Mistletoe and Murder by Carola Dunn

Another excellent Daisy Dalrymple murder mystery from Carola Dunn. Daisy with her new husband Inspector Alex Fletcher and step-daughter Belinda are invited to spend Christmas at Brockdene, home of the Earl of Westmoor. When they arrive it is to discover that they are to be entertained by Westmoor's poor relations the Norvilles. In no time Daisy, wearing her journalists hat, has collected numerous stories of the familly's colourful past but none that compares with the tangled web of inheritance that entwines the current generation. When a guest, who could have settled the inheritance question, is found stabbed in the old chapel Inspector Fletcher is denied the quiet familly Christmas he was anticipating and is plunged into the police investigation. Naturaly his attempts to exclude Daisy from the action are futile. Another good 'un from Carola Dunn.

The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld

After two hundred pages I definitely felt the death instinct creeping over me. Frankly I just could not take any more of the two main characters, a smartarse police Captain and an obnoxious doctor. The plot is built around an actual incident when a large bomb was detonated outside the Wall St offices of the J.P. Morgan bank. No one was ever apprehended for this crime. Alright, this is as good as anything for an imaginative chap to build a story round and Mr Rubenfeld does not do a bad job if one ignores the tendency of Americans to assume that once they decide that anyone is a villain they are free to behave as brutally as they like and no one should complain. Sorry not for me.

The Unquiet Sleeper by Norman Russell

Norman Russell's latest outing for Detective Inspector Saul Jackson and his Sergeant Herbert Bottomley has an unusual and original theme. Ursula Holt is a somnambulist and has been sentenced to six months in a mental institution found guilty of mutilating sheep and killing a sheepdog during one of her nocturnal walks. Could she also be guilty of two murders of young men in the district? Detective Inspector Jackson and Sergeant Bottomley, two of the most sympathetic police characters in detective fiction, find their investigation taking them far from their native Warwickshire as they track down a clever and resourceful villain.

For the good of the State by Anthony Price

In the seventies I read all of the political thrillers by Anthony Price featuring the Intelligence Section lead by David Audley. All of these books were marked by their concentration on overcoming the KGB by intellectual rather than crash bash methods and this was an approach that I much appreciated. However, as the series progressed this escalated to the point of unacceptable intellectual arrogance and in For the Good of the State, which I was unable to finish, I was reminded of the judgement of the Marquess of Salisbury on the Conservative politician Iain MacLeod

Death at Daisy's Folly by Robin Paige

One of the better American efforts at an English whodunnit. Americans are fascinated by European Aristocracy but unable to understand how it works and therefore make some quite hilarious mistakes. Robin Paige evades most of the pitfalls but still maintains that because Charles Sheridan is due to inherit a Barony he would not be able to marry an American writer. Whilst such an alliance would have raised eyebrows, especialy among mothers with eligible daughters, there was no legal bar to such a marriage. That out of the way it is a good read well written and with an intriguing plot.

The Legion by Simon Scarrow

Simon Scarrow takes the story of his two heroes Cato, now promoted to Prefect, and Macro the Centurion to Egypt. In pursuit of the rebel slave leader Ajax, now turned pirate and raiding shipping and small settlements along the Egyptian coast, Cato and Macro are in command of a small fleet of warships. Though they smash his pirate band Ajax escapes and on return to Alexandria Cato and Macro are ordered south to join the understrength Twenty Second Legion to repel the incursions of the army of the Prince of Nubia. Ajax himself has fled south and offers his services to Nubia which enables our heros to kill two birds with one stone. With soldiers like Macro and Cato to call on no wonder that Rome ruled the world. Another cracking adventure story from Simon Scarrow

Death and the Maiden by Frank Tallis

The star soprano of the Court Opera, Ida Rosenkrantz, is found dead in her villa of an overdose of laudenam. Was it accident or suicide? The post mortem reveals evidence that could point to murder. The singer had been courted by many wealthy and powerful men could her death have been contrived to avoid a public scandal? Tasked with bringing the case to a swift and quiet conclusion Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls on his friend Dr Max Liebermann for help. Their trail leads them to Gustav Mahler the controversial director of the State Opera House and to the equally controversial Mayor of Vienna Karl Lueger. Then there is the well-connected psychiatrist Professor Sominsky and the Lord Marshall whose office oversees security for the Emperor Franz-Josef. All these men were involved with Ida at one time or another and none could face a scandal and survive with their career intact. Did one of them have her removed from the scene? Rheinhardt's superiors want him to close the case and it appears that more than just his career would be at stake if he proves obstinate. Frank Tallis has given us another episode of drama in old Vienna but is it the last? At the end of the book Liebermann and Rheinhardt are discussing the possibilities of re-location to London! Of Course Dr Liebermann could set himself up in a medical practice in England but Rheinhardt of Scotland Yard! Somehow I do not think so.

The Street Philosopher by Mathew Plampin

Thomas Kitson is the art critic of the London Courier but asks his editor to send him to report on the war in the Crimea. There he is answerable to Richard Cracknell, an experienced and cynical Irishman, with a talent for getting on the wrong side of the Army Brasshats. Further Cracknell is engaged in an affair with the beautiful young wife of Colonel Bryce, the corrupt and incompetant commander of the Light Infantry. Kitson and Cracknell witness Bryce's officers commit murder and robbery but higher command will take no action. Returning to England Kitson has to leave London and takes a job reporting on the social scene for a Manchester paper but the past arrives to haunt him. Mr Plampin has written a very compelling story well on a par with the Gunmaker's Gift that I reviewed last year.