juke-mystery-ebook/dp/B0BQCLRYS6

US - https://www.amazon.com/Notable-Omission-Janie-Juke-mystery-ebook/dp/B0BQCLRYS6

Author Bio –

Isabella is never happier than when she is immersing herself in the sights, sounds and experiences of family life in southern England in past decades – specifically those years from the Second World War through to the early 1970s. Researching all aspects of life back then has formed the perfect launch pad for her works of fiction. It was during two happy years working on and completing her MA in Professional Writing when Isabella rekindled her love of writing fiction and since then she has gone on to publish seven novels, six novellas and two short story collections.

This latest novel, A Notable Omission, is the fourth book in her successful Sussex Crime Mystery series, featuring young librarian and amateur sleuth, Janie Juke. The early books in the series are set in the late 1960s in the fictional seaside town of Tamarisk Bay, where we meet Janie, who looks after the mobile library. She is an avid lover of Agatha Christie stories – in particular Hercule Poirot. Janie uses all she has learned from the Queen of Crime to help solve crimes and mysteries. This latest novel in the series is set along the south coast in Brighton in early 1970, a time when young people were finding their voice and using it to rail against social injustice.

As well as four novels, there are six novellas in the series, set during the Second World War, exploring some of the back story to the Tamarisk Bay characters.

Isabella’s love of Italy shines through all her work and, as she is half-Italian, she has enjoyed bringing all her crime novels to an Italian audience with Italian translations, which are very well received.

Isabella has also written a second series of Sussex Crimes, set in the sixties, featuring retired Italian detective, Giuseppe Bianchi, who is escaping from tragedy in Rome, only to arrive in the quiet seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, to come face-to-face with it once more.

Isabella’s standalone novel, The Forgotten Children, deals with the emotive subject of the child migrants who were sent to Australia – again focusing on family life in the 1960s, when the child migrant policy was still in force.

Find out more about Isabella and her books by visiting her website at: www.isabellamuir.com

Social Media Links –

https://isabellamuir.com/

https://www.facebook.com/IsabellaMuirAuthor

https://twitter.com/SussexMysteries

A Notable Omission is the fourth novel in the Janie Juke series and here Isabella Muir provides some insight into the novel’s lead character and what has led her to this point in her journey…

Who is Janie Juke?

Janie Juke is a young librarian, living in the fictional Sussex seaside town of Tamarisk Bay in the late 1960s.

The great thing about being a librarian is not just that you get to read all the books you could ever want, but also that you are at the heart of the community.  With people forever popping in and out of the library van, Janie is in the very best place to excel at her other little sideline, as an amateur sleuth.

Throughout her life Janie’s father, Philip Chandler, has been her sounding board. When Janie was just five years old Philip took her to the park one snowy day.  He crossed the road to buy her a doughnut and got knocked over by a bus.  Sadly, as a result, Philip is now blind.  But he hasn’t let that stop him from leading a full and busy life.  He has trained as a physiotherapist and has a long list of clients keen to visit him, grateful for his gentle nature and wise words.

As well as benefitting from her father’s wise words, Janie has a passion for Agatha Christie novels.  As a result, she is a devoted fan of Hercule Poirot and for the last year or two she has had a chance to put all she has learned from him to the test.

In the first book in the Sussex Crime mystery series, The Tapestry Bag, Janie’s good friend Zara goes missing.  When the police appear to be doing little to find Zara, Janie makes it her mission to track her down.  Zara’s boyfriend, Joel, has been killed in a hit and run accident and Zara goes missing on the one-year anniversary of his death.  As Janie explores the strange circumstances of Zara’s disappearance, she starts to question the truth about Joel’s death.  She turns to Agatha Christie’s crime novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, to help her untangle the web of lies and deceit.

Having shown her skills at investigating, Janie takes on her first paid case for a client in the second book in the series, Lost Property.  This time Janie enlists the help of her friend and local journalist, Libby Frobisher and between them they track down clues and piece together the facts. 

By the time Janie embarks on her third investigation – The Invisible Case - Janie is getting used to being a mum, with baby daughter, Michelle, just two months old. 

In this latest novel in the series - A Notable Omission – Janie has the chance to leave behind her responsibilities as a wife and mother to attend a three-day conference at Sussex University on the topic of equal rights for women. At this point in her life she feels conflicted.  She loves her husband, she loves being a mother to Michelle, but it’s as if there are different parts of herself that need feeding in different ways. She’s hoping these few days away from home will give her the chance to do some soul-searching. But when one of the conference delegates goes missing, once again Janie teams up with Libby and they both become embroiled in yet another mystery…

One Down by Diana Wilkinson

 

"I'm already shaking with the real or imagined threat. But these three clues are different. They're warnings. They conjure up my worst nightmares. I may be paranoid, but the threats feel real, and combined with the earlier clues, it all becomes too much".

One Down by Diana Wilkinson is a psychological thriller with a linguistic twist.

Blurb:

I'm not being paranoid! It's all there in the crossword clues... in black and white. There's no doubt the threat is real. Today, the answers spell out my murder.

May Third. Amanda. Silver Birch. Noontime. Assassination.

Is Nathan, my estranged crossword-setter husband, really planning to kill me? Or is it someone closer to home?

I check the door is bolted, slither to the ground, and count down the seconds to noon. There's nothing left to do, and no one I can call. who'd believe me anyway? The lady on the ground floor has already left the building, and my new boyfriend is on holiday. Or is he?

A tread of footsteps. A rap at the door, and I close my eyes, hold my breath...

Amanda is an alcoholic, who suffers with panic attacks when she tries to go out. She lives at Silver Birch, a once majestic home, which is now divided into several flats. 

Every morning Amanda is glued to a cryptic crossword in the local newspaper. She listens to the sounds from the flats below. Her nearest neighbout, Edward Heath, nicknamed Agaves by Amanda and her ex-husband Nathan, is her lover. 

Ever since Nathan has left her, the crossword clues have a sneaky theme weaved through the teasers. The clues are directed at Amanda, each one of them linked to her alcoholism, and her personal life. 

"I'm the target of an online stalker, a word-troll maniac, who's been methodically toying with my sanity for six months now, give or take".

Amanda knows her ex is "a smart-arse cruciverbalist", and most likely the linguistic abuse comes from him.

"The list of answers is a story told in shorthand. It's a story for me. A story to give me nightmares. I know it's meant for me because who else could it be for.

Amanda. Silver Birch. Noontime. May third. Sunday. Assassination. Slaughterhouse. Throttle. Death duties. Epitaph".

 As the clues become more and more menacing, Amanda is not sure, if more than one crossword-setter is involved in the bullying. 

Who can Amanda trust? Is it just her increasing paranoia of imagined warnings, or is the murder threat real? 

The premises of the story sounds captivating. The murder is being announced via a series of crossword clues.

Amanda is the most unreliable narrator. She often has no recollection of what's happened the evening before. She is trying to keep sober, goes to the AA meetings and has a sponsor, Joseph, who has access to her flat in case she needs urgent help.

The crossword clues and explanations on how the cryptic crosswords work make this mystery more creative and inventive, but they also slow down the pace of the narrative.

While the stalking via cryptic crosswords sounds intriguing, it also depends on the person doing them regularly. What if Amanda has given up on her hobby in the meantime? People can be obsessed with hobbies and then abandon them only never to return to them. So, all this careful planning could have been for nothing.

If you enjoy cryptic crosswords (or crosswords in general), you will have fun, following the progress of solving each sinister clue. If a wordplay is not your cup of tea, you might find the search for hidden meanings less riveting.

The narrative jumps from the present to the past (the first meeting of Nathan and Amanda three years earlier, the tragedy that happens during the birthday party etc). And all this time you think Amanda is such an objectionable character, she's ego-centric in the extreme. It's hard to feel sympathy for her predicament. She is the kind of person you would try to avoid to socialise with. Amanda is flawed, awkward and unhinged when she starts drinking.

To be fair, it's not just Amanda, it's impossible to relate to any of the characters. Nathan is an intimidating buffoon whose great joys in life are doing cryptic crossword clues and controlling his wife. It's when his wife is at her lowest, that he feels empowered. "He enjoyed the role of carer, minder, saviour of my soul. It was like a hobby, one he embraced with vigour". Nathan belives himself to be brilliant, a genius of the crossword world. 

Then there's a revolting editor Hunter, and loathsome Joseph, and manipulative Bagheera. The list goes on. 

There is probably one exception - elderly Mr Beckles, a widower who lives on his own with his cat in the house next door.

Potential triggers: alcoholism problems, voyerism, rape, death of a child, murder, abuse of power over the vulnerable adults.

One Down is a slow-paced twisty tale of addictions and revenge, tense and incisive. A gripping psychological thriller. This is a convincing portrayal of an out-of-control obsession.

This review is part of the blog tour for One Down.

Many thanks to Diana Wilkinson, Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!

3

Purchase Link - https://amzn.to/3DoDE45

 

Author Bio –

Diana Wilkinson is a graduate of Durham University, spending a short spell in teaching before taking up a full-time career in tennis development. A former Irish international player, she finally stepped off the tennis court to become a full-time writer.

Social Media Links –  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DiKennett

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiWilkinson2020

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dianakennett37/

Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/DianaWilkinsonNews

Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/diana-wilkinson

Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair by M.K.Wiseman (review + #giveaway)

 

"Let me first say, most emphatically, that curiosity does not a case make. In my experience, however, it may function much the same as hard evidence or fact."

Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair by M.K. Wiseman is a clever historical mystery, featuring the world's greatest literary detective.

The Sherlock Holmes canon is expertly spun out in this diverting mystery, written in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This book is a prequel, i.e. we meet Sherlock before Dr Watson comes into his flat and life, but we do see references and glimpses of characters which appear in the classic series of books: Inspector Lestrade being one of the important figures to feature in the original mysteries.

Blurb:

Before Baker Street, there was Montague.

Before partnership with a former army doctor recently returned from Afghanistan, Sherlock Holmes had but the quiet company of his own itellect. Solitary he might be but, living as he did for the thrill of the chase, it was enough.

For a little while, at the least, it was enough.

That is, until a client arrives at his door with a desperate plea and an invitation into a world of societal scandal and stage door dandies. Thrust deep in an all-consuimg role and charged with the safe-keeping of another, Holmes must own to his limits or risk danger to others besides himself in this case of the aluminium crutch.

Review:

The story begins familiarly enough, as told by Dr Watson, who mentions that the manuscript has entered into his possession after the passing of Sherlock Holmes. 

"To me John Watson, chronicler and friend, he left an old tin box... Red tape bundles of paper and other curiosities lay nestled within that chest. Case notes. Many from the time before I had known him. It was here the enormity of the loss - that of the world and mine - caught me afresh..."

Thus how Dr Watson discovered the case described in the manuscript as the Singular Affair of the Aluminium Crutch. 

After the initial introduction, it is Sherlock's story that we get engrossed into.

At the time, he lives in Montague street rather than Baker Street, on his own. One day Miss Eudora Frances Clarke visits his place, asking to find her missing fiancé, Tobias-Henry Price.

"Letters exchanged for months, fervent promises for a far shorter period of time. A meeting, a deferment. And then?" Then her fiancé vanishes, to be replaced by someone claiming to be Tobias-Henry Price.

Why would someone impersonate Price? And what's happened to the man Miss Clarke claims to have known since their childhood? What's even more bizarre, Price's uncle, Sir Edgar Price, insists that the man is not an impostor but his true nephew.

She is adamant, "I stand against the world in my convictions as to the identity of the man I love".

Sherlock is intrigued. "The source of Miss Clarke's troubling disparity as to the true identity of Mr Price was likely not a large crime. It was, quite possibly, not a crime ar all. But it was not nothing, and thus the very idea of the thing had awakened in my imagination a series of questions, and it was wholly within my power to discover the answers".

Holmes follows the trail that will lead him to discovering the truth, through the higher echelons of the London society, as well as shadowy corners and residencies of the gang members. It is a complicated case, with shifty characters galore and a few gruesome murders.

Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair is an intelligent homage to the original character penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He is exactly as we know him, possessing great deductive as well as acting skills, he loves his violin and has a vast network of informers.

If you are a fan of the classic books, you will enjoy references to the untold stories and mentions of the characters that you remember. Langdale Pike, the notorius gossipmonger (introduced in The Adventure of the Three Gables), helps Sherlock with his queries.

Ormond Secker is, of course, the original name of Dr Watson. Thanks goodness, Conan Doyle changed this weird name for the one we know and admire.

The author has managed to capture the essence of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The style of writing feels authentic and faithful to the original. 

If you enjoy prequel stories of the famous detectives as young(er) people, you will love to meet a young and energetic Sherlock Holmes, working alone and just thinking of moving to a new flat and getting a trustworthy flatmate. 

There is action, mystery and deduction to please the fans of the classic detective.

This post is part of the blog tour.

Many thanks to M.K.Wiseman and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!

 Purchase Links

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09DXQVT56/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09DXQVT56/

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sherlock-holmes-the-singular-affair-m-k-wiseman/1140115651?ean=9781734464146

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/sherlock-holmes-the-singular-affair

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/sherlock-holmes-amp-the-singular-affair/id1583511548

 

Author Bio – M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library & Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of historical novels. She currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

Social Media Links –

http://mkwisemanauthor.com

https://twitter.com/FaublesFables

https://www.facebook.com/FaublesFables/

https://www.instagram.com/faublesfables/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7073540.M_K_Wiseman

 

Giveaway to Win 2 x M. K. Wiseman Sherlock Holmes Book Bundle (Open to US / UK and Canada)

Prize includes:

Signed and ‘annotated’ with a few margin notes copies of Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair  & Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel

Nifty ‘magnifying glass’ bookmark

*Terms and Conditions –

UK / US & Canada entries welcome.  

Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  

The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. 

If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. 

Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  

Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. 

This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  

I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

Please note that this giveaway is running through several blogs. 

Chez Maximka is hosting the Rafflecopter gadget for free for the purposes of the book promotion. I am not involved in the selection of the winner, or dispatch of the prize. I have no access to the collected data either.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Contraband Killings by Lucienne Boyce

 

I'm thrilled to invite Lucienne Boyce to my blog. Today she is talking about walking holidays in the 18C. Are you intrigued? Scroll down to find out more.

The Contraband Killings: A Dan Foster Mystery

Principal Officer Dan Foster of the Bow Street Runners is sent to collect smuggler Watcyn Jones from Beaumaris Gaol on Anglesey, and bring him back to London for trial at the Old Bailey. As if having to travel to the wilds of North Wales isn’t bad enough, Dan is saddled with an inexperienced constable as his interpreter and assistant. At least it’s a routine assignment and shouldn’t take more than a few days.

 

But when the prison escort is ambushed and Watcyn Jones escapes, a straightforward transfer turns into a desperate manhunt. And as Jones’s enemies start to die, the chase becomes more urgent than ever. Dan’s search for the killer brings him up against a ruthless smuggling gang – and his chances of getting off the island alive begin to look far from promising.

 

Purchase Links

US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BFRRSD72

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BFRRSD72

Author Bio –

Lucienne Boyce writes historical fiction, non-fiction and biography. After gaining an MA in English Literature, specialising in eighteenth-century fiction, she published her first historical novel, To The Fair Land (2012, reissued 2021), an eighteenth-century thriller set in Bristol and the South Seas.

Her second historical novel, Bloodie Bones: A Dan Foster Mystery (2015, reissued 2022) is the first of the Dan Foster Mysteries and follows the fortunes of a Bow Street Runner who is also an amateur pugilist. Bloodie Bones was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016, and was also a semi-finalist for the M M Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction 2016. The second Dan Foster Mystery, The Butcher’s Block (2017, reissued 2022), was awarded an IndieBrag Medallion in 2018. The third in the series, Death Makes No Distinction (2019, reissued 2022), is also an IndieBrag Medallion honoree, recipient of Chill With a Book Premium Readers’ Award, and a joint Discovering Diamonds book of the month. In 2017 an e-book Dan Foster novella, The Fatal Coin, was published by S-Books. The Fatal Coin is now available in paperback.

The Bristol Suffragettes, a history of the suffragette campaign in Bristol and the South West of England, was published in 2013. In 2017 Lucienne published a collection of short essays, The Road to Representation: Essays on the Women’s Suffrage Campaign. 

 

Other Publications

 ‘Not So Militant Browne’ in Suffrage Stories: Tales from Knebworth, Stevenage, Hitchin and Letchworth (Stevenage Museum, 2019)

 ‘Victoria Lidiard’ in The Women Who Built Bristol, Jane Duffus (Tangent Books, 2018)

 ‘Tramgirls, Tommies and the Vote’ in Bristol and the First World War: The Great Reading Adventure 2014 (Bristol Cultural Development Partnership/Bristol Festival of Ideas, 2014)

 

Social Media

 

Website: www.lucienneboyce.com

Blog: https://francesca-scriblerus.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @LucienneWrite

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/LucienneBoyceWriter/

Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6437832.Lucienne_Boyce

A Pedestrian in Wales (guest post by Lucienne Boyce)

In The Contraband Killings Bow Street Runner Dan Foster, who is looking for an escaped prisoner on Anglesey, visits the famous copper mine on Parys Mountain. While there, he sees a group of tourists on a tour of the works. Among them is a young man who is making a sight-seeing journey through Wales on foot. 

Walking holidays – or pedestrian tours as they were known – were very popular with English holiday makers in the eighteenth century. Not only were they cheaper than travelling by coach, they were healthy, and gave the traveller the notion that he was seeing more than the average traveller bowling through the country in his stagecoach. Since very few of the tourists could speak Welsh, they were usually deluding themselves about how much they understood about the places they visited and the people they saw. 

But travellers will be travellers, and one thing many of them love to do is write a book about their adventures when they get home. The pedestrians of the eighteenth century were no exception, and there was an outpouring of ‘walks’, ‘tours’ and ‘pedestrian tours’ through Wales. I read some of these when I was researching The Contraband Killings.

Travellers went to Wales for a variety of reasons. Many went seeking picturesque and awe-inspiring landscapes. Those who fancied themselves as artists could consult the Welsh artist Edward Pugh’s Cambria Depicta: A Tour Through North Wales Illustrated With Picturesque Views (1816) which set out an artist’s itinerary. Pugh guided artists to “the mountain’s craggy side, the cwm’s solemn profundity, the frightful brink of the cataract…and the tufted banks of the serpentine afon”. Pugh, who was born in Ruthin, was a Welsh speaker, and liked to throw in the occasional Welsh word. He advised on the best outlooks; encouraged his readers to visit some of the less-known places – Conway Castle had been “repeatedly painted” and “from the same spot”; and told them which places weren’t worth their trouble: “The shore from hence to Holyhead is very tame, and offers nothing for the pencil”.

Others went seeking Druidical ruins. One of these was the Reverend John Skinner of Somerset, who described his excursion with his brother Russell in his Ten Days’ Tour Through the Isle of Anglesey. They crossed to the island in the tracks of the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus whose troops attacked Anglesey; Boudica staged her rebellion while he was busy slaughtering Druids. Skinner sketched earthworks, standing stones and the prehistoric burial chamber at Plas Newydd (now owned by the National Trust); poked about in Bryn Celli Ddu burial chamber, disturbing nests of “immense spiders”; and copied out inscriptions he found in churches and on gravestones. 

Many budding mineralogists went to Wales: Pugh had promised his Cambria Depicta would also cater for their interests. The Reverend Richard Warner, who went with a friend on “A Walk Through Wales, in August 1797”, mentions collecting “good mineralogical specimens”. 107 Alongside his observations of ruins and landscapes, the Reverend also had an eye for the ladies. Clapping eyes on an innkeeper’s daughter near Dolgelly he noted “we had scarcely ever seen a girl more lovely or interesting”.

Others, as Pugh noted, went seeking “characters”: the Infant Hercules, eight years old, four feet two inches tall, and weighing nine stone; the witch Sian Bwt; Cady Thomas, the bearded lady; and bed-ridden Mary Thomas who had not eaten for seven years. Collecting – and where possible correcting – local superstitions was also popular with travellers. When Reverend Warner’s guide blamed his lameness on witchcraft, the Reverend tried to convince him his injury was due to natural causes. 

Skinner recorded tales of buried treasure, haunted stones, ignis fatuus, fairies and the “knockers” in the mines who led the miners to ore. He mocked the superstition of the “ignorant and illiterate”, and the ignorant and illiterate mocked back. The brothers went out in all weathers – rain, sleet, hail – and incurred “the ridicule of two old women who enjoyed a hearty laugh at our walking in the rain to hunt after stones”. 

But the young pedestrian in The Contraband Killings who attracts Dan’s attention has more than innocent tourism in mind, and it’s up to Dan to find out what murky deed he’s plotting… 

Lucienne Boyce

November 2022

www.lucienneboyce.com

The Automobile Assassination by M J Porter

 

"Wouldn't this be something if we'd uncovered some spying activity because of this? Your name would be in the national newspapers again." Mason didn't much like the thought of drawing attention to himself once more, but he was beginning to thinkk, as O'Rourke was, that there was something mighty intriguing going on. And, he admitted, perhaps it would be good not to be known as the custard copper".

The Automobile Assassination by MJ Porter is a historical mystery/police procedural, set in Erdington in the 1940s. 

This is the second book in the series. It reads perfectly well as a standalone, but reading the first book will give you a better understanding of the dynamics among the police unit, and explain some of the references to the previous big case.

Erdington, September 1944.

Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station and Constable O'Rourke are tasked to assist Sergeant Jones on the counterfeiting scam case. It had rumbled on for too long now, on a bigger scale, with a vily mastermind behind it.

"If he could just work out who was doing what and how they were doing it, Jones would be able to take the acclaim for solving the pesky counterfeit scam. Sergeant Jones would apprecaite it far more than Sam ever could. There had been cases of counterfeit ration books before, but this was something else entirely. Or so it seemed. Yet, the resolution remained just out of reach".

At the same time Mason is called to look into a new case, this time concerning a dead body found outside the Castle Bromwich aerodrome. The body appears to be in a bizarre position, shockingly bent double. With no identification papers or reports of missing persons, the identity of the murder victim is a mystery.

Mason and O'Rourke begin their investigation at the aerodrome.

"It seemed obvious to suspect something to do wiith the Royal Air Force. But perhaps that was what the person who'd killed the man had wanted them to think. It might be little more than a red herring... It was undoubtedly a good way of distracting them. The higher authorities would insist on a thorough investigation. Just in case the man had been compromised in some way. There were spies and counterspies, allegedly, throughout Great Britain".

The Royal Air Force personnel appear to be their prime suspects, but are they? Is the murder victim a spy? Is the place where his body has been found a random choice, or is it meaningful? Why does noone at the aerodrome recognise the dead man?

Mason, who's recently solved the so called The Custard Corpses case (see book 1), which has dogged his career for two decades, is resolute to discover the identity of the dead man, and track down his assassin. 

His boss, Smythe, is eager for Mason to deal with the counterfeiting scam, which is a plague on the local shopkeepers. Once again, the cases seem to be impossible to solve.

At first glance, Mason and o'Rourke seem an unlikely team. Mason, beleagured by the health issues, is not as spritely and physically fit as his younger colleague. But both of them are smart, observant, intelligent at slotting the pieces of the puzzle together, and complement each other.

The Automobile Assassination, like its predecessor, is written in the style of the classic crime fiction. It has that evocative mode of writing.

It is as much a historical fiction as a crime mystery story. The details of the historical background are well-researched, authentic and true to life.

A gripping atmosperic page turner, with engaging characters, and rich in historical detail.

This review is part of the Book Birthday Blitz for The Automobile Assassination.

Many thanks to MJ Porter and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

 Purchase Link - https://books2read.com/TheAutomobileAssassination

Author Bio – MJ Porter is the author of many historical novels set predominantly in Seventh to Eleventh-Century England, as well as three twentieth-century mysteries. Raised in the shadow of a building that was believed to house the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia, meant that the author's writing destiny was set.

 

Social Media Links –

Website: www.mjporterauthor.com/www.mjporterauthor.blog   

Twitter: https://twitter.com/coloursofunison

Facebook: www.facebook.com/MJPorterauthor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mj-porterauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m_j_porter/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/coloursofunison/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/mj-porter

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MJ-Porter/e/B006N8K6X4/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7163404.M_J_Porter

Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/MJPorterauthor

The Custard Corpses by M.J. Porter (BlogTour + Giveaway)

 

"Could this be it? After all this time, could there be possibility of solving the crime that had driven his old Chief Inspector into an early grave? He certainly hoped there was".

The Custard Corpses by M.J. Porter is a remarkably suspenceful historical mystery/crime/police procedural book, set in Birmingham in the 1940s. 

In Prologue we get a feelting glimpse of the macabre topic. An unknown artist is approached with a strange request to paint a morbid work of art, which should be conducted in full secrecy. He is promised to be paid handsomely, but cannot ever disclose what's he painted to anyone. "He should have been going to the police reporting what he'd been asked to do, but the thought of such a considerable amount of money was too great a temptation." The artist believes this sickening project will give him "freedom from drudgery of day to day work, that's all he ever wanted..."

Erdington, October 1943.

Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is unsettled, when he opens his newspaper one morning. He looks at the old black and white photograph of a seven-year-old boy Robert McFarlane who was found dead in the local churchyard twenty years ago. His cause of death was drowning, and he was missing for three days. No one has been arrested for the crime. There's been no closure for the family.

Robert's sister Rebecca posts a reminder in the local newspaper every year, to mark an anniversary of his death.

The previous Chief Inspector, Mason's boss and tutor, was broken by the failure to solve the death of the boy. CI Fullerton "desired to solve the case, to bring the perpetrator to justice. It was a source of unending disquiet that it had never been possible. 

It had marked him from that day he'd found Robert's body to the day of his death".

This unsolved case has haunted Sam Mason ever since. On the day of the sad anniversary, Robert's sister visits Mason and shows a newspaper which she picked up on her trip to Weston, which features another historical cold case. It appears another family is grieving a death of a young boy, found dead in similar circumstances.

The parallels are too worrying to be dismissed. Mason is surprised. Their police station has sent out notices about Robert's death all those years ago, but nothing was ever reported back. The lead is promising, and Mason intends to follow up the Weston case. He travels to the seaside town, and discovers even more similarities.

Mason and his constable O'Rourke collect the information, sending more appeals to the police around the country. More similar cases come to their notice. All victims were drowned, but found on dry land, fully clothed, and in strange poses. The crimes have been spread around the country. 

The Scottish constable gets involved in the investigation, helping with assembling the evidence and creating useful drawings, which will later lead to a very important clue, connecting the crimes. The killing spree went on for many years,

"Sam searched for some sort of pattern, but there was nothing. It all seemed random, just like the dates of the murders".

The investigation takes Mason on a journey to London, with glimpses of the war all around. His own son is fighting on the front. Mason ponders that the victims, if they lived, would have been grown-ups who would most likely fight for their country as well. 

In the age, when information was not available at the click of the keyboard, the investigation team has to rely on gathering information first-hand from the possible witnesses, in the libraries, archives and even art auction.

Both Mason and O'Rourke are filled with fierce resolve. "But, he knew only too well that tenacity didn't solve a crime or a series of crimes. No, he needed to be intelligent in his approach, consider all possibilities". Mason's sidekick, O'Rourke is a smart police officer, compassionate and resourceful.

Will Mason and O'Rourke be able to solve the cold cases and find the killer? 

The investigation is rather clever and creative, with pieces of the jigsaw puzzle being slotted together one by one. The historical background is authentic and well-researched.

I would have liked to have a deeper insight in the perpetrator's mind. Why were they murdering children in the first place, what was their motivation?

The Custard Corpses is written in the style of classic golden age crime fiction. It is dark, bleak, with a sense of rising unease and despair. A gripping twisty mystery, chillingly executed, and evocative of the turbulent days of the WW2. Deftly plotted, well-researched and accomplished murder mystery.

 Purchase Link - mybook.to/TheCustardCorpses

This post if part of the blog tour for The Custard Corpses. 

Many thanks to M.J. Porter and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Author Bio – I'm an author of historical fiction (Early English, Vikings and the British Isles as a whole before the Norman Conquest) and fantasy (Viking age/dragon-themed). I’ve recently written a relatively modern mystery novel set in 1943. I was born in the old Mercian kingdom at some point since 1066. Raised in the shadow of a strange little building, told from a very young age that it housed the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia and that our garden was littered with old pieces of pottery from a long-ago battle, it's little wonder that my curiosity in Early England ran riot. I can only blame my parents!

I write A LOT. You've been warned!

Find me at www.mjporterauthor.com and @coloursofunison on twitter.

Social Media Links – https://twitter.com/coloursofunison

https://www.instagram.com/m_j_porter/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7163404.M_J_Porter

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/coloursofunison/_saved/

 

Giveaway to Win 2 x copies of The Custard Corpses (Open INT)

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Worldwide entries welcome.  

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The Purple Shadow by Christopher Bowden

 

Was he being threatened or merely warned off? Why should any harm come to him anyway? He'd just been asking a few questions.

The Purple Shadow by Christopher Bowden is a mystery with a supernatural twist.

This is a slow-paced and slightly unsettling read, with mystic goings-on, related to a strange piece of art. 

Colin Mallory, the main protagonist of the novel, is an actor between jobs, who happens to be in Paris on his own, while his girlfriend is elsewhere with a film crew. 

He meets Madame Ducasse at the exhibition organised by the partner of his sister. Madame, "embodying the chic, the quiet authority, of the gallery itself" invites Colin and Paul for dinner at her place. While the hostess is headed to the kitchen, two men look at the eclectic collection of pictures and ornaments in the sitting room.

They are both drawn to a painting above the fireplace, it is a portrait of a woman in her mid-twenties, painted in the 1930s. She is looking directly at the viewers "with a knowing smile and a hint of complicity. Or so it seemed. The effect was disconcerting".

Paul, who's an art expert, thinks this is a work of Vuillard. Marion explains that this is the portrait of her great-aunt Sylvie Charlot, who died a few years ago at the age of a hundred and something. She lived in this apartment all her life.

Later Paul and Colin discuss the painting's details and the lack of the artist's signature. There is a stain on the rug in the picture which looks odd, "almost random, as if it's a shadow of something outside the picture".

What's even more odd, that the stain shifts its position, when they look at the photos on the phone later.

Colin cannot explain why he is so drawn to the artwork. "The history of the painting was none of his business and he would be back in London before long... But there was something about the portrait of Sylvie Charlot, something compelling, that was driving him on. He could not let go".

He tries to find out who Sylvie was, and what is the creepy mystery behind the painting. Colin discovers that Sylvie was a star of the fashion world before the war and was hobnobbing with the most famous artists, musicians and artists. Now her legacy is mostly forgotten. As for the portrait, it has a life of its own.

"Sylvie herself was enjoying the attention, Paul said. Her smile seemed to become broader, her expression more knowing, almost mischievous, as if she were playing a game. And the shadow on the rug... The only thing was, its position in the photographs wasn't quite as he remembered from the painting; the shadow seemed a slightly different size and shape and a bit closer to Sylvie".

Paul is trying to monitor the position of the shadow by marking its position in each photo with Post-it notes. "There was no doubt that the shadow had shifted. Not just once and not just closer to Sylvie".

The enthusiastic duo come to a conclusion that the picture must have been a double portrait, which was cut in half. Colin feels captivated by Sylvie, as if they have an invisible connection. Is she appealing to him, hoping he would reveal the mystery? 

His pursuit of the origins of the painting are not as harmless as they sound. He is warned against it, the people who know its secrets "would not want any harm to come to you", they tell Colin.

"Harm? Why should I come to any harm?"

"All being well, you won't. But I must advise you not to pursue your interest in the portrait of Sylvie Charlot".

Despite the warning, Colin is determined to find out the truth about the painting, why it was divided in two, and why it was hidden from view for many years. Was it a sensible decision? Colin is feeling troubled. "It was the nights, the dark shadows in passages and doorways, the feeling that he was being followed, that it was unwise to linger. He no longer felt comfortable, even in places he knew well".

Colin's research brings him into the past of the film and theatre world of Paris and London before the war, and to the present-day Sussex. As the secrets keep unravelling, the seems little doubt "that the portrait, and images of it, had unusual properties, almost a life of their own".

The Purple Shadow is an enjoyable and enthralling mystery, which will keep you baffled until the very end. This book transports you to the theatre and film world before the war.

Purchase Links 

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Purple-Shadow-Christopher-Bowden-ebook/dp/B01JLMD7N4/ 

US - https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Shadow-Christopher-Bowden-ebook/dp/B01JLMD7N4/ 

France - https://www.amazon.fr/Purple-Shadow-Christopher-Bowden-ebook/dp/B01JLMD7N4/

Author Bio – Christopher Bowden lives in south London. He is the author of six colour-themed novels, which have been praised variously by Andrew Marr, Julian Fellowes, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Shena Mackay. 

Social Media Links – 

https://www.facebook.com/christopher.bowden.90 

Website - http://www.christopherbowden.com

This book review is part of the blog tour.

Many thanks to Christopher Bowden, Langton & Wood and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!