Tag: historical crime

#BookReview Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders by David Stafford @AllisonandBusby

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders by David Stafford, the second book in the historical crime series featuring barrister, Arthur Skelton. My thanks to Christina at Allison & Busby for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

Skelton's Guide to Suitcase MurdersAbout the Book

A woman’s dismembered corpse is discovered in a suitcase, and police quickly identify her husband, Doctor Ibrahim Aziz, as their chief suspect. Incriminating evidence is discovered at his home and his wife was rumoured to be having an affair, giving him clear motive.

With his reputation for winning hopeless cases, barrister Arthur Skelton is asked to represent the accused. Though Aziz’s guilt does not seem to be in doubt, a question of diplomacy and misplaced larvae soon lead Skelton to suspect there may be more to the victim’s death.

Aided by his loyal clerk Edgar, Skelton soon finds himself seeking justice for both victim and defendant. But can he uncover the truth before an innocent man is put on trial and condemned to the gallows?

Format: Hardcover (352 pages)      Publisher: Allison & Busby
Publication date: 22nd April 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime, Mystery

Find Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders (Arthur Skelton #2) on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Publisher | Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

It was an absolute pleasure to be reunited with barrister Arthur Skelton and his trusty clerk – and friend – Edgar Hobbes. I loved the scenes where Arthur and Edgar discuss the briefs that have been sent to him. By the way, if you want to discover the inspiration for the character of Arthur, read David’s blog post on how Arthur came to be. I should say at this point that it’s not necessary to have read the first book to enjoy this second one.

Having said that, for fans of the series Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders sees the return of characters from the first book, including Arthur’s cousin, Alan, and his sister, Norah, who travel the country with their caravan spreading the word of God at meetings. Often they gather useful nuggets of information for Arthur’s cases along the way, relayed to him in Alan’s chatty letters.

Another returning characters is Rose Critchlow who helped Arthur with his previous case and is now working as an articled clerk in the solicitors who provide most of Arthur’s work. Once again, Rose makes a valuable contribution, one that leads to an important discovery and provides an insight into the emerging science of forensic entomology (the lifecycles of creepy crawlies) at the same time. Amongst her other attributes, the reader learns, are superb navigational skills. ‘Rose knew the way. Of course she did. Five minutes with a map and Rose would be able to take you straight to the green-eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu or the lost kingdom of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.‘ I was particularly delighted to come across the latter reference having already decided on my ‘Try Something Similar’ suggestion below.

As in the first book, the reader gets an insight into Skelton’s domestic life with wife, Mila, and children, Lawrence and Elizabeth. I particularly enjoyed the episode in which Arthur is entrusted with the Christmas shopping list, including purchasing gifts for the children and hits the busy streets of London. ‘He’d been told by many people that, if you value your health and sanity, you should never venture into a toyshop at Christmas time. Climb the Matterhorn by all means, take the waters in Moscow during a cholera epidemic, but stay away from toyshops.’ Does Arthur return with exactly what was specified on the list? Come on, he’s a man isn’t he?

Arthur’s wife, Mila, is a wonderful character and definitely nothing like the ‘She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed’ of John Mortimer’s Rumpole series. Mila is an avid reader of the newspapers, teaches archery to local girls and has lately developed a rather grand ambition, keen to outdo her acquaintance, Cissy Pemberton.  Mila and Arthur have a touching relationship such that I found it hard to forgive the author for putting Arthur through the mill when there is a a sudden turn of events.

Alongside Arthur’s attempts to find the evidence needed to achieve the acquittal of his client, Doctor Aziz, are entertaining interludes where the reader witnesses Arthur’s court appearances in other cases in which he has been instructed. He frequently ponders on the small things that can turn a case and influence a jury.

The book is also enlivened by references to real life figures such as the renowned pathologist, Sir Bernard Spilsbury. And I especially enjoyed Arthur and Edgar’s memorable encounter with a star of stage and screen in their favourite eating place, Kembles. By the way, it’s here that Edgar, seeking to reduce his portly stature for reasons he is initially reluctant to reveal, eschews the delights of veal and ham pie for an egg salad that Arthur describes as looking like ‘the sort of thing that Mr Gandhi might have eaten as a form of protest‘.

Do Arthur and Edgar get to the bottom of the (suit)case? What do you think…?

Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders is another delightful addition to the series. I loved its combination of period detail, ingenious mystery and amiable humour, and I’m already looking forward to Arthur’s next guide to dastardly deeds.

In three words: Engaging, lively, clever

Try something similar: Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders by John Mortimer

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David StaffordAbout the Author

David Stafford began his career in theatre. He has written countless dramas, comedies and documentaries including two TV films with Alexei Sayle, Dread Poets Society with Benjamin Zephaniah, and, with his wife, Caroline, a string of radio plays and comedies including The Brothers, The Day The Planes Came and The Year They Invented Sex as well as five biographies of musicians and showbusiness personalities. Fings Ain’t Wot They Use T’Be – The Life of Lionel Bart was chosen as Radio 4 Book of the Week and made into a BBC Four TV documentary.

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#BookReview The Drowned City (Daniel Pursglove 1) by K. J. Maitland @headlinepg

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The Drowned CityAbout the Book

1606. A year to the day that men were executed for conspiring to blow up Parliament, a towering wave devastates the Bristol Channel. Some proclaim God’s vengeance. Others seek to take advantage.

In London, Daniel Pursglove lies in prison waiting to die. But Charles FitzAlan, close adviser to King James I, has a job in mind that will free a man of Daniel’s skill from the horrors of Newgate. If he succeeds.

For Bristol is a hotbed of Catholic spies, and where better for the lone conspirator who evaded arrest, one Spero Pettingar, to gather allies than in the chaos of a drowned city? Daniel journeys there to investigate FitzAlan’s lead, but soon finds himself at the heart of a dark Jesuit conspiracy – and in pursuit of a killer.

Format: Hardcover (448 pages)  Publisher: Headline
Publication date: 1st April 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Drowned City on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The author has created an interesting character in Daniel Pursglove. I liked the way small details about his often troubled past were dropped in now and again, laying the groundwork for future books. I also liked that the book was set in Bristol – the ‘drowned city’ of the title – not only because it made a change from the oft-used setting of London but also because it made sense from the point of view of the plot.

The writing was of the quality I’ve come to expect from other books I’ve read by the author, most recently A Gathering of Ghosts. Some episodes that particularly stood out were the dramatic prologue, a scene in which a Protestant mob attacks the house of a cordwainer and his family, and the New Year’s Eve masque.

Like any good hero, Daniel has some narrow escapes from those out to stop him achieving his mission.  This includes an adversary from his younger days. However, he always miraculously manages to turn up safely in his bed at his lodgings in the Salt Cat tavern. He also acquires a useful helper along the way whose knowledge of the city and ability to pass unnoticed aids Daniel’s intelligence gathering efforts as he seeks to carry out his mission but also determine if there is any connection between it and a series of murders.

No historical novel set in the period is complete without an appearance by one of the Cecil family; in this case it’s Robert Cecil. I actually felt some sympathy for him having to deal with the petulant and easily influenced King James I the author presents in the book. Although, with the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot still within recent memory, perhaps the King can be forgiven for imagining assassins at every turn and being concerned that one of the conspirators may still be at large. (I confess that until I read the historical notes at the end of the book I hadn’t realised Spero Pettingar was a real historical figure. For much of the book, I was convinced his name was an anagram!) And there are still adherents of Catholicism to be dealt with as well as the Jacobean equivalent of fake news, spread via illicitly printed pamphlets or ‘broadsides’. As Cecil warns the King, “Sire, even a superstition, if it takes hold of the imagination of the people, can be as powerful a weapon as any truth.” Indeed.

The Drowned City has all the ingredients to make an absorbing historical thriller although at certain points I found it on the slow side. However, it certainly picked up pace towards the end. As Daniel confides, ‘The art of legerdemain is to make the audience look in the wrong place’. In my case the author didn’t quite manage that when it came to the identity of the culprit whom I’d had my suspicions about for a few chapters, but I found enough to enjoy in The Drowned City to make me look out for future books in the series.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Headline via NetGalley.

In three words: Atmospheric, intriguing, dramatic

Try something similar: The Angel’s Mark by S. W. Perry

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karen maitlandAbout the Author

Karen Maitland (writing as K. J. Maitland) is an historical novelist, lecturer and teacher of Creative Writing, with over twenty books to her name. She grew up in Malta, which inspired her passion for history, and travelled and worked all over the world before settling in the United Kingdom. She has a doctorate in psycholinguistics, and now lives on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon. (Photo/bio credit: Publisher author page)

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