Category: Blog Tour

#BookReview The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead @HoZ_Books @AriesFiction @TomMeadAuthor #TheMurderWheel

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead. My thanks to Poppy at Ransom PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Head of Zeus for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

About the Book

1938, London. Young lawyer Edmund Ibbs has a new a woman accused of shooting her husband in the already infamous ‘Ferris Wheel Murder’ case.

The case proves to be a web of conspiracy, and Ibbs himself is accused when a second suspicious death occurs, during a magic act at the crowded Pomegranate Theatre.

Also present at the theatre is Joseph Spector, illusionist turned highly respected sleuth. Spector begins to investigate the mystery, but when another body is discovered later that same night, all evidence points to Ibbs being guilty.

With time against him, and a host of hangers-on all having something to hide, can Spector uncover the guilty party, or will he and Inspector Flint of Scotland Yard conclude that Ibbs is the culprit after all?

Format: eARC (288 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 12th October 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime, Mystery

Find The Murder Wheel on Goodreads

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My Review

I haven’t read Death and the Conjuror, the first book featuring illusionist turned sleuth Joseph Spector, so waiting for him to appear in this one was like awaiting the start of the main act. Actually I’m being rather unfair to young lawyer and amateur magician. Edmund Ibbs, who carries a good deal of the first part of the book. I found him a really engaging, sympathetic figure although, as the book progresses, you learn that not everyone may be exactly what they seem. What, even Edmund? Well, he does find himself in a rather incriminating situation…

A theatre makes the perfect setting for a murder mystery because it’s all about artifice, make believe and playing a part. Add set, lighting and costume changes and you create situations designed to confuse, amuse, shock or surprise. And none of the audience can see what’s going on backstage whilst a performance is taking place.

Illusionist Joseph Spector possesses Sherlock Holmes’s observational ability plus a magician’s knowledge of techniques with which to distract an audience, techniques which, as it turns out, are equally useful when trying to commit a murder and, importantly, get away with it. Or, even better, frame someone else for it. In fact, Spector regards a crime as being much like a magic trick, as ‘a complex network of deceptions’. Inspector Flint’s approach, which Spector rather disaparagingly describes as ‘making the facts fit the solution’, provides a counterpoint to Spector’s lateral thinking and sparks of genius. As Spector boasts, ‘I can spot an inconsistency like no man on earth’. And, boy, can he.

There were lots of things I loved about the book, such as the character names that were so unusual I was convinced they must be anagrams. Or the chapter near the end which invites the reader to put all the facts together (apparently all ‘in plain sight’) and come up with a solution. And, as the solution is revealed, the footnotes directing you back to the page on which a relevant piece of information appeared. Or to be more accurate, the pages on which the pieces of information you totally overlooked appeared.

Never mind rotating on a Ferris wheel, my head was spinning by the end of the book such is the intricacy of the plot and the number of red herrings and false trails the author has subtly inserted into the story.

The Murder Wheel is a skilfully crafted and very entertaining crime mystery that will have you scratching your head whilst speedily turning the pages to find out what happens next. Definitely one for fans of ‘Golden Age’ crime fiction.

In three words: Ingenious, suspenseful, entertaining

Try something similar: Blackstone Fell by Martin Edwards

About the Author

Tom Mead is an aficionado of Golden Age crime fiction. His short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Lighthouse, as well as The Best Crime Stories of the Year [ed. Lee Child]. Death and the Conjuror, his debut novel featuring illusionist turned sleuth Joseph Spector, was highly acclaimed by the UK and US press and was one of Publishers Weekly’s Mysteries of the Year. He lives in Derbyshire, England.

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#BookReview Wolves of Winter by Dan Jones @HoZ_Books @AriesFiction #WolvesOfWinter

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Wolves of Winter by Dan Jones, the second book in the ‘Essex Dogs’ trilogy. My thanks to Andrew at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.

About the Book

An endless war. A blood-soaked battlefield. A band of brothers.

1347. Bruised and bloodied by an epic battle at Crécy, six soldiers of fortune known as the Essex Dogs pick through the wreckage of the fighting – and their own lives.

Now a new siege is beginning, and the Dogs are sent to attack the soaring walls of Calais. King Edward has vowed no Englishman will leave France til this city falls. To get home, they must survive a merciless winter in a lawless camp deadlier than any battlefield.

Obsessed with tracking down the vanished Captain, Loveday struggles to control his own men. Romford is haunted by the reappearance of a horrific figure from his past. And Scotsman is spiralling into a pit of drink, violence and self-pity.

The Dogs are being torn apart – but this war is far from over. It won’t be long before they lose more of their own.

Format: Hardback (416 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 12th October 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Wolves of Winter on Goodreads

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My Review

Wolves of Winter is the sequel to Essex Dogs, the book which first introduced readers to Loveday FitzTalbot and his fellow soldiers of fortune. Although Wolves of Winter could be read as a standalone, I think you’d be missing out by not reading the series from the beginning. As with the previous book, the events, notably the siege of Calais, are rooted in historical fact (the extent of which will become apparent once you read the author’s Historical Note) but what brings it alive is the fact we see events through the eyes of ordinary soldiers. They come from different backgrounds, have different skills, speak with different accents even but they have become a brotherhood and, in some cases, the nearest each has to a family.

War being what it is, especially 14th century war, not all the Essex Dogs from the first book made it out alive. The loss of some of their former comrades is something which haunts the remaining Dogs, especially Loveday, the group’s leader. And for Romford, an already troubled young man, the impact of one loss in particular manifests itself in a quite macabre way. In fact, all the Essex Dogs are brilliantly drawn characters. For those sensitive to such things, they are generous in their use of swear words, although perhaps not quite as prolific as the Earl of Northampton whose creative cursing is second to none.

There are other characters too who make their mark, motivated variously by greed, a hard-won understanding of reality or a desire for revenge.

This is not a conflict carried out by knights in shining armour: it’s brutal, bloody, dirty, cruel and utterly wasteful of human life. Those in charge range from the arrogant, to the incompetent to the venal. It’s no wonder that Loveday and his comrade begin to wonder, as they sit in their filthy shelter at the end of a day filled with back-breaking work eating slop and wading through all sorts of unpleasant substances, what they are actually fighting for. For money? Initially, yes, but they’ve yet to see much of that. Because soldiering is the only thing they know? Yes, but endless killing can start to eat into your soul. For glory? Doesn’t seem like much of that so far. Out of loyalty to your king? A man who doesn’t know you from Adam and sees battle as some kind of ‘performance’? For a cause? Unfortunately only disillusionment lies ahead there.

Wolves of Winter will grab your attention from the very first page, propel you along like a bolt from a crossbow through the next 400 pages and immerse you in the blood, sweat and other bodily substances of warfare. I absolutely loved it and, if you’re a fan of historical adventure, I hope you will too.

In three words: Authentic, gripping, action-packed

About the Author

Dan Jones is the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of many non-fiction books, including The Plantagenets, The Templars, and Powers and Thrones. He is a renowned writer, broadcaster and journalist. He has presented dozens of TV shows, including the Netflix series Secrets of Great British Castles, and writes and hosts the podcast This is History. His debut novel, Essex Dogs, is the first in a series following the fortunes of ordinary soldiers in the early years of the Hundred Years’ War. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

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