The Spanish Flu and Murder

Murder by the Book An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd is the fourth book in the Bess Crawford series.  Here we find Bess in the Spring of 1918 in France in the middle of something deadlier than World War I, the Spanish Influenza Flu.  It is becoming more of an issue  by the minute.  However, Bess Crawford finds hidden among the countless dead waiting for burial the body of a friend and officer who also served in her father's regiment who was not killed by disease or by a German's bullet.  Bess wants to report this heinous crime but falls ill with the Spanish flu.  When she recovers, she finds out that the only other witness to the crime has hung himself.  Bess refuses to let either death go without investigating further putting her life and others close to her in danger.  This is another intriguing look into World War I with its heartache, compassion and dedication of all who have lived through this time period.
Murder by the Book

A Lady, an Engagement and an Adventure.

Our Lady of Pain by M.C. Beaton is a lighthearted and adventurous murder mystery set in the early 1900's.  Lady Rose Summer is engaged to private detective Captain Harry Cathcart in order to thwart off her parents from shipping her off to India to find a proper husband.   In the interim, Captain Cathcart's new client,  Delores Duval, who has a seductive french accent appears everywhere with the detective which annoys Lady Rose. Ms. Duval mysteriously turns up dead the next day and unfortunately is found by a very jealous Lady Rose who had threatened her because of her association with Captain Cathcart.  From England to Paris to Scotland, Captain Cathcart, Superintendent Kerridge of Scotland Yard and some other friends and colleagues race against time to keep Lady Rose out of jail and alive long enough to prove who the killer really is.Murder by the Book

A woman with a secret and a love for cemeteries

The Restorer by Amanda Stevens is a romantic, paranormal murder mystery.   Amelia Gray from Charleston, SC restores cemeteries.  She can also see ghosts like her father can.  He gave her a set of rules to follow to keep her safe from these spirits:
1. Never acknowledge the dead
2. Never stray far from hallowed ground
3. Never get close to the haunted
4. Never, ever tempt fate
Well her world comes crumbling down when she meets police detective Devlin who is investigating dead bodies that are showing up at the cemetery where Amelia is restoring.  Devlin has secrets and spirits hanging around him and Amelia becomes drawn to them.  Now Amelia is not only in danger from a killer on the loose, she has also disobeyed her father's rules which puts her in more danger.  The Restorer is a fast-paced read.  If you are interested in paranormal activities and ghost stories, this will be an interesting read.  The Restorer is the first book in Amanda Stevens' - The Graveyard Queen series.

Child's bones and a Forensic Archaeologist

Again we meet Ruth Galloway in Elly Griffths', The Janus Stone.  An Archaeology dig finds children's bones beneath a door that used to be a children's home.  Two children went missing forty years ago and were never found.  Carbon dating prove the child's bones predate the home and relates to when the house was privately owned.  Detective Harry Nelson, Ruth Galloway and their friends and fellow archaeologists are put to the test to solve this mystery.  Ruth Galloway has a more personal stake and danger in this discovery.  Like Griffiths' first book, The Crossing Places, this second book in the series will be hard to put down till the end.

Sir John Fielding and Jeremy together again

Murder in Grub Street by Bruce Alexander is the second book in the Sir John Fielding mysteries.  The time period is the eighteenth century in London.  This time there is a murder of six people at a printers home and place of work.  The Crabb family and two of Mr. Crabb's apprentices were brutally murdered.  A mad man was also found at the scene with a bloody axe but doesn't  know why or how any of this happened.  Thirteen-year-old Jeremy Proctor and the blind Sir John are on the case to solve this evil massacre.  This series is becoming one of my favorites.  Bruce Alexander transports you to the eighteenth century with his brilliant descriptive detail.

The Rise of the Nazis

A Trace of Smoke by Rebecca Cantrell is based in Berlin in 1931.  Hannah Vogel, a crime reporter heads to the police station to get a story and sees a picture of her brother in the hall of the unnamed dead.  Hannah is then dragged into her brother Ernst's world where he was a cross dressing lounge siner and was associating with Nazis.  Then, if there wasn't enough to worry about, there is a five-year-old boy named Anton who shows up on Hannah's doorstep claiming that Ernst is his father and Hannah his mother.
Hannah starts to investigate the death of her brother and finds secrets of sex scandals within the high ranks of the Nazi party that puts Anton and herself in grave danger.  Cantrell transports you to 1930's Berlin with her vivid descriptions of a terrifying and profound time when nothing can be spoken and very few people can be trusted.

The Crossing Places - An archaeologist dream

The crossing places by Elly Griffiths is a murder mystery about the disappearance of a little girl 10 years ago.  When some human bones are found, Detective Chief Inspector Nelson looks for help in identifying these bones.  He solicits the help of Dr. Ruth Galloway, a forensic archaeologist who lives near the salt marsh where the bones were found for help.  When she finds that the bones go back to the Iron Age, Nelson and Galloway start to unravel and try to put the pieces of this puzzle together when another little girl goes missing.  The Crossing Places is the first book in this series.  Griffiths skillfully takes you into the world of archaeology and puts in a lot of little twists and turns on the way to solve this mystery.  I highly recommend it.  I couldn't put the book down.

Blind Justice - An unusual judge

This book by Bruce Alexander was a surprising  find.  I never heard of this author and then found out that he died in 2003.  Blind Justice is the first in a Sir John Fielding series.  The setting is in London in 1768 when a thirteen year old child named Jeremy Proctor ends up in the court of Sir John Fielding because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  However, Sir John, the founder of the Bow Street Runners and who is also blind finds an  intelligent young lad in Proctor and allows him to work for him.  When a man's body is found in a locked room dead, Sir John asks Proctor to be his "eyes" for him.  The police first suspect suicide until the man's wife says that her husband has been murdered.  Now Sir John and young Proctor need to not only find out how the person got into the room but who did it and why.  These two "men" find out more about themselves when they work together to solve this suicide/murder.  Mr. Alexander has a way of putting you right in the setting of the time and keeps you wanting more.  This reviewer finished this book in two days.  Great series to get into if you like murder mysteries. The writing world lost a talented and expressive historical fiction author.

The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

Wm. Paul Young tests your faith in The Shack.  The main character, MacKenzie Allen Philips's daughter Missy is kidnapped during a family vacation.  They finally find evidence of her being murdered in the "Shack".  MacKenzie and his family is devastated and finding it hard to move on.  The Shack makes you take a leap of faith in thinking outside the box on what you believe and don't believe as a christian or whatever faith you are.  The book is well written and fast reading.  The beginning is difficult emotionally but you will have a profound understanding as to what the author is trying to convey throughout the rest of the book.

Cocaine Blues

Cocaine Blues (don't let the title scare you) by Kerry  Greenwood is a delightful and adventure filled series starring the Honourable Phryne (pronounced Fry-nee) Fisher.  She can fly a plane and has worked in the Great War.  She left England and started her life over in Melbourne, Australia where she is now a lady detective.  The time period is the late 1920's.  There are a cast of characters that bring color and life to her adventures.  Bert and Cec, heavy men for Phryne and cab drivers, Dot her personal assistant and a host of other characters that are introduced later throughout the series. The Phryne character can be a little risque at times.  Readers who are sensitive to women choosing their own way of thinking may think twice before reading this series.  The books are lighthearted, fun and a quick read.  If you are looking for something to relax the mind between classes or other stresses in your life, then by all means try out this series by Kerry Greenwood.  Cocaine Blues is this first book in the series.

You can find this book by clicking on the links below:

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An Impartial Witness

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd is the next book to A Duty to the Dead.  Here again we find Sister Crawford in the summer of 1917 on a short reprieve from the trenches in Paris.  She left a badly burned pilot who talked of going home to see his wife back in London.  He shows a picture of his wife to Bess. She finally arrives at a train station in London and sees a distraught woman that happens to be the pilot’s wife.  Murder finds Bess again and she is reluctantly involved in helping Scotland Yard solve a case and the secrets behind this pilot’s family.  The author again transports you back to the Great War and the devastation behind it in vivid descriptions.  I finished this book in a day and a half.  I recommend this book as well and can’t wait for the next Bess Crawford book.

You can find this book by clicking on the links below:

http://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/

http://www.murderbythebook.com/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

http://www.amazon.com/