Review: Frank's Bear Cave by Glenn Harvey

Synopsis:

The second decade of the 20th Century was a period of great transition, especially with the beginning of WWI in 1917. The war accelerated the industrial revolution and took an estimated forty million lives. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic decreased the world population by upwards of another fifty million.

The United States probably experienced more changes during that brief era than in any period since. The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote and serve on juries. Prohibition gave rise to the moonshine industry and associated gang activity. Automobiles were coming onto the scene. Yet, farmers and timbermen were using centuries-old horse-drawn technology. There was increasing demand for farm produce by the expanding population of mill workers who kept the factories humming. Likewise, the virgin forests of the northeastern U.S. were providing the lumber needed for new homes in the cities and mill towns.

People coped with the 1918 influenza pandemic and industrial accidents without health insurance or welfare assistance outside their family, friends, churches, and local social institutions. The introductory chapters provide the early 1900s, rural setting, through the experiences of one family. As all of the individuals cited are deceased, this content is based on both written and verbal memories passed down through the family, verified to the extent possible by public records. The complete 1921-22, "Trial Book" of over 1000 pages, tells the story of the murder trial.

At 1:00 am, April 3, 1921, an intruder in Frank Harvey’s Butler County, Pennsylvania, farmhouse opened a life-changing chapter in his life. The murder he witnessed led to a sensational trial, “The Commonwealth vs. Henry A. Blakeley." The resultant testimony, motions, and appeals dominated local news from April 1921 through Blakeley’s execution in October 1922.

The murder trial is told verbatim through selections from the original typewritten trial manuscript. More than seventy witnesses from many walks of life provide us with vivid images of the day and times through their unredacted words, slang, and local expressions. Witnesses for the prosecution left little doubt that the defendant was profane, mean-spirited, mentally unstable, and guilty of murder.

A verdict of first-degree murder was an automatic death sentence in Pennsylvania in 1921. Thus, the defendant’s attorneys pulled out all stops trying to convince the jury and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that the murder was not first-degree. They failed, as the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's sentence. Nonetheless, the wide range of defense witnesses provided fascinating testimony. The defendant’s attorneys called more than forty witnesses, including the defendant’s children, local drunks, and distinguished physicians, to prove the witness was acting in self-defense or was unaware of his actions due to intoxication, insanity, or being in an epileptic coma.

In the end, his body was unclaimed by the family and Henry Blakeley was interned in the prison cemetery. He left behind photographs that he had taken for his friends and a final letter that prison officials refused to release due to its extremely vile language.

~ ~ ~

Begin with the family and local history leading up to the fateful events, which are interspersed with occasional fictional chapters to give colour to events are recollected by family members.

With regards to the criminal trial, Harvey states that he has presented the testimony in a different order than the actual trial: 

Harvey presents the details of the trial through the reproduction of the original transcripts which literally encompasses nearly seventy-five percent of the tome. We finish with the accused's execution and a footnote on Blakeley's final, vile missive, wherein "... he vulgarly assails those who had anything to do with the trial ..."

Harvey finishes with a comparison of times then and now and laments that things really have not changed.

A great source for local historians who get a very of life in early 20th century Pennsylvania, as well as the court proceedings in a capital trial.  Definitely one for true crime aficionados.

Review: The Tailor of Riga by Jonathan Harries

Synopsis: I had absolutely no intention of getting into the family business. As I told my father the night he enlightened me on what my ancestors had been up to for over a thousand years, "Sticking a curved dagger into someone's liver ain't quite my cup of tea."

As it turned out, I had no choice. When your family's been assassinating reprobates and other loathsome individuals for seventy generations, you have a certain obligation.

So, while it was a little disconcerting to hear how dear old granny would have become a prostitute if Grandpa Joe hadn't whacked one of Germany's top agents just before the start of World War I, it certainly piqued my interest. Of course, as I discovered, prostitution and murder were pretty de rigueur for my family.

After all, it was my great-grandfather who was hired by the British secret service to kill Jack the Ripper and my mother's cousins who took part in the attempted assassination of Lenin.

My only regret when I finally took up the family sica was not eliminating Jean-Bedel Bokassa just before he crowned himself Emperor of the Central African Empire and ate my two friends.

But we all make mistakes.

~ ~ ~

A rather curious (and dubious) tale of the author's discovery of his "real" family history.

"When your family's been assassinating reprobates and other loathsome individuals for seventy generations, you have a certain obligation."

Harries takes us on a journey of discovery - that he is descended from a long line of assassins dating back to Biblical times - and showcases a couple of incidents out of what is no doubt many acts of subterfuge and murderous expediency, de rigueur.

For those who definitely like their humour accompanied by satire, witticisms, anecdotal snippets of questionable historical accuracies and fallacies, then this is for you.

Looking forward to reading more of the exploits in the next books in the series: The Carpet Salesman from Baghdad, The Bodyguard of Sarawak, and The Correspondent of Petrograd.

Review: Ravenna by Judith Herrin

Synopsis: In 402 AD, after invading tribes broke through the Alpine frontiers of Italy and threatened the imperial government in Milan, the young Emperor Honorius made the momentous decision to move his capital to a small, easy defendable city in the Po estuary - Ravenna. From then until 751 AD, Ravenna was first the capital of the Western Roman Empire, then that of the immense kingdom of Theoderic the Goth and finally the centre of Byzantine power in Italy.

In this engrossing account Judith Herrin explains how scholars, lawyers, doctors, craftsmen, cosmologists and religious luminaries were drawn to Ravenna where they created a cultural and political capital that dominated northern Italy and the Adriatic. As she traces the lives of Ravenna's rulers, chroniclers and inhabitants, Herrin shows how the city became the meeting place of Greek, Latin, Christian and barbarian cultures and the pivot between East and West. The book offers a fresh account of the waning of Rome, the Gothic and Lombard invasions, the rise of Islam and the devastating divisions within Christianity. It argues that the fifth to eighth centuries should not be perceived as a time of decline from antiquity but rather, thanks to Byzantium, as one of great creativity - the period of 'Early Christendom'. These were the formative centuries of Europe.

While Ravenna's palaces have crumbled, its churches have survived. In them, Catholic Romans and Arian Goths competed to produce an unrivalled concentration of spectacular mosaics, many of which still astonish visitors today. Beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned photographs, and drawing on the latest archaeological and documentary discoveries, Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe brings the early Middle Ages to life through the history of this dazzling city.

~ ~ ~

I picked this one as: (1) I have Herrin's "Byzantium" which I enjoyed; and (2) for the inclusion of Galla Placidia and the Visigoth Kingdom, and the succeeding Ostrogoth and Lombard Kingdoms.

The period covered off was one of turmoil - political and religious, of conspiracy and machinations, internal and external power struggles, creation and destruction of empires. It was a period I was familiar with - and Herrin's tome is more on the academic side of things rather than a travel guide for the uninitiated. The city prospered after the fall of Rome, and this is evident in the church building program undertaken in the early 6th century and the city's position as a key power base for the Byzantine Empire.

For me, Herrin's book provided me with what I was specifically looking for - for others, a more general history may be in order.

Note: read in 2020 / review posted 2025

Review: Rebellion by Philip Yorke

Synopsis: It is 1643.  The bloody English Civil War has been raging for almost a year and Parliament is facing defeat.  In desperation, it orders army officer, Francis Hacker, to spearhead an audacious plot to bring down the tyrant, King Charles.  Courageous and loyal, Hacker is drawn into a deadly deceit that could cost him everything he holds most dear…

~ ~ ~

Historical fiction with grit as the true drama and horrors of the English Civil War are brought to life in the pages of Yorke's book.

During 1642 - 1643, the King and his supporters will still on the political chessboard, pitching battles along the length and breadth of the country against Cromwell's Parliamentarians. Battles were fought and won and lost on both sides, and the futility is well depicted. It is the human loss that is tragically represented- friends and family, once allies, now foes; religious and political beliefs held steadfast by some, and picked up and cast away with indifference by others; and the family drama of loss and grief. Yorke portrays the times in all their grisly glory.

This is the first in a series featuring Parliamentarian soldier Francis Hacker, a man driven by the convictions he upholds - both personal, political and religious. An outstanding historical novel that touches on this divisive period on English history. Looking forward to book two - Redemption.

Note: read in 2020 / reviewed added 2025

Review: The Bucharest Legacy by William Maz

Synopsis: CIA agent Bill Hefflin is back in Bucharest—immersed in a cauldron of spies and crooked politicians ...

The CIA is rocked to its core when a KGB defector divulges that there is a KGB mole inside the Agency. They learn that the mole's handler is a KGB agent known as Boris. CIA analyst Bill Hefflin recognizes that name—Boris is the code name of Hefflin's longtime KGB asset. If the defector is correct, Hefflin realizes Boris must be a triple agent, and his supposed mole has been passing false intel to Hefflin and the CIA. What's more, this makes Hefflin the prime suspect as the KGB mole inside the Agency.

Hefflin is given a chance to prove his innocence by returning to his city of birth, Bucharest, Romania, to find Boris and track down the identity of the mole. It's been three years since the bloody revolution, and what he finds is a cauldron of spies, crooked politicians, and a country controlled by the underground and the new oligarchs, all of whom want to find Boris. But Hefflin has a secret that no one else knows—Boris has been dead for over a year.

~ ~ ~

A thrilling follow up to The Bucharest Dossier, which sees Bill back in Bucharest, tracking down not only a long dead mole, but who has now assumed his identity. A proverbial cat-and-mouse game is played out against a backdrop of conspiracy, corruption, espionage, and where every man and his dog is out for a piece of something. Democracy is slow as generations grew up in an era where bribes and blackmail were pervasive - it is a system not so easily given up, especially for those with the information and the power to hold onto it and meld it into something of their own. This is the world into which Bill is thrust in his search not only for the mole but the means with which to clear the suspicion attached to his own name.

They say "write what you know" - and Maz does this to perfection, giving the reader an insider's view of Bucharest pre and post Glasnost. A worthy successor to The Bucharest Dossier.

The Bucharest Dossier by William Maz

Synopsis: Bill Hefflin is a man apart—apart from life, apart from his homeland, apart from love ...

At the start of the 1989 uprising in Romania, CIA analyst Bill Hefflin—a disillusioned Romanian expat—arrives in Bucharest at the insistence of his KGB asset, code-named Boris. As Hefflin becomes embroiled in an uprising that turns into a brutal revolution, nothing is as it seems, including the search for his childhood love, which has taken on mythical proportions.

With the bloody events unfolding at blinding speed, Hefflin realizes the revolution is manipulated by outside forces, including his own CIA and Boris—the puppeteer who seems to be pulling all the strings of Hefflin’s life.

~ ~ ~

I love espionage / spy thrillers and this one is right up there with some of my favourite authors.

It has been a while since I first read this and its sister book, but both still resonate. It is the story of a naive young CIA analyst caught up in a game played by those higher up for their own ends. A man, whose own life is shrouded in mystery and who is far from being honest with those around him, who is thrust into a world where identity is a commodity, loyalty questionable, corruption pervasive, and conspiracies abound.

The writing is slick, engaging, and ready to send you hither and thither during the years of revolution in Ceausescus' Romania of the 1980s. What fully immerses the reader in the narrative is the author's ability to posit parallels from his own early life into the text, giving such a sense of realism.

A great first book,which I followed immediately with the second - The Bucharest Legacy.

Review: Blood's Game by Angus Donald

Synopsis: London, Winter 1670. Holcroft Blood has entered the employ of the Duke of Buckingham, one of the most powerful men in the kingdom after the king. It is here that his education really begins. With a gift for numbers and decoding ciphers, Holcroft soon proves invaluable to the Duke, but when he's pushed into a betrayal he risks everything for revenge. 

His father, Colonel Thomas Blood, has fallen on hard times. A man used to fighting, he lives by his wits and survives by whatever means necessary. When he's asked to commit treason by stealing the crown jewels, he puts himself and his family in a dangerous situation - one that may end at the gallows. As the machinations of powerful men plot to secure the country's future, both father and son must learn what it is to survive in a more dangerous battlefield than war - the court of King Charles II.

~ ~ ~

I adore the character of Colonel Thomas Blood - so who could not reciprocate with his offspring!

A riotous adventure at the time of the Restoration of King Charles II (c.1670s). It is the story of both Colonel Thom Blood and his offspring, Holcroft Blood.  Angus Donald's narrative is fresh, exciting and always action-packed; his characters walk on the wild-side of life, and can be both detestable and likeable at the same time.

This is a period I am delving more into as a reader, and one that I am enjoying immensely. This will not be my last foray and I am looking forward to further exploits in the upcoming books - "Blood' s Revolution and Blood's Campaign.

Note: I read and reviewed this for both Goodreads and NetGalley back in 2020 and since then, have added all three books to my own personal library.

Review: Gumshoe - The Mortimer Angel Series by Rob Leininger

Move over Mike Hammer and Sam Spade - there's a new kid in town, and his name is Angel .... Mort Angel.



Gumshoe:

Missing for nine days: the mayor and district attorney of Reno, Nevada. Their vehicles were found parked side-by-side at Reno-Tahoe International airport. Did they fly somewhere together? They aren’t on any flight manifests. Did they take off with a big pile of the city’s money? If so, city accountants can’t find it. Were they murdered? There’s no sign of foul play. Their disappearances have finally made national news.

Enter Mort Angel, 41, Reno’s newest gumshoe, a private-eye-in-training at his nephew’s investigative firm. Just four hours into his new career, Mort finds the mayor---dead, and in the trunk of his ex-wife’s Mercedes. Did Mort kill the mayor? Did Mort’s ex? A news-hungry nation wants to know.

As events begin to spin out of control, Mort realizes things have been out of control since the night before he started his new career, the night he found the unknown naked blond in his bed . . .

Gumshoe For Two:

In the style of Dashiell Hammett , ex-IRS agent turned gumshoe-in-training, Mortimer Angel, is approached by a beautiful hooker, Holiday, in a casino bar in Reno. Mort first met Holiday two months ago, but now learns that she's not really a hooker. She's a college engineering student, searching for her younger sister, Allie, who disappeared three months ago. Having seen Mort in the news, Holiday knows he's a PI who finds missing persons. 

While in the bar with Mort, Holiday gets an unexpected phone call from Allie, who says she's in Gerlach, a small town in Nevada. The call is cut off. Holiday hires Mort on the spot, dragging him off to Gerlach. When Mort finds a connection between Allie and US Senator Harry "Liar" Reinhart, a presidential candidate who vanished without a trace three days ago, things quickly turn deadly ... very deadly.

Gumshoe On The Loose:

IRS agent-turned-PI Mortimer Angel is relaxing in a hole-in-the-wall bar in a Reno casino when an attractive young girl hires him to find out who left her a cryptic message demanding a million dollars. At the girl’s house, Mort finds the body of missing rapper Jonnie Xenon―Jo-X to his legions of fans―hanging from the rafters with two bullet holes in him. Mort is shocked when he learns the identity of the girl’s father―and even more shocked when the father hires him to investigate the murder.

Mort, being Mort, accumulates a few felonies as he follows the clues to Las Vegas. And along the way, he picks up an alluring young assistant who changes his life―in every conceivable way.

Gumshoe Rock:

Early in July, northern Nevada’s senior Internal Revenue Service agent, Ronald Soranden—disliked by every agent in the Reno IRS office—vanished without a trace. In September, he makes a dramatic reappearance, of sorts. His skull—stripped clean and white—is dropped through the slashed top of a Mustang convertible. The vehicle belongs to Lucy Landry, PI Mortimer Angel’s gorgeous young assistant now working with him on a seemingly unrelated embezzlement case.

But Mort is a former IRS field agent in Reno. He’d done his time during the tyrannical reign of Soranden, quitting, he says, “when I discovered I have a soul.” Now that his former boss’s head has appeared, he and Lucy find them themselves under the annoying surveillance of a pair of IRS enforcement agents.

When the FBI are brought in to investigate the murder, Mort and Lucy realize shocking details about their own case—primarily Soranden’s involvement. It becomes evident that events and suspects of the embezzlement case and Soranden’s murder are heavily entangled with those enmeshed in an ugly case of blackmail. Mort and Lucy are roped tighter and tighter into the Soranden investigation while they grapple with the deadliest situation of their PI careers. Mortimer Angel has been in harrowing, lethal situations before and has suffered incalculable losses, but none more horrifying than the trap embedded in Gumshoe Rock.

Gumshoe In The Dark:

Blackmail, murder, and a pretty girl on the run Nevada's attorney general is missing. At dusk on a deserted Nevada highway in a thunderstorm, ex-IRS agent and PI-in-training Mortimer Angel comes across a pretty, scantily-clad girl—Harper Leland. She's cold and alone, thirty miles from the nearest town. When Mort offers her a ride, she orders him out of his truck at gunpoint. She tries to take off, but he cuts the valve stem on the rear tire. Realizing she's in trouble, he wants to help—but with no spare tire, he devises a creative way to get them out of the hills—slowly, precariously balanced on three tires. 

On their way down, a rough-looking man stops and asks Mort if he has "seen anyone up in the hills." Mort realizes the guy is after Harper, who is hiding in the truck. Thus begins a cat-and-mouse chase in northeast Nevada that continues even after Mort finds the attorney general—Harper's mother—dead in the trunk of a car. In time, Mort's wife, Lucy, is also pulled into the case, which becomes the deadliest of Mort's career.

~ ~ ~

Mortimer (Mort) Angel is a 40-something, newly minted and rather green private detective who was an IRS (internal revenue service) employee in a previous lifetime. Mort is taken on by one Ma (aka Maude Cleary) the best PI in Neveda, though both he and she soon wonder what he has gotten himself into.

Mort - our narrator - is a magnet for trouble (and chicks, always scantily clad) - which amounts to the same thing in Mort's world, which transcends the underbelly of Reno, Nevada. Mort has a knack for finding people .... well, their body parts actually, which seem to land right in his lap, much to the chagrin of local law enforcement, who have Mort firmly in their sights.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get a hold of the first in the series, but the books following provided enough references that I had no trouble picking up at book two.

Leininger's nuanced narrative is raw and punchy, paced well as the action slowly gathers speed to its inevitable conclusion. Mort is provided with some gritty and yet humorous dialogue- such as:

" ... a hooker walks into a bar .... " (literally)

" ... this investigation had become a hydra, with tentacles all over the place ..."

" ... evil was tracking me down like a yeti hunting meat ... "

" ... Internal Revenue was a "service" like Schwarzenegger was a terminator, so ... maybe not ... "

Each book has a well woven story, littered with noirish references, a little tax talk, and where everything borders on the illegal.  There are plenty of hair-raising escapes for the resourceful Mort, who at times seems to be channeling his inner MacGyver. It is usually in the last 100 pages that things really pick up, and both the narrative and events are quite deftly turned on their ear before - like a boulder rolling down a hill - the damage (and body count) is revealed. 

This is a great series, well worth investing in and a must read for lovers of noir detective fiction!

Review: The Lewis Trilogy by Peter May

The Blackhouse

The Isle of Lewis is the most remote, harshly beautiful place in Scotland, where the difficulty of existence seems outweighed only by people's fear of God. But older, pagan values lurk beneath the veneer of faith, the primal yearning for blood and revenge.

When a brutal murder on the island bears the hallmarks of a similar slaying in Edinburgh, police detective Fin Macleod is dispatched north to investigate. But since he himself was raised on Lewis, the investigation also represents a journey home and into his past.

Each year the island's men perform the hunting of the gugas, a savage custom no longer necessary for survival, but which they cling to even more fiercely in the face of the demands of modern morality. For Fin the hunt recalls a horrific tragedy, which after all this time may have begun to demand another sacrifice.

The Lewis Man

A MAN WITH NO NAME. An unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog; the only clue to its identity being a DNA sibling match to a local farmer. A MAN WITH NO MEMORY. But this islander, Tormod Macdonald - now an elderly man suffering from dementia - has always claimed to be an only child. A MAN WITH NO CHOICE. When Tormod's family approach Fin Macleod for help, Fin feels duty-bound to solve the mystery.

The Chessmen

Fin Macleod, now head of security on a privately owned Lewis estate, is charged with investigating a spate of illegal game-hunting taking place on the island. This mission reunites him with Whistler Macaskill—a local poacher, Fin's teenage intimate, and possessor of a long-buried secret. But when this reunion takes a violent, sinister turn, Fin realizes that revealing the truth could destroy the future.

The Black Loch

A MURDER

The body of eighteen-year-old TV personality Caitlin is found abandoned on a remote beach at the head of An Loch Dubh - the Black Loch - on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis. A swimmer and canoeist, it is inconceivable that she could have drowned.

A SECRET

Fin Macleod left the island ten years earlier to escape its memories. When he learns that his married son Fionnlagh had been having a clandestine affair with the dead girl and is suspected of her murder, he and Marsaili return to try and clear his name.

A TRAP

But nothing is as it seems, and the truth of the murder lies in a past that Fin would rather forget, and a tragedy at the cages of a salmon farm on East Loch Roag, where the tense climax of the story finds its resolution.

~ ~ ~

I have read the first three in the series, and all stories follow on from the previous - I have yet to read the fourth instalment. These are not your typical police procedural nor detective fiction; but there is certainly mystery, crime, drama.

The stories are a look into the darker side of a small enclosed, almost claustrophobic community, with long hidden secrets, whose community, like the island itself, is not without scars, and no-one remains untouched by tragedy. The truth of murder lies in a past best forgotten.

The Blackhouse sees the return to Lewis of Fin Macleod, sent to investigate a local death. His presence brings to light that long buried secrets from the past, which is a catalyst for the crimes he is sent to investigate. Even Fin himself has secrets so deeply buried that he has forgotten them.

The Lewis Man delves into the past of another island family with the discovery of the bog-body of a murdered man. But are those revealing what they know reliable narrators.

The Chessman deals with past events linked back to Fin's university days and a local rock band.

May has a way of slowly luring in the reader until they find themselves fully immersed in not only the narrative and characters, but the island of Lewis itself. May's prose is dark and brooding, at times even menacing, that one almost feels the isolation and harsh ruggedness of the Outer Hebrides.

For those with an interest in family drama with long hidden secrets, this series is one for you.

Review: The Formidable Women who Shaped Medieval Europe by Susan Abernethy

Synopsis: The formation of the Burgundian Empire by the four Valois Dukes of Burgundy would not have happened without the formidable royal and aristocratic women in their lives. These women, the wives, daughters, nieces, granddaughters and great-granddaughters, were vigorously engaged in the administration of the Burgundian empire, acting as governors and regents, making appointments, securing and making strategic marriages, raising taxes, negotiating treaties, engaging in cultural, religious and political patronage, giving birth to heirs and aiding in the military endeavours of their husbands. The history of these women involves numerous countries in Europe, including England, Scotland, France, Brittany, the Low Countries, Italy, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and many others.

Some of these women lived in luxurious comfort, and others were bullied and badgered into turning over some or all of their patrimony, allowing these all-powerful men to build an influential and powerful new state comprised of a numerous and varied collection of territories in Western Europe that existed from the late fourteenth century until the early sixteenth century.

We will meet women who were the daughters of kings, emperors, dukes and counts and even a queen regnant and a saint. The Valois dukes fully entrusted their wives with ruling in their stead while away fighting military and political wars. They used a deliberate policy of making marriages for their daughters and other female relatives into the many houses of Europe for political and territorial gains. In the end, the last Valois duke, Charles the Bold, put in motion a marriage for his daughter Mary, which would eventually bring about the end of the mighty Burgundian state, allowing it to be ruled by the House of Habsburg and absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire.

~ ~ ~

Of all the recent books out of the Pen & Sword stable, this one was one of the more palatable tomes I have read in some time. Having read and currently own, a number of texts mentioned as references sources, the subject matter was not unfamiliar to me.

I like that the book was broken down into the reigns of the four main dukes - each of whose biography by Richard Vaughan is referenced. Following a history on the region / dukedom of Burgundy, including the four main incumbents, we begin to be introduced into the women of the ducal families - those born into it, those that married into it, and those on the very periphery of it. With family trees and references at the end of each stand-alone biography, it is very readable and singular in its layout, which reflects the fact that Abernethy is one of the many bloggers turned author carried by this publisher.

When there is very little to flesh out the character, the author does revert to detailing what is known but also drawing in the males within the sphere to "bulk it out" - it is unfortunately what I have found in the many tomes I have read from this publisher (don't get me started on the titles which are pure pie in the sky).

However, what the modern reader should bear in mind that for many chroniclers and authors of the period, the lives of women, especially when it came to documenting them, was not given much credence. There were some that defied the odds to have their voices heard but these a few and far between which makes it tricky for an author - in some instances - to provide much in the way of detail that does not include the goings-on of males around her, especially when they affect or contribute to events in the lives of these women.  

The experiences of the women in this tome can be reflected in the lives of their contemporaries in other corners of the globe - they are - unfortunately - not unique when money, power, land, and titles were at stake in an era dominated by powerful men who let nothing get in the way of their own personal enrichment.  Women often found themselves the victims and pawns on the political chessboard, but we must not discount those who were able to rise above and make their mark - though few and far between, both they and their sisters who had a supporting cast role are still deserving of our attention.

Kudos to Abernethy for tackling the dukedom of Burgundy. Having read her very informative and well researched blog posts one can understand that this is an area of great interest and one in which she is keen to share with a greater audience.

Review: The Bishop Murder Case by SS Van Dine

Synopsis: After solving the Greene murders, Philo Vance has taken a well-earned holiday in Switzerland. Returning to New York City he finds his old chum, District Attorney Anthony Markham, up against a bizarre series of murders inspired by children’s nursery rhymes. 

The first murder, involving a beautiful young woman and a private archery range, was apparently based on “Who Killed Cock Robin?”; it is followed by more hideous deaths referencing “Mother Goose.” But Philo Vance is not a man to be fobbed off with points to juvenilia. Markham and his colleagues may be worried that a certain Mr. H. Dumpty is riding for a great fall, but Philo Vance suspects a connection to a rather more sophisticated writer.

~ ~ ~

The fourth in the series with the Benson Murder Case, the Canary Murder Case & the Green Murder Case all preceding. There are - including this one - twelve books in the series, all set in the 1920s and 1930s. I read all of these quite, quite some time ago and enjoyed them all.

Vance is portrayed by his creator as "a stylish — even foppish —dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent." A homage to Sherlock Holmes, Vance even has his own Watson in the form of one Van Dine (friend, legal advisor, narrator, chronicler). Author Van Dine often has Vance monocled, impeccably attired (gloves, hat, top coat), and his speech frequently tended to be effete, affected, quaint and whimsical. He is invariably accompanied by and works with: DA Markham, Sgt Heath, Dr Doremus, Van Dine (his Watson), and Currie (his valet).

In this outing, the nursery rhymes of Mother Goose provide a backdrop for murder, which Vance, using his vast and unique knowledge of subjects obscure, will solve for the police.

Each tome is accompanied by a cast of characters and murder scene to assist the reader follow the narrative.

This is a golden age detective novel - it is a novel of its own time, not ours. Enjoy it for what is represents - the foundations of the modern day private detective tomes - and a little bit of escapism. For unbeknownst to the world at large, the Great Depression was was about to descend - and escapism from the harsh realities of life would provide a little relief for many.

You can find both the films and radio plays still - enjoy!

Review: The Physicist Detective by Raymond Marylowe

Synopsis: Meet Professor Raymond Marylowe — flamboyant theoretical physicist and self-proclaimed “world’s greatest private detective.” Armed with absurd logic and bizarre applications of physics, he can theorize anyone into guilt—no matter how innocent they are. Wrong and humiliated often, uncertain never.

Follow him on a globe-trotting adventure through seven cases, as he attempts to tackle impossible crimes, outwit phantom thieves, duel secret spies, uncover mythic treasures—and face his most baffling mystery romance, with a woman as much of a chaotic wildcard as he is.

But in every shadow lurks his sworn nemesis, the worst nightmare of every an elite criminal defense attorney, who vows to defend all criminals Professor Marylowe accuses, no matter how guilty…

~ ~ ~

Suspend all belief all ye who enter here. This is a farcical, comical, nonsensical, self-indulgent piece of buffoonery. Picture the Tassie Devil from the WB cartoons - that is Professor Marylowe - as he pontificates, accuses, surmises, rushing in like a bull in a china shop, and literally makes it up as he goes along, solving (??) crimes with the use of physics. Usual one dimensional crooks, villains, suspects and numerous other characters, who don't seem to be allocated any real depth but a pretty much page fillers to keep the highly unusual narrative flowing (or rocketing along at break neck speed into oblivion). Continue the journey at your own peril .....

The Lumumba Plot

It was supposed to be a moment of great optimism, a cause for jubilation. The Congo was at last being set free from Belgium—one of seventeen countries to gain independence in 1960 from ruling European powers. At the helm as prime minister was charismatic nationalist Patrice Lumumba. Just days after the handover, however, the Congo’s new army mutinied, Belgian forces intervened, and Lumumba turned to the United Nations for help in saving his newborn nation from what the press was already calling “the Congo crisis.” Dag Hammarskjöld, the tidy Swede serving as UN secretary-general, quickly arranged the organization’s biggest peacekeeping mission in history. But chaos was still spreading. Frustrated with the fecklessness of the UN and spurned by the United States, Lumumba then approached the Soviets for help—an appeal that set off alarm bells at the CIA. To forestall the spread of Communism in Africa, the CIA sent word to its station chief in the Congo, Larry Devlin: Lumumba had to go.

Within a year, everything would unravel. The CIA plot to murder Lumumba would fizzle out, but he would be deposed in a CIA-backed coup, transferred to enemy territory in a CIA-approved operation, and shot dead by Congolese assassins. Hammarskjöld, too, would die, in a mysterious plane crash en route to negotiate a cease-fire with the Congo’s rebellious southeast. And a young, ambitious military officer named Joseph Mobutu, who had once sworn fealty to Lumumba, would seize power with U.S. help and misrule the country for more than three decades. For the Congolese people, the events of 1960–61 represented the opening chapter of a long horror story. For the U.S. government, however, they provided a playbook for future interventions.

See also: Crimereads: The Political Assassination That Transformed Africa

The Remembered Soldier

An extraordinary love story and a captivating novel about the power of memory and imagination.

Flanders 1922. After serving as a soldier in the Great War, Noon Merckem has lost his memory and lives in a psychiatric asylum. Countless women, responding to a newspaper ad, visit him there in the hope of finding their spouse who vanished in battle. One day a woman, Julienne, appears and recognizes Noon as her husband, the photographer Amand Coppens, and takes him home against medical advice. But their miraculous reunion doesn't turn out the way that Julienne wants her envious friends to believe. Only gradually do the two grow close, and Amand's biography is pieced together on the basis of Julienne's stories about him. But how can he be certain that she's telling the truth? 

In The Remembered Soldier, Anjet Daanje immerses us in the psyche of a war-traumatized man who has lost his identity. When Amand comes to doubt Julienne's word, the reader is caught up in a riveting spiral of confusion that only the greatest of literature can achieve.

Review: Cromwell's Spy by Dennis Sewell

Synopsis: A vivid biography of the elusive George Downing, a Puritan from colonial Massachusetts who became Oliver Cromwell's chief spy and a key figure in the Restoration.Downing Street is synonymous with political power, perhaps only second to Pennsylvania Avenue. But for the builder behind one of the world's most famous streets—George Downing—it was a mere retirement project.

Throughout his storied life, Downing would be a soldier, a politician, a diplomat, and a spy. He came of age as a pioneer in colonial Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard, crossed the Atlantic to sign up for the English Civil War and fast became Oliver Cromwell’s chief of military intelligence. He was one of a close group of now-forgotten Americans in Cromwell’s circle who exerted enormous influence upon English political life during their Civil War.

Throughout his life, Downing was always at the center of events, engaging with the most illustrious men and women of his times. His uncle was the governor of Massachusetts; his cousin the governor of Connecticut. In England, his patrons were Oliver Cromwell and King Charles II. The famous diarist, Samuel Pepys, was his clerk; the great poet, John Milton, prepared his letters and dispatches. William of Orange was godfather to his son; his next-door neighbor was Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia; and when Downing finally built his street, his surveyor was Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St Paul’s Cathedral.

He would leave his mark on American soil as well. He played a key role in the founding of New York by helping to wrest Manhattan and Long Island from the Dutch. Yet he remains one of the most elusive figures of his age. In Dennis Sewell's rich and vivid Cromwell's Spymaster, Downing emerges as the extraordinary, enigmatic, and endlessly fascinating anti-hero of his own life story.

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After finishing this biography by Dennis Sewell, I still felt as if Downing was as elusive as ever, and I fear much of his "intelligence" work has gone and will continue to go undiscovered. It is his reputation - as a spy, a diplomat, a turncoat, a raconteur, an double agent - that has  foreshadowed all else.  But I feel that I have learned more about this man than I previously had, and have come to an understanding of his character and career.

George Downing was a man who was socially and politically connected to people - on both sides of the Atlantic - who mattered. He was politically active, initially as a preacher, before learning the art of deception and ambiguity from Oliver Cromwell himself. Downing was no fool - he was adroit, astute, with his own network of spies and agents, and was often referred to as both "an intelligencer and seducer" (c.1650).

His early political career was in Scotland however he took no part in the trial or execution of King Charles I of England, despite being on Cromwell's staff. He became increasingly concerned with foreign affairs and national security, finding himself as Ambassador in the Netherlands, where he was said to be "... burgling, bribing and blackmailing his way across the Low Countries..." which were a hot-bed of Royalist activity and home to a number of significant members of the royal house of Stuart.

His reputation was far from clean - he was an active participant in the trafficking of war prisoners to the Americas and nor was he above a little appropriation of the property of Royalists for himself. In the political vacuum that followed the death of Cromwell, Downing used his connections to intercede with the new King, Charles II. He was forgiven his misdemeanors, rewarded and even took on the role of hunter of the regicides.

Downing did well for himself in the US colonies - mercantilism became his new religion; and whilst he may have lost royal support due to abandoning his post during war, he was an active (and wealthy) parliamentarian.

As mentioned, it would be Downing's reputation - as a morally heinous, hypocritical scoundrel and turncoat - that would outlive his achievements. However, it should be remembered that Downing really was no better nor worse than his contemporaries and his actions should be judged only in light of the events and mores of his time - not ours!

Having finding myself reading more about the Interregnum under Cromwell and the hunt for the regicides of Charles I, this biography by Sewell landed at a most appropriate time. 

I would highly recommend indulging in this biography of an elusive and contradictory character, which does much to restore some of the dignity and acknowledge the sheer strength of political survivalism of this intriguing man.

Review: Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada

Synopsis: Astrologer, fortuneteller, and self-styled detective Kiyoshi Mitarai must in one week solve a mystery that has baffled Japan for 40 years. Who murdered the artist Umezawa, raped and killed his daughter, and then chopped up the bodies of six others to create Azoth, the supreme woman? 

With maps, charts, and other illustrations, this story of magic and illusion, pieced together like a great stage tragedy, challenges the reader to unravel the mystery before the final curtain. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders joins a new wave of Japanese murder mysteries being translated into English.

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It is 1979, and amateur detectives and friends Kazumi Ishioka and Kiyoshi Mitarai, investigate a baffling series of murders that was said to have occurred some forty years prior. Going back through events and documentary evidence, these two slowly piece together the mystery before the actual denouement is made by a surprising narrator.

A little bit long-winded for my liking but an intriguing and puzzling mystery none-the-less, and one that will keep the sharpest minds engaged.

Review: Murder in Constantinople by AE Goldin

Synopsis: A gripping, immersive historical murder mystery in which a wayward boy from London's East End is pulled into the hunt for a serial killer on the eve of the Crimean War.

London, 1854. Twenty-one-year-old Ben Canaan attracts trouble wherever he goes. His father wants him to be a good Jewish son, working for the family business on Whitechapel Road, but Ben and his friends, the 'Good-for-Nothings', just want adventure.

Then the discovery of an enigmatic letter and a photograph of a beautiful woman offer an escapade more dangerous than anything he'd imagined. Suddenly Ben is thrown into a mystery that takes him all the way to Constantinople, the jewel of an empire and the centre of a world on the brink of war.

His only clue is three 'The White Death'. Now he must find what links a string of grisly murders, following a trail through kingmaking and conspiracy, poison and high politics, bloodshed and betrayal. In a city of deadly secrets, no one is safe - and one wrong step could cost Ben his life.

~ ~ ~

"Murder in Constantinople" reads like a boys-own-adventure. There are political machinations, espionage, murder, secret societies, travel, war, criminal detection, and a naive hero blundering into situations beyond his abilities.

And if you suspend belief and accept it as such, you will find an enjoyable romp through 19th century Constantinople at the time of the Crimean War - where politics and high society meld, where "everyone from high to low has secrets, all tied together in an invisible web", where conspiracies abound, and a serial killer is on the loose. Can our young runaway find his feet whilst avoid being the target of a secret group of assassins .... only time will tell.!

The first in a new series, the scene setting begins here and once it gets going, the action follows.

Review: A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls by Adam Morgan

Synopsis: The definitive biography of overlooked queer icon Margaret C. Anderson, whose fight to publish James Joyce’s Ulysses led to her arrest and trial for obscenity. Perfect for fans of The Editor and The Book-Makers.

Already under fire for publishing the literary avant-garde into a world not ready for it, Margaret C. Anderson’s cutting-edge magazine The Little Review was a bastion of progressive politics and boundary-pushing writing from then-unknowns like T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, and Djuna Barnes. And as its publisher, Anderson was a target. From Chicago to New York and Paris, this fearless agitator helmed a woman-led publication that pushed American culture forward and challenged the sensibilities of early 20th century Americans dismayed by its salacious writing and advocacy for supposed extremism like women’s suffrage, access to birth control, and LBGTQ rights.

But then it went too far. In 1921, Anderson found herself on trial and labeled “a danger to the minds of young girls” by a government seeking to shut her down. Guilty of having serialized James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses in her magazine, Anderson was now not just a publisher but also a scapegoat for regressives seeking to impose their will on a world on the brink of modernization.

Author, journalist, and literary critic Adam Morgan brings Anderson and her journal to life anew in A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls, capturing a moment of cultural acceleration and backlash all too familiar today while shining light on an unsung heroine of American arts and letters. Bringing a fresh eye to a woman and a movement misunderstood in their time, this biography highlights a feminist counterculture that audaciously pushed for more during a time of extreme social conservatism and changed the face of American literature and culture forever.

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It is a decent rather than definitive biography of a woman, who happened to be a lesbian, who ran her own publishing company, who employ other women, and who took on the "established" publishing world by serialising Joyce's "Ulyssses" much to the chagrin of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. It would be for this alone, that Margaret would be demonised and arrested for obscenity - resulting in her standing trial in 1921 with co-publisher, Jane Heap.

Morgan's book takes us through Margaret's earlier life - childhood, her self-emancipation from her parents, her work in non-traditional roles, including reviewing books, before establishing her own publishing company - and all the trials and errors associated with each decision and action. 

Then the obscenity trial is covered - rather too briefly for my liking - before we travel with Margaret out of the USA and onto Continental Europe where her life is a little sketchy at best. Powering through the 1930s in rather jumbled narrative - quite possibly due to the number of people introduced and the required explanations as to their associations / connections  - we jump to the final years of Margaret's life.

For a woman at the forefront of a major publishing controversy, I felt this fell a little flat. Whether this was due to a lack of sources or access to sources, I cannot tell but I was looking for slightly more than a wikipedia entry, especially with regards to the trial component.  

Look, overall, it is a great introduction to a woman whose lasting legacy was the promotion of "serious literature" in an era and to a society marked by conservative moral and literary tastes.

Review: Desolation by Keith Moray

Synopsis: The Black Rood of Scotland, stolen. A coroner of York, murdered. An evil worse than plague itself, at large…

1361, York. As the country recovers from the war with France, and whispers that the pestilence has returned to England grow louder, fear is in the heart of every nobleman and commoner alike. Sir Ralph de Mandeville, ex-solider and newly appointed Justice of the Peace is sent to Langbarugh, just outside York, to investigate the murder of Coroner Sir Boderick de Whitby.

More deaths quickly follow, and while these are swiftly dealt with as plague victims, Sir Ralph and his two assistants Merek and Peter soon uncover something altogether more horrifying… A greater evil is at large in the northern wapentakes.

As panic escalates and the lines between plague and murder blur, Sir Ralph is thrust into a desperate race against time. Every shadow hides a potential killer, every cough could be a death knell. Can he unmask a murderer lurking in the terrifying shadow of the Black Death before they’re all consumed by a terror more sinister than any plague?

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This series is set during the reign of King Edward III of England when the country was at war with France - the Hundred Years War.  The Black Death - or Plague - made its return - it would claim at least 20% of the population.  The Justices of the Peace Act was introduced, which created a new national role for justices of the peace (JPs) who were responsible for enforcing labor laws enacted in response to the economic changes caused by the Black Death.

The first in a new series wherein a number of local deaths is set firmly at the door of the plague - afterall, who in their right mind would look too closely at the putrefying corpse of a plague victim. However, it is the murder of a coroner and the theft of one of Scotland's most revered relics, that sets Ralph de Mandeville and his assistants on the trail of something more sinister.

There are many themes tackled in this tome - law and order, religion and superstition, necromancy and alchemy, doomsday preachers, murder, spite, and local jealousies and history.

Moray writes in an engaging manner, which slowly draws the reader in, setting the scene before our trio arrive to begin their investigations. A gentle history lesson to ensure the reader has a grasp of events and social customs of the period, is woven into the narrative - it is a subject not unknown to this author.  

Looking forward to the next installment in this new series.

Review: Feast for the Ravens by Sarah Hawkswood

Synopsis: Worcestershire, September 1145. A Templar knight is found dead in the Forest of Wyre, clutching a bloodstained document naming a traitor. Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, Serjeant Catchpoll, and Underserjeant Walkelin must uncover whether the killing was personal, political, or the work of outlaws. They are surprised to find that the locals believe the killer to be the Raven Woman, a mythical shape-shifter said to haunt the woods. Then the knight is identified as Ivo de Mitton, who fled the shire many years ago, presumed guilty of the foul murder of his kin.

As the trio dig through legend and lies, they must determine the truth and bring a cunning killer to justice.

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This is book thirteen in the Bradecote and Catchpoll series, again, with the setting for this latest in firmly during the time of The Anarchy, and the city of Worcestor in 1145.

Bradecote, Undersherrif of Worcester, along with his serjeant, Catchpoll and underserjeant, Walkelin, are sent to investigate the murder of a Knight Templar, amid rumour and susperstition that he was killed by the Raven Women - "hrafm wif".

The murder has its roots in the past - and our trio must untangle these in order to solve the mystery set firmly in their present. Hawkswood again brings the themes of legend and logic, past and present, norman and saxon, into the narrative to deftly weave an entrancing narrative - or rather ".. knots within knots within knots ...".

Highly recommend starting at the beginning of the series as this will provide a much easier introduction into the characters, the setting, the history, though there is enough within this tome to let the reader get the feel for what has transpired before if they are jumping straight into this one.

See my review of book seven: Wolf at the Door

Review: A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage by MK Oliver

Synopsis: A whip-smart and darkly funny crime novel—perfect for fans of My Sister, the Serial Killer and The Maid—that follows a wife and mother with a deadly secret that she must suppress if she wants to maintain her picture-perfect façade.

Meet Lalla Rook. Lalla has a lot on her plate: She needs to guarantee her husband makes partner, secure her dream house in Hampstead, and get her daughter into a prestigious prep school. And on the afternoon she stabs a stranger seven times after he breaks into her living room, she has a four-year-old’s birthday party to host.

With an unambitious partner, two demanding children, and a barely adequate large house in a nice (if not quite fashionable) part of town, Lalla’s life isn’t quite perfect yet. And she can’t pretend she hasn’t missed the adrenaline rush that comes with transgressing. Besides, as a wife and mother, she’s already an expert multi-tasker. So, disposing of a body, framing a friend, and being the world’s best mother can easily be managed alongside the usual domestic minutiae.

It’s just that her husband Stephen seems distracted, her daughter’s drowning of the class hamster is affecting her academic future, and then there is the unexpected intruder. Who is this man and what does he want from her? Because Lalla has a past she’d rather keep hidden—and the sudden appearance of the police means that avoiding them will be yet another task to cross off her to-do list.

Funny, calculating, hyper-competent, and ambitious, Lalla is your next favorite anti-heroine. Just don’t mention it to her mother-in-law.

~ ~ ~

This is a great fun read with a protagonist who will stop at nothing to maintain the perfect facade of her life and the ensure the pathway to her future life poses no obstacles.

You cannot but help like Lalla - afterall, if we are honest, we all have a little of the sociopath in us. Author Oliver provides the reader with a quirky and irreverant look at life in suburbia - at bit like "Desperate Housewives" meets "Housewives Of ...." meets "Stepford Wives". The short snappy chapters keep the narrative flowing like a well-oiled machine. And love the "to do" lists at the end of each chapter. 

This tome does not take itself too seriously - and neither should the reader. Lalla aspires to what we all want in life - happy family, comfortable lifestyle, good friends, good job with promotion, good schools for the kids - she just has a slightly different way of achieving it - and being the sociopath that she is, will let nothing get in her way and stop her from getting it - not family, not friends, and certainly not a little murder or two or three!.

As Lalla muses ... "... the past will come back to haunt you if you don't smother it with a pillow ..." - and her most assuredly does! Will she let that get in the way of her ambitions - certainly not! Though at times we do worry that she may not have the full control over events that she thinks she has ..... but this is Lalla, our narrator, our BFF, our anti-heroine. Of course she will triumph!

Oh, and to those "reviewers" who didn't like the book because it "... was down to a male author putting on a female narrative voice... " - get over yourselves you nufties!  Are you implying men are not ever permitted to write female characters - and vice versa. If so, where would we be without some of the great literary pieces we have today. I would take their reviews with a pinch of salt or better yet, ignore completely.