The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay
If you’d like to escape the 21st Century for a romp in late-Victorian London, one in which you don’t really have to take anything too seriously, this entertaining historical crime novel might be just the thing to conquer those January blues. Quinn le Blanc is…
Queen of Diamonds by Beezy Marsh
This is the third in Beezy Marsh’s trilogy inspired by a real-life female shoplifting gang that operated in London in the first half of the 20th century. The first two books, Queen of Thieves and Queen of Clubs, dealt with the gang’s activities during their…
An Ethical Guide to Murder by Jenny Morris
Last year I read and reviewed Here One Minute by Liane Moriarty, and it changed my attitude to flying. The book’s central character is an elderly woman who stands up on a flight between Hobart, Tasmania and Sydney, Australia and proceeds to tell each of…
How Not to Kill a Spy by John Fullerton
The second Septimus Brass novel is another illustration of just how widely John Fullerton’s spy fiction ranges. He spans the genre from Cold War to contemporary espionage, and from Afghanistan to Beijing, via Russia to London, which is where we find ourselves in How Not…
Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd
In Gabriel’s Moon, the new espionage thriller by William Boyd, a brief prologue tells how eight-year-old Gabriel Dax experienced the house fire that took his widowed mother’s life and destroyed his childhood home. The firefighters’ verdict that the cause was Gabriel’s moon-shaped and candle-powered nightlight….
The Bells of Westminster by Leonora Nattrass
Leonora Nattrass quickly became a favourite in historical crime fiction with her Laurence Jago series which began with Black Drop and involves the espionage, politics and criminality of 1790s England and its empire. Literary tales with a light touch, her books have similar appeal to…