The Teifi Valley’s coroner, Harry Probert-Lloyd, is struggling: with the blindness that drove him home from London, with the county magistrates and with an estate teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. He needs an escape, so when Dr Benton Reckitt is asked to give a second opinion on the apparently natural death of young Lizzie […]
The Mannequin House by RN Morris
London, 1914. Called out to investigate the murder of an employee of the House of Brackley, an upmarket Kensington department store, Detective Inspector Silas Quinn finds himself investigating one of the most bizarre cases of his career. For the chief murder suspect is a monkey. One of the store’s fashion models has been found dead […]
Wolf at the Door by Sarah Hawkswood
The body of Durand Wuduweard, the unpopular keeper of the King’s Forest of Feckenham, is discovered beside his hearth, his corpse rendered barely identifiable by sharp teeth. Hushed whispers of a man-wolf spread swiftly and Sheriff William de Beauchamp’s men, Bradecote and Catchpoll, have to find out who killed Durand and why, amidst superstitious villagers, […]
Review: The Good Death by SD Sykes
Catherine Hokin reviews The Good Death by SD Sykes and finds it “a book to get lost in” and a story for our times. The Good Death is the fifth book in SD Sykes’s 14th-century Oswald de Lacy series of which I have been a fan since book one. I remain a staunch fan with […]
The Good Death by SD Sykes
1370: Oswald de Lacy was not always Lord of the Manor, or even meant to be. The third son, he was sent off to become a novice monk. Now, with winter closing in on Somershill, his wife flirting with their houseguest, his sister sniping from the sidelines and his mother still ruling his life even […]
The Keeper of Songs by Fiona Mountain
1967: Enigmatic young folk singer Molly Marrison disappears on the cusp of fame. 2002: Silva is working as a housemaid at Chatsworth House when her father suddenly dies, leaving her with one instruction – find Molly. The only clue is a haunting song, centuries old, that Molly recorded before she vanished. Silva needs the help of […]
The Dance of the Serpents by Oscar de Muriel
December, 1889. There have been many bad days in Edinburgh police’s secret subdivision ‘The Commission for the Elucidation of Unsolved Cases Presumably Related to the Odd and Ghostly’. But today is surely the worst. Because the exiled English Inspector Ian Frey, and his Scottish boss ‘Nine-Nails’ McGray are summoned to a meeting in the middle […]
Historia interviews: Alexandra Walsh
Author Alexandra Walsh talks to Historia about her books, writing, research, women’s friendships, and her links with historical figures