When daring journalist Sir Percival Harris gets wind of a curious crime in a sleepy English town, he ropes in his old friend Professor Ernest Drabble to help him investigate. The crime is a grave robbery, and as Drabble and Harris pry deeper, events take a mysterious turn when a theft at the British Museum […]
The Art of the Assassin by Kevin Sullivan
1899, Glasgow. A man is stabbed to death in a tenement courtyard, and Juan Camarón, photographer-cum-sleuth, is enlisted to assist the police investigation. His innovative photographic method can bring to light what the eye may have overlooked. Yet Juan has problems of his own: his late father’s legacy – a monumental photographic record of the […]
The Silver Collar by Antonia Hodgson
Autumn, 1728. Life is good for Thomas Hawkins and Kitty Sparks in their home above the Cocked Pistol, Kitty’s wickedly disreputable bookshop. But when Tom is attacked by a street gang, he discovers there’s a price on his head. Who wants him dead – and why? For Tom and Kitty, the answer is only the […]
Hell Gate by Jeff Dawson
New York, 1904. Over a thousand are dead after the sinking of the General Slocum, a pleasure steamer full of German immigrants out for a day on the East River. The community is devastated, broken, in uproar. With a populist senator preying on their grievances, a new political force is unleashed, pushing America to ally […]
A Beautiful Spy by Rachel Hore
It all began in the summer of 1928… Minnie is supposed to find a nice man, get married and have children. The problem is it doesn’t appeal to her at all. She is working as a secretary, but longs to make a difference. Then, one day, she gets her chance. She is recruited by the […]
A Prince and a Spy by Rory Clements
Sweden, 1942. Two old friends meet. They are cousins. One is Prince George, Duke of Kent, brother of the King of England. The other is Prince Philipp von Hesse, a committed Nazi and close friend of Adolf Hitler. Days later, the Prince George is killed in a plane crash in the north of Scotland. The […]
Review: A Prince and a Spy by Rory Clements
Author Carolyn Kirby reviews A Prince and A Spy by Rory Clements, the fifth novel in his Tom Wilde series of thrillers set before and during the Second World War. When it comes to historical accuracy, Kate Atkinson says of her novel Transcription (2018) that the story was created through “…a wrenching apart of history […]
The Silver Collar by Antonia Hodgson
Autumn, 1728. Life is good for Thomas Hawkins and Kitty Sparks. The Cocked Pistol, Kitty’s wickedly disreputable bookshop, is a roaring success. Tom’s celebrity as ‘Half-Hanged Hawkins’, the man who survived the gallows, is also proving useful. Their happiness proves short-lived. When Tom is set upon by a street gang, he discovers there’s a price […]