Ever since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned the popular stiff-upper-lip stories concerning a very astute, savvy Brit named Sherlock Holmes and his partner in crime-solving, Dr. Watson, the American reading public has become hooked on British Whodunits, especially those set in the Victorian or Jazz eras. Their world is another world, so unlike our own…
Things between Sidney Chambers (James Norton) and Margaret Ward (Seline Hizli) have progressed to the point where they’re kissing in front of the parishioners. Has the Hunky Vicar taken a step in the right direction at last? Mrs. Maguire the housekeeper doesn’t think so. She thinks Margaret is disrespectful. “She calls me Sylvia!” says Mrs.…
A Death Along the River Fleet by Susanna Calkins is the 4th book in the Lucy Campion Mystery series (Available April 12, 2016). Lucy Campion, a ladies’ maid turned printer’s apprentice in 17th-century London, is crossing Holborn Bridge over the murky waters of the River Fleet one morning when, out of the mist, she sees…
Peaky Blinders—said to derive from the practice of stitching razor blades into the peak of their flat caps, which could then be used as weapons. While this isn’t Birmingham, England in the late 19th century, and you’re not nearly as cool as Cillian Murphy, that doesn’t mean you can’t be part of the gang with…
If your TV series is set anywhere in the vicinity of Cambridge in the 1950s, the story will eventually turn to Soviet spies. Real-life agents Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who were recruited to Cambridge and fled to the Soviet Union in 1951, made that link indelible. The real village of Grantchester is walking distance…
Death Sits Down to Dinner by Tessa Arlen is the 2nd installment of the Lady Montfort Mystery Series where a dinner party of London's elites turns deadly and Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson must find the killer before he strikes again (Available March 29, 2016). Lady Montfort is thrilled to receive an invitation to a…
He's just seven years old. He's your son. You wave goodbye to him one morning and then he disappears into the swirling English fog. Gone. Gone forever. Who Killed Little Johnny Gill? is an historical crime fiction murder mystery, based on a true story that took place in Bradford, England during the Victorian era.…
The Midwife and the Assassin by Sam Thomas is the 4th installment of the Midwife's Tale series that sees Bridget Hodgson, her deputy Martha Hawkins, and her nephew Will return to London to uncover a plot that involves murder, civil wars, and the destruction of England entirely (Available March 15, 2016). It's 1649. Three years…
A Bed of Scorpions by Judith Flanders follows book editor Samantha Clair as she gets drawn into another investigation involving the murder of her ex-boyfriend's business partner, while her new boyfriend, Inspector Jake Field, has been assigned the case (Available March 1, 2016). Summer in London-the sun is finally shining, the flowers are in bloom,…
The glory of the historical mystery is in recreating a time and place both familiar and new. Too often (for me, at least), I find the details in historical fiction maddening and anachronistic, a result of superficial research or the easy belief in old tropes about a period. Happily, William Shaw has avoided these…
