The Left-Handed Booksellers of London filled a void in me. Yes, I know that’s dramatic to say, but you know when you read a book and you feel like no other book can live up to it so you’re almost afraid to pick one up when you finish? That’s what I felt with this one. This …
Elizabeth MacKintosh, a writer, had a major impact on my life. She is also known as authors Gordon Daviot and Josephine Tey. Unfortunately, she died in 1952 at the peak of her career. I first “met” her through a tour of the Tower of London in August 1962 just before entering my junior year of …
Edwards, an expert on Golden Age mystery fiction, delivers here a fast-clip work of psychological suspense set during the Great Depression. It imagines Jacob Flint, an oft-rash junior crime reporter for London’s Clarion newspaper, chancing upon what he sees as a scoop in Rachel Savernake, the bewitching, wealthy daughter of a notorious hanging judge, who’s …
When I heard an interview with Jonathan Auxier talking about how many years of historical research he did when writing Sweep, I couldn’t wait to dive into his authentic world of Victorian chimney sweeps. As perfectly as he has constructed this world it is, after all, the story of a girl and her monster, so there is plenty of …
I first read a Josephine Tey book in 1962 and it changed my life. I became a huge fan of British history especially in the period from King Arthur to Richard III. I took a tour of the Tower of London castle/prison in August 1962. It was just before I began my junior year in …
Nothing warms up a cold, dark winter evening quite like a good murder mystery. And nothing makes a cold, dark winter pass more quickly than binge-reading murder mysteries written in series. So stack ‘em up, and start with these suggestions to keep you warm ‘til spring… I recently reread Edmund Crispin’s The Moving Toyshop after …
Written like a musical fugue with four voices in counterpoint, I enjoyed the beautiful language, narrative structure, and the distinctive voices of characters that I could relate to as they wrestle with grief, aging, identity, and family. Their stories are seen as back-lit by the suicide bombing of three Metro stations and one bus in …
