Join author Cindy Anstey as she explores how the concept of a full-time police force evolved from the informal truncheon-swinging “Peelers” and “Bobbies.” The Hummingbird Dagger—Cindy’s new YA novel set in a turbulent 1800’s London as the police force is transforming—blends romance, danger, and mystery. Research is the lifeblood of a historical writer. Not only…
In Carolyn Kirby’s debut novel, The Conviction of Cora Burns, Cora’s buried past begins to unearth itself, and Cora must find out where we first learn violence: from our scars or from our hearts. Victorian England is a terrible place for an impoverished woman. Cora Burns knows this firsthand. Born to a mother she knows only…
Part history, part mystery, Nicola Cornick’s The Woman in the Lake features a beautiful, golden gown with a deadly secret and a dark past—one that threatens to possess the troubled Fen and destroy her sanity. Nicola Cornick is known for her fluid time-slip plots, which blur boundaries of time and space. The Woman in the Lake is…
In Emma Rous’ debut novel The Au Pair, Seraphine Mayes discovers a troubling photograph her family’s Norfolk estate while attending her father’s funeral. She tracks down the family’s au pair to further investigate, and a decades-old family secret begins to unravel. A family mourns the sudden death of their father. Seraphine Mayes, her twin brother Danny,…
In The Red Ribbon by H. B. Lyle, Captain Vernon Kell’s fledgling secret intelligence service faces being shut down before it has even begun its job of saving the British Empire from German and Russian spies. The spring of 1910 was a turbulent time in England. King Edward VII died on May 6 and George,…
Hushed in Death by Stephen Kelly is the third book in the Inspector Lamb series set in the spring of 1942 at a hospital for veterans in rural England that leaves Lamb with a village full of suspects. Hushed in Death opens very somberly. The Elton House’s gardener Joseph Lee is discovered floating in the pond,…
Let’s face it. We Americans have been regaled with stories of our forefathers since we were old enough to spit peas. George and his cherry tree, Honest Abe, and Trust Buster Teddy—but what do we know about our friend and once foe: England? Except for cursory mentions in history classes, a lot of us don’t…
In addition to the return of Endeavour on Masterpiece Mystery this week, PBS will air The Tunnel, a French-English co-production from 2013. If the initial episodes are any indication, this police procedural might be worth digging into. Fair warning to those who prefer their mysteries on the mild side, however—there’s uncomfortable stuff ahead. We begin…
When Downton Abbey finally ended after six glorious seasons, I don’t think I was alone in feeling an acute sense of loss. Even my husband was maudlin for about three days after the finale. On the whole, it was a satisfying ending, where all the storylines—both upstairs and down—were tied up neatly. Even poor Lady…
It’s the last episode of Series 2, and we’re still dealing with the fallout from Gary Bell killing Abigail Redmond in Episode 1. Gary was executed for Abigail’s murder, and hunky vicar Sidney Chambers (James Norton) hasn’t quite gotten over it. He’s drinking to excess, hanging on past last call at the pub, and dribbling…
