Murder Between the Pages by Josh Lanyon wasn’t the easiest book / murder-mystery to read and follow because the characters weren’t easily distinguished and different characters told the story in different chapters.

In the years just after WW2, an author of a soon-to-released novel is shot dead in a small bookstore during a book presentation. Two rival authors, Len and Felix, as well as the police set out to solve the case. The murder-victim had made enemies because of his not-so-fictitious characters in previous books so several in the audience had sufficient motive and opportunity.

The plot is well-constructed and the case is relatively straightforward for the ‘detectives’ (and the reader) to solve. The plot ticks along at a good pace and so the book is a relatively easy and comfortable read.

A Winter Grave by Peter May is a well- written murder-mystery set in the near future in Scotland.

A meteorologist discovers the body of a missing journalist in an ice-cave above Kinlochleven and Detective Cameron Brodie, from Glasgow, is assigned the initial investigation. Set in the near future, Brodie endures the effects of climate change and technological advancement as he his whisked in an un-piloted drone to the remote village where journalist was last seen alive. Recently diagnosed with cancer and given around 6 months to live, Brodie has personal reasons to revisit the Scottish mountains he first visited with his father during childhood.

The village is near the site of Scotland’s large nuclear power plant. With the help of the local policeman, the hotel-owner and a worker/whistle-blower from the power plant, Brodie’s investigations eventually lead to the knowledge that the now-dead journalist was investigating a shady political past associated with the power plant and a recent earthquake with possibly lethal consequences for all who live in the region.

The characters are well-crafted with a good amount of the book is spent revealing Detective Brodie’s past and eventually revealing a present-day relationship with one of the key characters. The plot is well paced and the overall story has an eerie degree of credibility.

A very good read, highly recommended.

A Perfect Time to Murder by N.R. Daws is an easy and comfortable winter-time read. It breaks one of the fundamental rules of whodunnits but it’s well-written and the characters and plot work well so I recommend it as an easy weekend read.

It is January 1941 and Det Inspector Kember has been called to investigate a suspicious death at a coal mine in Kent. Air Force pilot, Lizzie Hayes is grounded and follows Kember to help. Kember applies his logical detective training while Hayes applies her forensic psychology training. (The psychology is highly dubious, but it makes for a good story, so we’ll forgive it.)

Almost all the staff at the mine has cause to kill the victim. Navigating a coal mine/colliery in the snow, during a war with blackouts and surrounded by possible killers puts Kember and Hays at risk and they make several narrow escapes before help arrives.

As a whodunit, A Perfect Time to Murder rather fails because it breaks some of the rules. The reader isn’t given all the clues and without them, there was no way to work out who the killer was before the grand reveal at the end of the book. Agatha Christie would not approve! But as a light piece of historical fiction, set in a quaint setting and time, it works fine. The characters are interesting and agreeable and the plot ticks along at an easy pace. The writing is accurate and so the entire book is a comfortable winter read.  

The Foster Family by Nicole Trope is well-written and easy to read. The plot is straightforward, the characters are well-developed and easy to either like or dislike as ‘appropriate’.

Elizabeth and Howard take their young foster son Joe to a holiday house at the beach where they meet Gordon, their elderly neighbour who is suffering from memory-loss. Gordon soon realises that Joe and his foster family may not be happy. Howard is an angry man with an unhappy relationship with his wife and and even less positive relationship with Joe. When Joe goes missing and Gordon wants to tell the police what he thinks he remembers. Gordon’s son comes to stay and his local knowledge proves invaluable in the search for Joe.

I especially enjoyed the ay the author developed Gordon’s character in the centre and kept the relationship with his son who was always coming to visit somehow critical to the ending/resolution. Indeed, for me, that was the real story and so the title misdirected the reader’s attention to the family and not the neighbour.

Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass is the first-person account of an intriguing trip across the Atlantic on the mail ship, Tankerville, in the company of some scheming passengers such as two fugitive French aristocrats, an American cotton plantation owner, an Irish performer who may or may not be a spy, and a maybe-freed slave.

The story is written as the personal report of a disgraced ex-clerk from Britain’s Foreign Office, Mr Laurance Jago. Blue Water is set entirely aboard the mail ship Tankerville as it sails from Britain down the Spanish coast to Northern Africa, west to the Caribbean and then north to Philadelphia. Heading across the Atlantic, the captain discovers a shortage of fresh water and returns to a Portuguese port where they are harassed by a French war ship. Readers of Patrick O’Brian’s Master & Commander series will be in their element as they read of the ongoing harassment and eventual encounter with the French war ship.

Mr Laurence Jago is in fact not a former Foreign Office clerk. His secret mission is to help a civil servant charged with the safe delivery of a most-important treaty to the US Congress. The treaty will stop the Americans joining the French in their war against Britain. The civil servant who hid the Treaty for safekeeping is ‘accidentally’ killed and so Mr Jago now faces the task of finding the Treaty’s hiding place. He realizes that several of the other passengers also want to find the treaty and suspects both the captain, some of the officers and most of the crew of also seeking the treaty for financial reward. A second death makes Mr Jago realize he must find the Treaty quickly, if no one else already has, and, to add to the tension, that he may be the killer’s next target.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it to readers of mystery and suspense and to the niche group of readers of historical maritime novels. The plot is well-paced, but don’t expect thrilling naval chases and battles. This is an interesting and extended interaction between richly-crafted and intriguing characters. The language is appropriate for the era and we are treated to a descriptive glimpse into ship life to such an extent that the plot and the finale were less significant to my enjoyment of the book than the whole story which I savoured rather than devoured.