A Gentleman's Murder by Christopher Huang
The year is 1924. In the Britannia Club, a swanky London gentlemen’s club exclusively for those who served in World War I, a friendly wager has been placed. The bet is between Captain Mortimer Wolfe and Albert Benson, a conscientious objector who volunteered as a…
NTN: The Dying Game
Written by Asa Avdic, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles — Fresh blood is spilt here in a debut novella penned by a Swedish broadcast journalist, which claims to please the fans of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. That is what…
CIS: Rim of the Pit revisited
Today, when lists of new crime and thriller books are saturated with stories involving ever-more numerous and gruesome deaths for their fictional characters, a look back at the kinds of mysteries that emphasise puzzles over gore can be more than a bit refreshing. A classic…
The Ginza Ghost and Other Stories
Written by Keikichi Osaka, translated by Ho-Ling Wong — Tokyo has changed a great deal in the past century or so. There have been two catastrophic earthquakes, heavy bombing during World War II, and spiralling property prices that led to an eventual collapse. On the…
The Moai Island Puzzle
Written by Alice Arisugawa, translated by Ho-Ling Wong — Golden Age mysteries are formulaic and, far from being a flaw, it’s a major part of their appeal. The stories follow patterns, and the reward for readers is not in being tricked by a new and…
The Scrivener
In Robin Blake’s third Cragg and Fidelis novel, the pair are investigating a locked-room mystery. Yes, it’s the middle of the 18th century and pawnbroker Philip Plimbo has been shot dead, apparently inside his locked office. Cragg thinks he took his own life, but Fidelis disagrees. As…
The Scrivener by Robin Blake
Having worked as a teacher for many years, Robin Blake became a full-time writer in 1986, publishing works of fiction and non-fiction. Most notably, he is an art historian who has written about Anthony Van Dyck and George Stubbs. However, in the 1990s, Blake made…