Tag: historical crime

Book Review – A Pretender’s Murder by Christopher Huang @inkshares

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About the Book

The year is 1925. Few have given more for the Empire than Colonel Hadrian Russell. Robbed of his four sons by the Great War, he now holds court as the acting president of the Britannia, a prestigious soldiers-only club in London. But when the Colonel is shot and thrown out the club’s front window, it seems the shadows of the Great War may extend further than previously thought.

Lieutenant Eric Peterkin, newly installed secretary at the Britannia, finds himself thrust into the role of detective after Scotland Yard points fingers at friends he knows are innocent. But is the true murderer an unknown spy? Or a recently resurfaced friend of the Colonel’s dead sons? Or is it one of the Colonel’s four widowed daughters-in-law, who by all appearances paid him complete devotion?

Accusations from personal betrayal to wartime espionage mount among the suspects as Eric’s investigation draws him back to scenes and sites of a war he’s sought to leave behind. From the greening fields of Flanders and the springtime streets of Paris to the sterile wards of a Swiss sanatorium, and back to the Britannia itself, Eric finds that even myths leave behind bones.

Format: ebook (396 pages) Publisher: Inkshares
Publication date: 24th February 2026 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

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My Review

A Pretender’s Murder is the second book in the author’s historical crime series featuring amateur sleuth Eric Peterkin, the follow-up to A Gentleman’s Murder.

As a result of events in the previous book and his role in them, Eric is now Secretary of the Britannia Club. He’s the latest in a long line of Peterkins to be members of the Club. Only the male members of the family, of course. But no sooner has he begun to find his feet in his new role than he finds himself once again drawn into the investigation of a murder. This time it’s the violent killing of the Britannia Club’s acting President, Colonel Hadrian Russell, and on the premises no less. There’s an obvious suspect, at least that’s what Inspector Crane of Scotland Yard believes, but Eric’s not so sure. For example, who could have gained access to the Club premises when every door was locked and only a few trusted people had keys? Who was the person glimpsed leaving the building on the night of the murder? What was the motive?

As in the previous book, the investigation leads back to events in the Great War, in particular the death of Andrew, one of the fours sons of Colonel Russell killed during the conflict. His death was not on active service like his brothers, but was assumed to be an assassination carried out by German spies on account of his espionage activity. Most of the culprits were rounded up and executed but one slipped through the net.

There are many things I enjoyed about the book, not least of which is the cunningly constructed plot that will keep you guessing up until the final pages. If you worked out who did it, how and why before the solution is revealed, well done you because I didn’t.

Eric is the son of a Chinese mother and English father and this allows the author to explore the theme of identity. Judging by the reaction of others, Eric’s appearance marks him down as someone of Chinese heritage. (Eric’s sister Penny, is lighter skinned and able to ‘pass’ as white, seen as useful for her marriage prospects.) But Eric speaks no Chinese much to the puzzlement of Inspector Crane, recently returned from a long posting in Hong Kong, who has enthusiastically embraced Chinese culture such as breakfasting on congee. On the other hand, as we learn in a welcome insight into his childhood, Eric’s mother took pains to cultivate an English accent and embrace all things British.

Another thing the author does well is to weave into the story the lasting impact of the war, including on those who survived it or those who experienced loss. Colonel Russell’s four widowed daughter-in-laws have each responded in different ways to their bereavement. Lady Alice takes comfort from a perpetual show of mourning, dressed always in black, whilst her sister-in-law Flora seeks to live life to the full. Eric himself is haunted by memories of what he witnessed in the trenches, enduring periodic flashbacks. Other elements introduced into the story include the emergence of ‘alienists’ (a now obsolete term for psychiatrists), the rise of suburban housing estates and the activities of charlatans seeking to take advantage of the bereaved by professing to be able to communicate with the dead.

Eric’s hunt for clues necessitates a visit to post-war Europe where he finds evidence that turns everything on its head. As he discovers, not everyone is who they profess to be and it’s possible to be both a war hero and an utter cad.

A Pretender’s Murder is another clever historical mystery that incorporates all the elements of ‘Golden Age’ crime fiction but with moments of darkness. By the way, I heartily recommend reading the Historical Notes at the end of the book which contain a wealth of fascinating information about the factual basis for many of the events, people and locations in the book, but also clearly demonstrate the depth of the author’s research.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Inkshares.

In three words: Intriguing, intricate, atmospheric
Try something similar: The House at Devil’s Neck by Tom Mead

About the Author

Christopher Huang grew up in Singapore, an only child in a family tree that expands dramatically sideways at his parents’ generation. He moved to Canada after his National Service, studied architecture at McGill, and settled down in Montreal, apparently for good. His first novel, A Gentleman’s Murder, was named a 2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year and is in development for television. He is also the author of the standalone mystery Unnatural Ends. A Pretender’s Murder is his third novel. (Photo: Author website)

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Book Review – Tombland by C. J. Sansom

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About the Book

Spring, 1549. Two years after the death of Henry VIII, England is sliding into chaos.

The nominal king, Edward VI, is 11 years old. His uncle, Edward Seymour, Lord Hertford, rules as Edward’s regent and Protector. In the kingdom, radical Protestants are driving the old religion into extinction, while the Protector’s prolonged war with Scotland has led to hyperinflation and economic collapse. Rebellion is stirring among the peasantry.

Matthew Shardlake has been working as a lawyer in the service of Henry’s younger daughter, the lady Elizabeth. The gruesome murder of one of Elizabeth’s distant relations, rumored to be politically murdered, draws Shardlake and his companion Nicholas to the lady’s summer estate, where a second murder is committed.

As the kingdom explodes into rebellion, Nicholas is imprisoned for his loyalty, and Shardlake must decide where his loyalties lie – with his kingdom, or with his lady?

Format: Audiobook (37h 41m) Publisher: Mantle
Publication date: 18th October 2018 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

I’ve been trying to read all the books longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction since I first started following the prize in 2017. This, the seventh book in the author’s Matthew Shardlake series, was longlisted in 2019.

It’s taken me a long time to get around to reading Tombland, not least because it’s a whopper. I listened to the audiobook which would take you three days to complete if you did it continuously. Needless to say I didn’t, so it took me more like three weeks. The Matthew Shardlake series is one of the few series where I’ve read all the books and – crucially – in the right order, starting back in 2013 with Dissolution. Having said that, it’s coming up for ten years since I read the previous book in the series, Lamentation, and it’s the first time I’ve consumed one as an audiobook. (Although very good, I did find Steven Crossley’s narration on the slow side so chose to increase the reading speed.)

The book starts off as a crime mystery with Shardlake tasked by Henry VIII’s younger daughter, the Lady Elizabeth, to investigate the gruesome murder of Edith, the wife of John Boleyn, a distant relation of Elizabeth’s mother Anne. John Boleyn has been accused of the crime and is set to stand trial at Norwich Assizes. He appears to have means, motive and opportunity, especially since his alibi for the night of the murder is questionable. But as Shardlake and his young assistant Nicholas Overton discover, there are others who might want Boleyn’s wife dead or want Boleyn found guilty of her murder, executed and his land forfeited. There’s also the mystery of Edith’s unexplained disappearance nine years earlier. Just where did she go and why did she return after all that time?

At this point, the story goes off at a tangent, a rather lengthy tangent it has to be said. Shardlake, Nicholas and Shardlake’s former assistant Jack Barak find themselves caught up in an uprising taking place in protest against the enclosure of common land and other grievances against the landowners. In Norfolk it’s led by the charismatic Robert Kett and the rebels soon establish a large camp outside Norwich, at the time England’s second largest city. Barak throws in his lot with the rebels while Nicholas, opposed to them, becomes a prisoner in Norwich Castle and Shardlake finds himself legal advisor to Kett, trying to mitigate the penalties inflicted on the gentry tried at the rebel’s makeshift court. Inwardly he has sympathy with the rebels’ cause but dare not make it public and, as he constantly reminds himself, he must ensure John Boleyn receives justice.

The events of the so-called Kett’s Rebellion are described in detail and is obviously the result of much research. I confess my interest waned at this point and I was eager to get back to the murder mystery, which the book eventually does.

There are also secondary plots involving Shardlake’s former servant Josephine and her husband, Barak’s wife’s continuing animosity towards Shardlake, and the increasing frailty of Shardlake’s longtime friend Guy.

The Shardlake of Tombland is feeling his age. There are frequent references to his aching back and the exhaustion he feels after days of travel. There is an elegaic quality to the book, although apparently the author was working on the next book at the time of his death. Although not my favourite of the series, Tombland definitely demonstrates the author’s ability to combine historical fact and fiction.

In three words: Intriguing, atmospheric, immersive
Try something similar: Sacrilege by S. J. Parris

About the Author

C J Sansom was born in 1952 in Edinburgh. He achieved a BA and then a PhD in History from Birmingham University. After working in a variety of jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex, until becoming a full-time writer. He combined both history and law in his debut novel Dissolution – which took readers into the dark heart of Tudor England in a gripping novel of monastic treachery and death. This success sparked the bestselling Shardlake series, set in the reigns of Henry VIII and young Edward VI, and following the sixteenth-century lawyer-detective Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Jack Barak. C J Sansom died on 27th April 2024 aged 71.