M. K. Wiseman is the author of the new mystery entitled Sherlock Holmes and the Ripper of Whitechapel. As you might be able to guess, this story involves Holmes and Watson in the greatest unsolved true serial killing spree in British, if not world, history. It is the story of “Jack the Ripper” who terrorized …
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 …
