Prologue When the car bypassed the main terminal building and pulled up next to a sign that said PRIVATE JET CENTER, Emily breathed in so fast she almost choked. “You’re kidding me,” she said to her driver (her very own driver!), who smiled and opened the door for her like she was Cinderella. A security…
Betrayal in Time is the fourth book in Julie McElwain’s Kendra Donovan series. Donovan’s adventures in nineteenth-century England continue when she is called upon to investigate the murder of a spymaster. My only regret in picking up this novel is that I hadn’t been able to read the three others in the series first. And…
With centuries of history to dive into, the U.K. has borne some of the most notorious serial killers the world has ever seen. But it’s the streets of London that have seen the grisliest goings-on. From as far back as the early 1800s, the once poverty-stricken areas either side of the River Thames have witnessed…
In Patrick McGuinness’ Throw Me to the Wolves, a classic police procedural is turned upside-down when the investigating detective realizes that the man accused of murder is someone from his past.
The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear is the 15th installment of the Maisie Dobbs series, and now Maisie must balance her dangerous new case while her own feelings of love and grief threaten to overwhelm her. Intrepid investigator Maisie Dobbs drives an ambulance during the London Blitz, investigates a sensitive case of murder, hopes to adopt an orphan,…
Ben Aaronovitch is a HUGO Award-nominated author. He began his career as a screenwriter and contributed to the original two seasons of the television show, Doctor Who, among others. Aaronovitch later became a bookseller before returning to writing with his Sunday Times bestselling Rivers of London series of contemporary urban fantasy/crime fiction novels. He was born and…
The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris is a darkly satirical look at the deep splits in modern communities, which is not so much a whodunnit as a blackly comic what-they-did-after-it satire that resonates in a timely way. Jason turned to walk away. As he did, a doctor came out of the next cubicle.…
At the start of my new novel, The Breaking of Liam Glass, a desperate young journalist named Jason pitches a story to a tabloid about a teenage footballer he came across who was stabbed and is in a coma. Unfortunately, the tabloid wants more of a celebrity hook to the story—a hook he doesn’t know if…
The balance between fact and fiction can be a tricky one for a historical novelist. Playing fast and loose with the facts can leave a writer open to accusations of inauthenticity. Yet, if there is anything I have learned from studying history, it’s that it is not static, it is open to interpretation, and what…
The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick is a historical mystery where the secrets of 16th-century England might unlock the answers to modern-day London mysteries. The crucial question in a time-slip story is who stays and who leaves the time period in which they were born. The Phantom Tree is a tale of two women: Mary…
