Blog Tour – What Cathy Read Next…

About the Book

AD 797, Cyprus. Warrior-monk Hunlaf and his crew are on a voyage to acquire an important Christian relic before it falls into the hands of Byzantium’s scheming Empress Eirene.

Hunlaf’s crew receive unexpected help as they seek their treasure, but soon find themselves betrayed. About to leave for home empty-handed, the adventurers instead sail further east: to Jerusalem, the Holy Land, abundant in relics. And dangerous intrigues.

Hunlaf and his friends will face a deadly race against time as they attempt to secure a holy treasure, outwit Byzantium’s zealous agents, and avoid grisly deaths at the hands of the local rulers.

Format: Hardback (432 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 9th October 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Dominion of Dust from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

Dominion of Dust is the fourth book in the author’s A Time For Swords series, the follow-up to A Time For Swords, A Night of Flames and A Day of Reckoning. (Links from each title will take you to my review.) A Day of Reckoning ended on a literal cliffhanger and Dominion of Dust takes up the story directly from that point.

Once again Hunlaf is both chief protagonist and narrator. Now advanced in age and becoming increasingly frail, he is setting down the details of his eventful life, one which saw him abandon his calling as a monk to become a warrior and adventurer.

A Day of Reckoning, saw Hunlaf on a quest for a book known as ‘The Treasure of Life’ which took him and his comrades to the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsular. This time he’s on a search for sacred relics which King Carolus, ruler of the remnants of the Western Roman Empire, believes will imbue him with the divine power to defeat his rival Empress Eirene, ruler of the remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire. Unfortunately she has the same idea, and her own set of searchers. So it becomes a race against time to see who can piece together the clues and locate them first. If you’re thinking this all sounds a bit Indiana Jones, you’re not wrong.

Many characters make a return appearance including the fearsome Norse warrior and master shipbuilder, Runolf Ragnarsson and – much to Hunlaf’s delight – Runolf’s daughter Revna. The wily Giso, who seems to have connections everywhere and often disappears into the shadows only to reappear at a crucial moment, is also back. Unfortunately, Hunlaf and his comrades are not short of fearsome and totally ruthless opponents.

As you might expect, Hunlaf and his comrades face many perils along the way and there are some terrific action scenes, described in bone-crunching, bloody and visceral detail. They include a fight to escape from an underground chamber and the boarding of a merchant ship. Ignoring the voice of his spiritual mentor Leofstan, now deceased, Hunlaf continues to experience moments of uncontrollable battle rage and ‘the wanton joy of killing’.

Although we know Hunlaf will live to fight another day, he doesn’t. There are plenty of moments where he fears his luck has run out (and who could blame him) and doesn’t know if – or how – he will escape from the perilous situation he finds himself in. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for all his comrades, some of whom will die in tragic circumstances. Even though many decades have passed, the loss of these comrades still weighs heavily on Hunlaf’s mind accompanied by intense feelings of guilt that he might have been, even unwittingly, the cause of their deaths.

The ailing Hunlaf leaves the reader with a tantalising glimpse of events he has yet to tell us about, including those of a romantic nature. And there’s a brief hint that his story might involve the appearance of a character from another of the author’s series.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dominion of Dust. I loved the characters, the settings and the fast-paced plot. To my mind, this is a series that just keeps getting better and better.

I received a review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus.

In three words: Action-packed, authentic, immersive
Try something similar: The Blazing Sea by Tim Hodkinson

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The House at Devil’s Neck by Tom Mead, the latest in the crime series featuring illusionist and solver of seemingly insoluble mysteries, Joseph Spector. My thanks to Eleanor at Ransom PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my proof copy. Do check out the review by my tour buddy for today, Jen at Jen Med’s Book Reviews.

About the Book

A former First World War field hospital, the spooky old mansion at Devil’s Neck attracts spirit-seekers from far and wide.

Illusionist-turned-sleuth Joseph Spector knows the house of old. With stories spreading of a phantom soldier making mischief, he joins a party of visitors in search of the truth.

But the house, located on a lonely causeway, is quickly cut off by floods. The stranded visitors are soon being killed off one by one.

With old ally Inspector Flint working on a complex case that has links to Spector’s investigation, the two men must connect the dots before Devil’s Neck claims Spector himself as its next victim.

Format: Hardcover (288 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 14th August 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

Find The House at Devil’s Neck on Goodreads

Purchase The House at Devil’s Neck from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

The House at Devil’s Neck contains all the ingredients of a ‘Golden Age’ crime novel including a host of suspicious deaths, an inheritance and multiple suspects, some of whom may not be exactly who they profess to be. Add an enormous number of twists and unexpected reveals and you have a mystery that will confound every attempt to solve it – unless you’re Joseph Spector, of course.

The author introduces an air of the supernatural by setting the book in a sinister old manor house – the Devil’s Neck of the title – accessible only by a causeway when the tide is right and reputed to be haunted. It’s certainly haunted by its past use as a hospital for soldiers wounded in the First World War, many of whom suffered lifechanging disfigurement. The perfect place for a seance then. This strand of the story reflects the interest in spiritualism at the time with many grieving relatives seeking to make contact from beyond the grave with loved ones killed in the war. Unfortunately this made them easy prey for the unscrupulous.

Spector’s old ally Inspector Flint of Scotland Yard returns, attempting to use Spector’s own methods to come up with a solution to a mysterious and, initially, seemingly unconnected death in that staple of classic crime – the locked room which no-one was seen to enter or leave. Will Spector be impressed with his theory? The reader must wait to see.

I’m not even going to attempt to summarise the twists and turns of the plot, which would be beyond me in any case. All I will say is that the author has outdone himself when it comes to intricate plotting and I pity the copy editor who had to make sure there were no loose ends.

Like previous novels in the series, there’s a chapter near the end which invites the reader to put all the facts together and come up with a solution. (Good luck with that.) There are also footnotes directing you back to the page on which a relevant piece of information appeared. Or more realistically, the pages on which the pieces of information you totally overlooked appeared. If you indentified the culprit, the motive and the means before Spector revealed everything then all I can say is you’re a much, much cleverer person than me. Even if you didn’t solve the mystery, it’s a fun ride in the hands of an author who knows how to keep a reader turning the pages.

If you’re in the mood for a book that evokes those doyennes of the ‘Golden Age’ crime novel Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, then The House at Devil’s Neck is the book for you. Just don’t blame me if your brain is in a spin by the end.

In three words: Ingenious, atmospheric, intricate
Try something similar: Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards

About the Author

Tom Mead is a Derbyshire author and Golden Age crime aficionado. His Joseph Spector crime novels include Death and The Conjuror, The Murder Wheel and Cabaret Macabre and have been nominated for the Capital Crime Award for Debut Novel of the Year, shortlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown and long listed for the CWA Historical Dagger Award. His short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Best Crime Stories of the Year (edited by Lee Child). His books have been named as crime novels of the year by the likes of The Guardian, Telegraph and Publishers Weekly. (The series has been translated into several languages and is currently in development for screen adaptation.)

Connect with Tom
Website | X/Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky