On the Radar – With Christmas just around the corner, this week’s book report focuses on some of the new releases in the historical crime fiction genre due out over the next few weeks. Victorian London? Check. A 1940s plot to kill Churchill? Check. An 11th century mystery? Check. Someone’s going to blow up the Hindenburg? Check. We even have a book penned by the grandson of JRR Tolkien, and not a hobbit in sight…
A Particular Eye for Villainy by Ann Granger
From 6 December you can get your virtual hands on the Kindle version of Granger’s latest case for Inspector Benjamin Ross, assisted by his wife Lizzie Martin. Their neighbour, Mr Thomas Tapley is bludgeoned to death in his sitting room, and Benjamin is called in to investigate. When Mr Jonathan Tapley QC hears of his cousin’s death he comes forward and shares the story of Thomas’ tragic past. Lizzie believes she saw Thomas being followed on the day of his death. As she delves into the case, she finds that he also received a mysterious visitor a few days earlier. With a growing list of suspects, it’s down to Benjamin to find out who had the most to benefit from the man’s murder.
Buy now on Amazon
Orders from Berlin by Simon Tolkien
Albert Morrison, a rich widower who had been forced into early retirement by failing eyesight, is found stabbed to death in his Chelsea flat. Every evening his daughter, Ava, would read the newspaper to him. The night before his death, he suddenly became very excited by an obscure death notice. At his funeral, Ava learns that her father worked for MI6 before the War, and that the obituary notice was a coded message preparing for the assassination of an unnamed target.
Bill Trave a young DC with the force in West London realises that a double-agent has infiltrated MI6 and is planning to assassinate Churchill, leaving another agent to take the blame. Trave realises he’s in a race against time to save Churchill and that Britain’s War effort is on the line.
Buy now on Amazon
The Hindenburg Murders by Max Allan Collins
He’s already set murder mysteries on the Titanic and the Lusitania. For his latest mystery in the Disaster Series, Road to Perdition writer Max Allan Collins has chosen the fatal flight of the luxury zeppelin airship, Hindenburg. A passenger disappears on its trans-Atlantic voyage from Frankfurt to New Jersey. Crime writer, Leslie Charteris – author of The Saint, is asked to use his knowledge of the criminal mind to find the killer. However, when the victim turns out to have been a Nazi spy, Charteris finds a long list of suspects who would want him dead, and a plot to sabotage the airship. Charteris must find the killer before more lives are lost. This one’s available from 11 December.
Pre-order now on Amazon
The Way Between the Worlds by Alys Clare
It’s the spring of 1092 and apprentice healer ‘Lassair’ Aelf Fen wakes to hear a voice calling to her for help. Lassair is convinced someone she loves is in danger, and when she hears that a nun at Chatteris Abbey – where her sister, Elfritha lives – has been murdered, she fears for her sister’s safety. She sets off for the Abbey straight away, but is she ready for the danger that awaits her? It’s out today as a paperback.
Buy now on Amazon
