Tag: historical crime

#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 The Night Raids by Jim Kelly #20BooksofSummer23 @thewaterclock

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About the Book

A lone German bomber crosses the east coast of Britain on a moonless night in the long, hot summer of 1940. The pilot picks up the silver thread of a river and, following it to his target, drops his bomb over Cambridge’s rail yards. The shell falls short of its mark and lands in a neighbourhood of terraced streets on the edge of the city’s medieval centre.

DI Eden Brooke is first on the scene and discovers the body of an elderly woman, Nora Wylde, in a house on Elm Street, two fingers on her left hand severed, in what looks like a brutal attempt by looters to steal her rings.

When the next day Nora’s teenage granddaughter Peggy, a munitions worker, is reported missing, Brooke realises there is more to the situation than meets the eye.

Format: Paperback (352 pages) Publisher: Allison & Busby
Publication date: 20th August 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

Find The Night Raids on Goodreads

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My Review

The Night Raids is the third in the author’s historical mystery series set in WW2 Cambridge, the follow-up to The Great Darkness and The Mathematical Bridge. (You can read my reviews by following the links from the titles.)

Those who have read the previous books will know what a wonderful character the author has created in Detective Inspector Eden Brooke. His cruel treatment by the enemy during World War One damaged his eyesight, leaving him extremely sensitive to light so at times he has to wear tinted glasses. It has also left him with chronic insomnia meaning he’s often to be found roaming the city of Cambridge at night in the company of other ‘nighthawks’, individuals who, because of their job or inclination, work when most are asleep. But his intuition and sense of justice are undimmed.

He’s a keen night swimmer and, not for the first time, it’s during one of his swims that he detects the first sign of something not quite right going on in the city. However, it’s not long before he has other serious matters requiring his attention. But are these isolated incidents or is there some connection between them? At one point, he observes, ‘I have a series of events which seem to lack every coherent sense of cause and effect.’ A detective’s nightmare perhaps but a reader’s dream when it comes to an absorbing plot.

I loved the little insights into his domestic life which also reflect the realities of wartime. Brooke’s son and his son-in-law are on active service and his wife, Claire, and daughter, Joy, are working as nurses.

It’s early on in the Second World War but already the impact on Britain has become noticeable in both town and countryside: people heeding the call to ‘Dig for Victory’ by planting up front gardens and road verges with vegetables, previously unproductive farmland once again under crops, Land Girls working in the fields. The effects of German raids are all too obvious as well with streets littered with bombed-out houses. I liked the way the author gives us the German perspective as well, showing the impact of Allied bombing raids on German cities and the fact that grief and loss is common to both sides. In fact, this alternate perspective becomes pivotal to the storyline in more ways than one.

As we discover, crime doesn’t stop because there’s a war on and in fact it can be the perfect cover. There’s plenty that can go on undetected during a blackout or the confusion that follows a bombing raid. People are displaced, houses are left unprotected and shortages can leave people prey to opportunists.

The Night Raids is skilfully crafted crime mystery with an atmospheric setting and great period detail. If you were a fan of TV’s Foyle’s War I think you would love it. I really hope there will be another book in the series at some point.   

In three words: Intriguing, atmospheric, suspenseful

Try something similar: The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear

About the Author

Jim Kelly (now writing as J.G. Kelly) was born in 1957 and is the son of a Scotland Yard detective. He went to Sheffield University, later training as a journalist and worked on the Bedfordshire Times, Yorkshire Evening Press and the Financial Times.

His first book, The Water Clock, was shortlisted for the John Creasey Award and he has since won a CWA Dagger in the Library and the New Angle Prize for Literature. He lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire. (Photo: Author website)

Connect with Jim
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