Darkness Rising

Darkness Rising is the fourth novel by Frank Tallis featuring the Viennese psychologist Max Liebermann and Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt. A decapitated body is found outside one of Vienna's churches the head torn, not cut, from the body. Soon a second body is found in identical circumstances. Both men had publicly attacked the jews in newspaper articles. Are a Jewish group responsible? A third identical murder is discovered this time of a Jewish man. Is this retaliation? Rheinhardt and his superiors are fearful of an outbreak of civil disorder. Meanwhile Max Liebermann finds himself facing a threat to his position at the General Hospital as politicians use religion for their own ends. Like many educated people Liebermann rejects the mysticism of his Jewish background but finds himself confronted by it's modern exponents as he attempts to aid Rheinhardt in his investigation. This is the first of these novels where Tallis explores Liebermann's Jewish heritage and his dilemma as a rational scientific person in balancing this against his desire to be seen as just an Austrian citizen.

The Wolf Sea

The Wolf sea by Robert Low is a cracking good Viking adventure story of the type that some claimed are not written any more. This book follows the travel of Orm Bear-Slayer and his crew The Oathsworn begun in The Whale Road and finds them in Miklagard (Constantinople) without a ship and running out of money having reached there just ahead of the forces of Prince Yaropolk of the Rus. Orm is ambushed by men of the crew of Starkad, a warrior of the court of King Harold Bluetooth of the Danes, and the sword Rune Serpent is stolen from him. This is the sword that belonged to Attila the Hun and was buried with him but taken by Orm when he and the Oathsworn discovered Attila's tomb and the vast treasure it housed. Orm had carved into the hilt runes which would guide him back to the treasure and so, aided by a Slav merchant Radoslav, the Oathsworn set out after Starkad and the sword. Caught up in the machinations of a crooked Greek merchant (are there any other kind? I am talking about in fiction here before the writs start flying) and an ambitious Byzantine general Orm and the Oathsworn pursue Starkad encountering many dangers and not a little treachery on the way. OK OK it is Boys Own adventure with a bit of sex and swearing thrown in but I loved every minute of it and look forward with impatience to the next volume.

Latter End

Latter End is another of the excellent Miss Silver mysteries by the late Patricia Wentworth. The title of the book is taken from the beautiful country home of the Latter familly whose tranquility has been disturbed by the presence of Lois, second wife of the owner Jimmy Latter. The determination of Lois to have her way in all things is aided by Jimmy's adoration of the woman whose wealth and beauty still leave him stunned by his good fortune in making her his wife. However, everyone else in the familly sees her for the selfish and domineering character she really is and so when she dies of poison in her coffee there is no shortage of suspects. Fortunately Miss Silver is on hand to find the truth of the matter in her own inimitable fashion. For years I have been amongst those who put Dame Agatha Christie at the head of those writers of genteel murder mysteries but I must admit to gradually transferring my allegiance to Miss Wentworth with every book of hers I read.

Murder on the Eiffel Tower

Murder on the Eiffel Tower is the first work of this writer to be published in English and is sure to please lovers of Victorian detective stories. Set in Paris in 1889 during the great exhibition whose centre piece was the Tower it features bookshop owner Victor Legris and his business partner Kenji Mori. Victor is visiting the Tower when a woman collapses and dies. A bee sting is the official explanation but Victor is suspicious and has the backing of a newspaper publisher Marius Bonnet. The authorities are not keen on any explanation that could bring adverse publicity to the exhibition but as the deaths pile up Victor finds himself drawn deeper into the mystery. The narrative creates an excellent atmosphere of nineteenth century Paris when it was the centre of the Art and Fashion world as Victor pursues the solution to these apparently motiveless crimes. The writer keeps the pace bowling along nicely and part of the credit for this must go to the translation by Isabel Reid. Congratulations must go to the imprint Gallic Books for bringing this, and other, entertaining French novels to the attention of English readers.

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a debut novel by S.J. Bolton and is about illegal adoption and muder set in the Shetland Isles. The heroine, if that is the right word, opens the action by attempting, illegaly, to bury her favourite horse in the field behind her house and in doing so finds a body. She calls the police but is not satisfied by the attitude of the senior officer and so uses her position in the local hospital to do some checking of her own which leads her into danger but, of course, all is sorted in the last chapter. The action is well written with good descriptive passages that maintain the atmosphere and keep the pages turning. That I am writing this review means that I liked it enough to keep reading to the end as I do not feel justified in reviewing books that I give up on after three or four chapters but I must admit that I was not keen on it. My lack of enthusiasm centres on the main character a consultant obstretician known as Miss Hamilton despite being married to a man named Guthrie. Her instant reaction to the slightest criticism or opposition is an instant torrent of often foul mouthed abuse which is off-putting to say the least. Having unfortunately worked with one or two women of this ilk I do not want to spend my spare time with one. Like all book lovers I am signed up to that contract between writer and reader called "Suspension of Disbelief" and I am therefore happy to go along with Miss Hamilton's ability to climb through windows, crawl through heather and survive falling overboard and swimming to safety but sailing a strange craft in the pitch dark and a Force Five gale in the treacherous waters off Shetland and making a successful landfall on a strange beach is pushing the contract too far.

The Officer's Prey

The disastrous invasion of Russia by Napoleon's Grande Armee is the setting for Armand Cabasson's The Officer's Prey. Captain Quentin Margant is an officer of the 84th Regiment of Infantry which is part of the Fourth Corps commanded by Prince Eugene de Beauharnais stepson of the Emporer. The Prince gives Margant the task of discovering the murderer of a Polish maid savagely killed at an Inn as the Corps waits to cross the river Niemen, the opening phase of the invasion. The only clue is that the culprit is an officer. Margants pursuit and solution to the murder is very good but I found the story as a description of the steady disintigration of the French Army in the face of Russian scorched earth tactics and the onset of winter the most rewarding aspect of this very entertaining book. Cabasson writes a very fluent narrative which captivated this reader from page one and no doubt much of the credit for this is due to the excellent translation by Michael Glencross. However, there was one nagging thought that I could not get out of my mind. For twenty years the forces of the French Revolution had turned first France then the rest of Europe into an abattoir so why make a big investigation into one more murder among thousands. Perhaps a Frenchman could tell me.

Warrior

Allan Mallinson is a former senior officer in the British Army and commander of one of it's, now motorised, cavalry regiments. It is not surprising, therefore, that he has produced ten excellent novels featuring Mathew Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons. In Warrior Hervey is once again in South Africa involved in one of the many skirmishes with the local tribes that occupied the British Army between the major engagements of the Napoleonic Wars and the conflict with the Boer Republic. Mallinson has once again produced an entertaining novel from one of history's minor incidents.

Trace Memory

Trace Memory by David LLewellyn is an amusing adventure based on the television series Torchwood and using it's cast of characters. If one is a fan of this series, and I am, then the book is a pleasant evening or afternoon in company with characters with which one is familiar. The story opens in 1953 on Cardiff docks when a mysterious crate explodes turning a young docker, Michael Bellini, into an involuntary time traveller pursued by the oldest creatures in the universe and no, that does not include this writer even if he does feel that way sometimes. After materialising in the Torchwood vaults the team realise that he has appeared in the lives of all of them at various times and that his appearance at Torchwood is linked to the remains of the 1953 explosion now stored there, a radioactive sphere which is sought by the ancient beings known as the Vondrax. This is a book strictly for the fans of Captain Jack Harkness and his team who, fortunately for the BBC, are legion.

The Devil's Domain

The Devil's Domain is one of a series of medieval mysteries by P.C.Doherty featuring Brother Athelstan the Dominican friar who is priest of the extremely down market parish of St. Erconwald in Southwark. His other job is secretary to the London Coroner the flamboyant Sir John Cranston which means that he spends as much time solving crime in the capital as tending his wayward flock. Here Paul Doherty has handed Brother Athelstan and Sir John a locked room mystery, espionage, the machinations of John of Gaunt and Gervase his Keeper of Secrets and a couple of star-crossed lovers, quite enough to keep the dogged duo busy and provide hours of entertainment for this reader.