Styx and Stones by Carola Dunn

Miss Dunn's engaging sleuth The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple is pursuing her day job of free lance journalist when she is approached by her brother-in-law, Lord John Frobisher, who is the recipient of Poison Pen letters. Lord John is anxious to stop the letters whilst avoiding public scandal at all costs and so hesitates before involving the police. Daisy agrees to spend a few days at Oakhurst, the Frobisher familly home ,in the village of Rotherden Kent which is a hotbed of gossip and rumour. Discovering that Lord John is only one of several recipients of the letters Daisy is forced to reveal their existance to the police when murder is commited. Carola Dunn is one of the better writers of pastiche "Golden Age" detective stories and this is well up to her high standard.

Deadly Communion by Frank Tallis

This is the fifth in Frank Tallis' series of murder mysteries set in Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century and featuring Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt and psychiatrist Dr. Max Liebermann. Rheinhardt is investigating a series of sex murders commited in avery cool and calculating manner. Once again he calls on his friend Liebermann to probe the mindset of the killer and help bring him to justice. Sumarising the plot would convey too much or too little and so I will leave it to the reader to discover and enjoy. Frank Tallis has again written an enthralling story that confirms his place as one of the leading detective mystery writers of the day.

Give Me Back My Legions by Harry Turtledove

Around the year AD 6 the Emperor Augustus decided that the troublesome German tribes north of the Rhine should be pacified and brought within the Empire. The obvious choice to lead such an expedition was his son-in-law, and designated successor, Tiberius. However, he was currently commanding the army in stamping out the last embers of revolt in Pannonia. Augustus, therefore, gave the command to Publius Quinctilius Varus husband of his great-neice Claudia and in doing so made the most disastrous mistake of his reign. Varus was an experienced administrator, he had recently held the governorship of Syria one of the richest provinces of the Empire, but had minimal military experience. Why Augustus made this decision is a mystery. He could have waited until Tiberius was finished in Pannonia or transferred him to the new project leaving his subordinate generals to continue mopping up the rebels. There were, of course, several other experienced military men who could have been given the command but instead Augustus chose a career bureaucrat and the Legions and the Empire paid a terrible price for his error. Varus was put in charge of three legions, twenty thousand men with irreplaceable front line battle experience, the bedrock of the Empire, and threw them away through a combination of ignorance and arrogance. At this time the Roman Legion was the most deadly military machine in the world but only if they were able to deploy in their well-rehearsed formations. It was the function of their Generals to ensure that any battle took place in terrain that allowed for this. Varus, however, was simply not capable of comprehending this and ordered his men along a route that trapped them on a narrow track hemmed in by forest that made deployment impossible. The result was a massacre and meant that Germany never became part of the Empire. Harry Turtledove has written an excellent book combining historical characters and real incidents with a well imagined narrative.

The Elephant to Hollywood by Michael Caine

Unlike many actors Michael Caine actually wrote this himself. I am confident in my assertion not only because no other writer is mentioned on the flyleaf but because the whole narrative sounds like the man himself talking. I remember seeing him in Zulu and turning to my wife and saying "That man is going to be a star" so perhaps I should claim some of the credit for what now seems an inevitable rise to the top, though as he makes clear it did not feel like that at the time. Most people have a favourite Michael Caine film, the Italian Job or Get Carter are most likely to crop up, but mine is still Zulu. His portrayal of a young inexperienced officer suddenly faced with circumstances for which he is not prepared yet determined to lead his men even to the death would have taxed a veteran let alone a young man in his first major role but he did it. Caine gives us an insiders view of the film business with all it's quirks and eccentricities as well as the famous people that he met and worked with, a roll-call of Hollywood legends. Michael Caine the familly man is also here including the famous story of how he met his beautiful wife Shakira. Now I saw that advert at the same time as he did, just think if I had ........ no forget it.

The Kingdom of Light by Giulia Leoni

An excellent historical mystery set in Fourteenth Century Florence featuring the poet Dante Alighieri as the sleuth. The story opens with Dante, in his role as Prior of the committee which rules the Florentine Republic, investigating a ship that has been discovered beached on the bank of the Arno. On board he finds the galley slaves dead still shackled to the oars, the officers poisoned in the Captains cabin and on the floor a strange mechanical object that has been smashed with an axe. Thus begins a complex and very entertaining story as Dante threads his way through the religious and political currents that swirl through the city. Leoni's characters and his descriptions of the old city are first rate and his narrative thundered along taking this reader with it. Part of the credit for this must go to the translation by Shaun Whiteside.

Snobbery with Violence by M.C. Beaton

Having read about a dozen of the author's Agatha Raisin books I looked forward to this new departure into Edwardian detective fiction. Oh dear! What a disappointment. The plot is OK but the characters are stock Central Casting images. The well-connected but impecunious war hero setting himself up as a private eye assisted by an Earl's daughter whom Americans would describe as "feisty" ie wilful and mouthy. Their clients are, of course, all from the aristocracy who are without exception portrayed as stupid, arrogant, self-centred and often malicious. Has it not occurred to writers like Miss Beaton that had this been a true picture of British Aristocrats they would have long since disappeared from the scene and not be, as so many are, still farming their broad acres from the comfort of their stately homes. If this book is ever filmed I am sure that one of Miss Beaton's derided Lords will make good money renting his castle to the film company.

The Campaigners by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

In volume fourteen of the Morland Dynasty chronicles the war in Europe comes home to the familly, or rather the familly goes to it! Buonaparte has escaped from Elba and is raising a new army in France. Horatio and Marcus Morland are both in the army which is in Belgium and Lucy's husband Danby Wiske, now Viscount Theakston, is called back to Brussels by the Duke of Wellington. At the same time Lucy, Heloise and the ever parsimonious Lady Barbara Morland all have daughters to "bring out" but have been unable to do so as the familly is in mourning for the late Fanny. The season is nearly over and they must decide whether to fly in the face of social custom or wait until next year when many of the potential husbands will have been taken. Wellington thinks he has problems! All this time James Morland, husband of Heloise, mopes about Morland Place in an extravagance of grief for his dead daughter Fanny. The Ladies decide to "follow the drum" as it were, and take their daughters to Brussels to be brought out where there will be no raised eyebrows and there are plenty of eligible young aristos amongst Wellington's officers. Meanwhile back at Morland Place there is contention regarding the estate of Fanny's late grandfather the cotton magnate Jo Hobsbawm. Yes, there is trouble at t'mill. Back in Belgium Napoleon attacks and drives back the Prussian half of the Allied Army and advances on Brussels. Even worse all the young ladies have fallen for unsuitable men. Miss Harrod-Eagles does a first class job of describing the two battles, at Quatre-Bras and Mont St-Jean, and the terrible suffering of the men involved. These two battles are known to us as the Battle of Waterloo because that is where Wellington had his HQ and from where he wrote his report and so he gave it that name. Perhaps he realised that Quatre-Bras would be a terrible name for a railway station.

Hue and Cry by Shirley McKay

A young lawyer, Hew Cullan, returns from France to his native St Andrews and walks right into a double murder with his old friend as chief suspect. This is just the kind of historical mystery that is meat and drink to me so why did I put it aside after the first few chapters? I do not know is the answer. It just did not work for me. Well, that's show business folks!

The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez

This is a very good murder mystery set in Morse country. Well written, nicely paced and well translated from the Spanish by Sonia Soto. The unnamed hero, like the author, is an Argentine mathematician who is in Oxford as a post graduate student. Returning to his lodgings he meets the famous mathematician Arthur Seldom on his doorstep but when they enter they find the landlady murdered. Now follows a search for a murderer who appears to be using a mathematical theorum to plan his killings and Seldom and the narrator are swept into the investigation. Martinez concludes his story with a stunning twist, one that would not have been allowed in the "Golden Age" of detective fiction.

The Regency by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

This is volume thirteen of Miss Harrod-Eagles highly praised Morland Dynasty series of novels. As the title suggests we have now reached the beginning of the nineteenth century and the war with France continues. However, the conflict intrudes only peripheraly on the story of the Morlands whose greatest danger comes from the behaviour of the younger members of the familly. Africa Haworth, daughter of Mary Morland, runs off and joins the circus rather than stay at her school (I do know how she feels) but it is Fanny Morland, heiress to the entire estate and spoiled rotten by her father James, who puts all in jeopardy by marrying fortune hunter George Hawker. Fortunately for the familly she dies in childbirth before her twentyfirst birthday and the estate passes to Lady Henrietta. So that's alright then! Now on to volume fourteen. SPOILER: Bounaparte has escaped from Elba!

The Mystery of a Butchers Shop - Gladys Mitchell

This mystery was first published in 1930 which puts it at the heart of the "Golden Age" of British detective fiction. The sleuth, amateur of course, is Beatrice Lestrange Bradley and they do not come any Lestranger than our Beatrice. With her outrageous clothes, cackling laugh and clawlike hands she sounds like one of the witches from Macbeth but nonetheless she homes in on the murderer. In this mystery a rather repulsive businessman, who may also have been a blackmailer, is last seen in the company of a cousin whom he intends to cut out of his will before ending on a series of hooks in a butchers shop. An open and shut case one may think but this is a detective story. Gladys Mitchell presents a fine array of typical middle class English Village characters and provides a neat and meticulously documented solution. The writing is vastly different even from those modern novels set in the thirties which to me is one of it's attractions. The strogest swear word is "damn", such a refreshing change from the gutter language of most modern detective novels.

The Blood of Alexandria - Richard Blake

This is the third book following the adventures of Aelric, exiled Saxon nobleman now elevated to Legate Extraordinary of Heraclius, Emporer of Rome (Eastern Division) whose capital is Constantinople. Sent to Alexandria to effect a programe of land reform he finds himself stymied by Nicetas cousin of Heraclius and Viceroy of Egypt so decides to concentrate on his two other missions in life, enriching himself through dodgy deals and discovering rare books for onward transmission to the newly founded library at Canterbury. At this point who should turn up but Prince Priscus, nobleman, soldier, drug addict, conspirator extrordinaire and all round homicidal maniac. When Priscus turns up sensible people make their excuses and leave but Aelric was sent by the Emporer so has no choice but to stay and survive as best he can, which as the hero, he does. Richard Blake has written three cracking books set in the tumultuous era when the Roman Empire in the West was destroyed and the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church as a power in it's own right were being laid. The Empire in the East is being assailed on all it's frontiers and it's survival is in the hands of such as Aelric and Priscus sabotaged by highly placed incompetants like Nicetas. There is a fourth volume due out later this year. Bliss!!!

The Final Return

For several years in our fair city a black man of advancing years stood in the main shopping street proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. The response ranged from indifference to embarassment with a very few passers-by prepared to accept his small leaflets imprinted with a brief passage from the Bible. I, of course, was one of the few. Who knows, perhaps it was a premonition that one day I would write a blog on Google that would also be greeted with indifference and possibly embarassment as well. Therefore in a spirit of kinship with that unknown black man who continued to present his message to those passing faces despite their rejection I will once again plough my lonely furrow in the field of Google.