Tag: Historical Fiction

Murder Mile by Lynda La Plante

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Historical Fiction, Murder Mystery, Thriller13 Comments

Murder Mile Cover.jpg

Publisher: Zaffre

Publication Date – 23 August 2018

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One of English crime fiction’s most distinctive voices, Lynda La Plante, returns with her iconic female detective, Jane Tennison, for another dark and shocking case.

In February 1979, recently promoted Detective Sergeant Jane Tennison has been posted to Peckham CID, one of the toughest beats in all of London.  Previously known as the Golden Mile due to its well-to-do shopping areas, the area is now in decline, a fact not helped by the garbage strikes besetting the entire city, ensuring that the entire area is covered rubbish and filth.

When the body of a young woman is found in the heart of Peckham, Jane and her team must investigate the suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.  But when another body is found nearby, the possibility of a serial killer raises all sorts of problems.  The media scrutinise the case and rename the area Murder Mile.  Even worse, the second victim’s son is well connected, and several important people want the matter dealt with quickly.

As more bodies are uncovered, Tennison must use all of her investigative ability to uncover this dark murderer, while also dealing with the police force’s inherent sexism and disregard for her talent that she has dealt with her entire career.  Can Tennison catch this killer, or will they find a terrible and unexpected way to win?

Lynda La Plante is a talented author and screenwriter responsible for several hit British crime series and movies.  She achieved early success with the 1983 television series, Widows, which has been adapted into a major motion picture set to be released in November this year.  Other successful shows that La Plante has created include Trial and Retribution and Above Suspicion, with nearly all of her books having been either adapted into screenplays or inspired by one of her televisions shows.  Murder Mile is the fourth book in her Jane Tennison series, which serves as a prequel series to one of La Plante’s most successful and iconic shows, Prime Suspect, which features Helen Mirren as an older Jane Tennison.  The first book in this prequel series, Tennison, also served as the basis for the short-lived prequel television series Prime Suspect 1973.

Murder Mile features a dark and disturbing mystery that serves as the central focus of this book.  The protagonist must investigate a series of murders spread out among the dilapidated Peckham area. La Plante has created an intriguing and compelling investigation storyline as Tennison and her team follow a series of promising leads across Peckham and the rest of London, finding clues in a variety of places, as well as several other bodies.  While the majority of the book leading up the conclusion of the story and the solution of the mystery is captivating in its own right, the best part of the book has to be its chilling conclusion.  Not only is the revealed antagonist a despicable creature, but the way in which they attempt to manipulate Jane and the rest of the police characters is just plain creepy.  The conclusion of the story and the ultimate reveal of the antagonist’s last actions are particularly shocking in their execution and extent.  Worse, both the reader and the protagonist can see that the villain is planning something, but you just cannot predict the terrible lengths they will go to win and spite the police.  This memorable conclusion serves as the perfect end to this dark and powerful story and represents some excellent writing from La Plante.

This story is set in 1970s London, and the author does a fantastic job bringing this iconic city to life during a period of economic downturn.  There is a certain gloom around the city, especially in Peckham, where the majority of the book’s investigation takes place.  The plot of Murder Mile is set during the infamous Winter of Discontent, a period of strikes and financial uncertainty that hit the country during 1978 and 1979.  There are several discussions about the situation from the characters and it is interesting to see a fictional perspective of this part of England’s recent history.  In addition, some of the physical effects of the ‘Winter of Discontent’ have some significant impacts on the case.  During January and February 1979, the waste collectors of London were on strike, resulting in a build-up of rubbish throughout the city.  As a result, many of the scenes set in the city feature streets strewn with garbage and littered with filth and rats.  La Plante also examines the parks that were filled with rubbish by London authorities as a stopgap measure for this situation.  This becomes particularly important in the story, as the police discover a dismembered body in one of these parks as the murderer attempted to utilise the situation for their own ends.  The author has also cleverly highlighted the police techniques and technologies that would have been available during the time.  Overall, La Plante has made full use of this chaotic period in Murder Mile, and readers will enjoy her vivid descriptions of these events.

In addition to the general descriptions of 1970s England, one of the key features of La Plante’s latest book is an examination of the inherent sexism in the London police force.  Jane as a Detective Sergeant must continue to fight to gain respect from her co-workers.  In Murder Mile she is constantly talked down to by her superiors, deals with disrespectful comments from the rank-and-file police, and must also deal with having her authority undercut by colleagues she considers to be her friends as they step in quickly to defend her.  It is infuriating to see how senior police ignore Tennison’s detective work and observations, especially as she is right most of the time.  This sexism also requires Tennison to act in a more maverick way, as her frustrations force her to work outside the main police investigation in order to prove herself – a decision that will have significant impacts on her life and career.

While the portrayal of sexism mentioned above has been used in all of the books of the Jane Tennison series, in Murder Mile La Plante has chosen to also focus on police homophobia and how it affects the investigation.  The police homophobia is quite prevalent throughout the series, especially when one of the suspects is revealed to be gay.  The police response to this is extreme, as several of the characters are quite hostile to this suspect and his relatives, alienating potentially helpful people in the investigation.  In addition, there is the stupid assumption that all homosexual males were automatically paedophiles, and this sends the investigation into several biased directions.  Tennison and several of the other characters attempt to change the minds of their colleagues, often without much success.  In addition, one of the more approachable and capable members of the police team is revealed to be homosexual in this book, which serves as a good counterpoint to the more old school and homophobic cops.  Overall, this is an intense and important part of the story, and it is intriguing to see how these old biases would likely have affected cases in the past.

Crime legend Lynda La Plante returns in fantastic form with Murder Mile, an exciting continuation of her Prime Suspect prequel series.  Featuring some deep and powerful examinations of the 1970s London police force, this absorbing mystery takes its readers to the edge of darkness and beyond.  Featuring an incredibly dark and unforgettable ending, Murder Mile is another exceptional release from La Plante and a highly recommend piece of crime fiction.

My Rating:

Four and a half stars

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A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Comedy/Satire, Extended Universe, Five-Star Books, Historical Fiction, Murder Mystery, Tie-in Novel3 Comments

A Shot in the Dark Cover

Publisher: Raven Books

Publication Date – 28 June 2018

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From Lynne Truss, one of England’s most creative minds, comes A Shot in the Dark, a hilarious take on the historical murder mystery that sets three fantastic and exaggerated police characters against a sinister and surprising criminal mastermind.

Brighton, 1957.  Following a terrible massacre that saw the death of every member of two rival gangs some years before, the city of Brighton is now clear of all crime.  At least, that’s what Inspector Steine believes, and, as he is the famous and inspirational police detective whose actions allowed the eradication of these vicious gangs, that’s what the rest of the Brighton Constabulary believe as well.  Unfortunately for everyone, Inspector Steine is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is.  Despite all the evidence, he simply refuses to believe the theory of his long suffering ‘bagman’ Sergeant Brunswick that a mysterious third crime boss organised the massacre and is currently running crime in Brighton.

So when the young, keen and exceedingly annoying Constable Twitten arrives in Brighton and starts investigating a series of burglaries, Steine is particularly aggrieved.  Despite Steine’s insistence that Brighton’s criminal element is no more, Twitten seems determined to find criminal activity – and he does.  The opening night of a new controversial play is unfortunately ruined when the opinionated and unpleasant film critic that Twitten is sitting next to is shot in the head.  Finally a crime that even Steine can’t ignore.

Who could have wanted the critic dead?  Is his death due to the multiple plays and productions that his reviews have destroyed?  Or is it perhaps related to a bank robbery that the critic witnessed many years ago, and that Steine failed to solve.  As Twitten and Brunswick start their investigation and Steine provides his own special brand of ‘help’, a second body is found.  As the case continues, Brighton’s newest constable is about to uncover a dark secret about his city and the sinister figure manipulating everything behind the scenes.

Truss is a highly talented writer, author and radio personality who has produced a huge range of different works, including the non-fiction book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.  Truss has also created several other fictional and non-fictional books, as well as a number of popular radio series.  A Shot in the Dark is Truss’s fifth fiction novel and is the first book in her Constable Twitten Mystery series.

One of the most interesting features of A Shot in the Dark is that it is actually a novelisation of Truss’s popular radio comedy drama series, Inspector Steine, which ran between 2007 and 2013 and starred the inimitable Michael Fenton-Stevens.  This is a great introduction to the franchise that will have a massive amount of appeal both to fans of the radio show and people who are unfamiliar with this great comedy series.  Rather than being a simple write-up of one of the Inspector Steine episodes, A Shot in the Dark is a combination of several different episodes, containing plot elements from various seasons of the show’s run.  In particular, it contains components borrowed from the series one episodes While the Sun Shines, Separate Tales and The Deep Blue Sea, the series two episode The Entertainer, and the series three episode While the Sun Shines.  As a result of this combination, people unfamiliar with this series get to experience several of the radio show’s best stories and plot points in their first outing.  On the other hand, fans of the radio series get a completely new adventure that re-imagines Constable Twitten’s early days at Brighton.  Storylines listeners may be familiar with have been altered in some new and substantial ways to create a fun and excellent combination of some key stories in the series.

In the original Inspector Steine series, Truss created some amazing characters who are not only terrific by themselves but who played off each other extremely well.  The author has done an amazing job transplanting these characters into a completely different format.  The three main characters are Inspector Steine, Constable Twitten and Sergeant Brunswick.  Inspector Steine is your classic self-important senior management figure who thinks they are so much smarter than they actually are.  Steine is extremely self-absorbed and very easily manipulated, but ultimately well meaning, given he is completely convinced that all the crime in Brighton was erased years ago as a result of his brilliant actions.  Twitten, on the other hand, is actually as smart as he thinks and has no trouble letting everyone he meets know it.  His clever investigative work is capable of solving the crime, but his cleverdick attitude ensures that no-one, especially Inspector Steine, will actually listen to him.  Sergeant Brunswick plays straight man to both of his colleagues, and seems to be the middle ground between these two extreme personalities.  However, while he is a competent investigator, he is also easily manipulated, and fails to see that his brilliant plans to go undercover on every case are hampered by the fact that all of Brighton’s criminals already know who his is.  These three are all extreme examples of some of the classic police characters.  In a normal piece of crime fiction, these three characters work well together (think Endeavour for example), but in A Shot in the Dark they bring out the worst in each other and combine together for great comedic value.

While the three police characters are excellently used and a whole lot of fun by themselves, special mention needs to be given to the brilliant antagonist of this story.  Whiles fans of the radio series will not be surprised about their identity, I will try to avoid revealing too much in order not to ruin the surprise for any new readers.  That being said, this character is an excellent villain who is able to manipulate the three police characters in some suitably comedic ways.  The various and often quite unsubtle ways in which this villain manoeuvres the protagonists in A Shot in the Dark is absolutely hilarious, especially when their ridiculous plots actually work.  New readers will have a fantastic time finding out who this character is and how they’ve gotten away with their crimes, while fans of the radio series will love seeing this outstanding antagonist in all their criminal glory once again.

A Shot in the Dark contains a fantastic story that expertly combines a clever murder mystery with hilarious comedy elements.  As mentioned above, due to main characters’ various shortcomings and the devious nature of the villain, this is not your standard criminal investigation.  The protagonists have to deal with some absurd situations as well as various unusual plans to stop them solving the case.  That being said, the police do perform an investigation and the truth of the various crimes are eventually uncovered, although again without the standard solution crime fiction readers would be used to.  The crime elements are compelling and there is a really interesting mystery contained within this book, with some imaginative twists leading up to the conclusion.  In addition, the two murders are connected together in some clever ways, and the overarching conspiracy about Brighton is particularly intriguing.  While the book contains some gripping mystery elements, it is a comedy at heart; there are some really amazing comedy elements, including some great sequences that really cracked me up.  In addition to the shenanigans of the main characters, there are a range of other eccentric characters throughout the book that provide some fun moments of comic relief with their antics.  These elements come together perfectly, and it is incredibly fun watching all attempts at a serious investigation get disrupted in various silly ways.

Truss set the Inspector Steine series within Brighton in the early 1950s.  While this would already be an interesting setting, the author has amped this up by using elements from the classic crime novel and movie, Brighton Rock.  Truss has stated that her series is based on captions at the start of the 1948 movie which declared that Brighton went from a crime hub between the two World Wars to an area completely free of criminals and corruption by the 1950s.  While many people would be somewhat suspicious of such a statement, the Inspector Steine series is based on the idea that a member of the police actually believed this and acted accordingly.  As a result, the whole city has, on the surface, a wholesome family atmosphere.  That makes the crime hiding underneath a lot more fun to see, especially as the criminals really don’t need to do too much to disguise their activities, secure in Steine’s blissful ignorance.  In addition, fans of the crime classic may be interested to know that there are a number of elements from Brighton Rock that play a key part in the story.  As both the book and the movie exist within the Inspector Steine universe, Inspector Steine actually blames the events of this book on Graham Greene, the original author of Brighton Rock (a sentiment shared by Truss).  In addition, various characters within A Shot in the Dark are obsessed with the events of the classic crime book, and many locations from the Brighton Rock book and movie become major plot settings in the story.  In particular, there are several sequences based around one certain murder from the movie that results in some very entertaining scenes.  Overall, this is a great setting for this excellent comedy-mystery hybrid, which also has some fantastic tie-ins to a classic post-war crime novel.

Lynne Truss delivers an extremely fun and very entertaining adaption of her popular Inspector Steine radio series with A Shot in the Dark.  Featuring all of the exceptional characters that were a standout feature of the original series, A Shot in the Dark is an excellent piece of comedy that also contains some intriguing mystery elements and a unique settings with ties to the crime classic Brighton Rock.  This five-star book comes highly recommended and is guaranteed to leave you laughing for hours.  I am already looking forward to the next Constable Twitten Mystery.

My Rating:

Five Stars

Special thanks need to be given to my partner, Alex, who, on top of her usual editorial expertise for my reviews, happens to be a geek for BBC Radio 4 comedies and was able to help me properly analyse A Shot in the Dark without spoiling the identity of Brighton’s greatest criminal mastermind.

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The Devil’s Half Mile by Paddy Hirsch

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Historical Fiction, Murder Mystery3 Comments

The Devil's Half Mile Cover.jpg

Publisher: Corvus

Australian Publication Date – 25 July 2018

World Publication Date – 22 May 2018

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The Devil’s Half Mile is a spectacular debut from new author Paddy Hirsch that combines history, mystery and financial wrongdoings into one gripping read set in the heart of historic 1799 New York.

On the eve of the 19th century, freshly graduated lawyer Justice “Justy” Flanagan, returns to his home city of New York after fighting the English in the Irish Rebellion.  Changed by his education and his memories of the vicious war, Justy is determined to investigate the tragic death of his father.  Most people believe that his father, a speculative trader, committed suicide following his role in the Wall Street Panic of 1792.  However, Justy is convinced that his father was actually murdered and he is determined to find out the truth.

After reconnecting with old friends and family, Justy starts his investigation by seeking work in the fledging Wall Street stock market.  As he begins to examine the fraud and the people that led up to the last great financial panic, he finds that his most promising leads are all long gone, while any new witnesses he encounters soon turn up dead.  In addition, Justy is drawn into the case of a brutal killer who is stalking the streets of New York, targeting women and leaving them dead and disfigured.

Establishing a connection between the death of his father, the 1792 crash and the current spate of murders, Justy finds himself embroiled in a massive conspiracy that could bring down the fledgling American nation.  With his friends in danger and with few people that he can trust, Justy must use all his skills to unravel this plot or else wind up the same way as his father.

The Devil’s Half Mile is an excellent piece of historical crime fiction that contains an impressive dark mystery designed to enthral the reader with its rich and compelling cat-and-mouse game between the protagonist and the antagonists facing him.  There are a number of great twists and turns throughout this story, as well as some truly surprising reveals, astonishing character decisions and dark and unique motivations for the underlying conspiracy.  Hirsch has also filled this book with some dark and tense moments, including a fantastic sequence in which the protagonists and his comrades engage in a shadowy fight aboard a docked ship, with both sides trying to find and outthink the other in the darkness.

A real standout part of this book is Hirsch’s fabulous use of the historical setting of New York.  Back in 1799, New York was a large town, quickly growing in size and importance.  The author includes some amazing descriptions of the city’s landscape and buildings during this period as the reader is brought back in time to this historical cityscape.  There is a real effort to showcase how the people of this era lived, and includes examinations of the people inhabiting the city and the young nation of America, with a particular focus on the criminals, the former slaves, the Wall Street traders and the fledgling police force.  The author has also done a spectacular job of conveying how people of New York felt during this time, as well as the sense they had about the importance and potential future of the city.

Hirsch has also ensured that this novel is filled with a huge amount of time-appropriate vocabulary.  This vocabulary is inserted throughout the entire story and gives it a real sense of authenticity and accuracy.  This also includes a comprehensive appendix that contains all the slang and terms used throughout the book.  If you have ever been keen to see ‘fart catcher’ or ‘snakesman’ used in context with a story, this is the book for you.

The book’s title, The Devil’s Half Mile, is a reference to Wall Street, the banking and stock-trading hub of New York.  Because of its prominence in the book’s overarching mystery storyline, significant time is spent examining the financial aspects of this young city, with a particular focus on one early example of modern economic history, the Panic of 1792.  The Panic of 1792 was a financial credit loss that rocked America only a few years after the country’s banking service was first introduced.  Hirsch, who has a financial background, explores the origins of this panic and does an amazing job tying it into the plot of the story and using it as a motive for the book’s various murders.  There are some absolutely captivating descriptions of the early Wall Street stock market, as the author explores its origns in coffee houses, how trade was undertaken, and the rules and early regulations that controlled it back then.  This examination of the stock market is a fascinating part of The Devil’s Half Mile, and all of it works well as a part of dark, murder mystery story.  Readers should also keep an eye out for mentions and brief cameos from American historical figures that were a part of the burgeoning bank scene, including Alexander Hamilton.

The author has created a great protagonist for this story.  While at first Justy seems to be a basic main character, with a huge range of skills and plans, such as being a lawyer, soldier, policeman and man familiar with the city’s criminal element, it soon becomes apparent that he has a dark side to him, as the author spends time examining his history during the 1798 Irish Rebellion.  The protagonist has been changed by his wartime experiences, and this plays well into the main story, as he tries not to let the horrors he experienced and perpetrated affect who he is.  This deeper examination of the character’s past also allows the reader a glimpse of the Irish Rebellion, a part of history rarely even mentioned in historical fiction.  Examining the cause, how it was fought and some of the people involved is a great story in itself, and I can easily see parts of it being used in future books in this series.  It also gives a bit of backstory for Lars Hokkanssen, the large half-Irish, half-Norwegian sailor comrade of Justy, who is definitely one of the best side characters in the book.

Filled with an enthralling overarching mystery and brilliant settings, this superb story is an amazing debut from newcomer Paddy Hirsch.  Featuring unique looks at underutilised parts of history and one of the best examinations of old school New York you’re likely to find in all of fiction, this is a highly recommended read and a great piece of historical fiction.

My Rating:

Four stars

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Destroying Angel by S. G. MacLean

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Five-Star Books, Historical Fiction, Murder Mystery9 Comments

Destroying Angel Cover.jpg

Publisher: Quercus

Publication date – 12 July 2018

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Prepare to experience an excellent multi-mystery story set deep in the heart of Cromwell’s Puritan England in Destroying Angel, the new book from historical thriller sensation S. G. MacLean.

It is 1655, a time of great change for England.  Oliver Crowell’s forces have cleared the Royalist armies from England, and exiled the King and his court to the continent.  The country is now in the grip of Puritan morals and the rule of Cromwell’s major-generals.

In York, Captain Damian Seeker of Cromwell’s army is responsible for hunting down Royalist elements hiding within the country and quelling dissent against the new regime.  His latest mission requires him to journey to the small village of Faithly on the Yorkshire moors to deliver the government’s new laws and ordinances and inspect the area for traitors.  In addition, a fugitive member of the King’s exiled court may have returned to his family estates near Faithly, and Seeker is charged with searching the village and the surrounding countryside.

But upon arriving in Faithly, Seeker bears witness to the tragic death of the young ward of the town’s commissioner.  Her death appears to be the result of poisoned mushrooms, slipped to her at a formal dinner attended by Seeker and several of the village’s notable citizens.  Was she the intended target or just a causality of a far larger game?  As Seeker begins to investigate, he soon finds that Faithly is a seething hotbed of resentment and fear.  Plots, secrets, lies and petty jealousies lie just beneath the surface, and many of the village’s inhabitants seek to use the dramatic changes in England’s rule for their own gain.  As Seeker attempts to navigate the chaos he finds in Faithly, a chance encounter from his past will change everything for the captain.

MacLean has once again delivered a fantastic and intensely thrilling piece of historical fiction.  Destroying Angel is the third book in the Captain Seeker series, and the seventh overall book from MacLean, who has also published four historical thrillers in his Alexander Seaton series.  In his latest book, Maclean has created several compelling mysteries that are expertly combined with the book’s fascinating historical background.

The main storyline of Destroying Angel is a fantastic investigation into the secrets and mysteries surrounding a small village.  When the book’s protagonist arrives at Faithly, the central location of the plot, he encounters a village that is brimming with hidden secrets and lies.  While the core mysteries revolve around the poisoned girl and the location of the fugitive Royalist lord, the protagonist is forced to uncover all of the village’s many secrets in order to find the solutions to the murder and treachery that he encounters.  The reader is presented with a massive stream of information about many of the characters in the book, all of which is cleverly woven into a series of intriguing solutions.  For example, the eventual motives for the poisoning of the commissioner’s ward are particularly captivating, and fairly tragic.  MacLean ensures that every single secret and hidden past is tied into the overall story and has created an outstanding narrative that highlights his substantial skill at historical mysteries.

In addition to the huge range of mysteries that MacLean has inserted into his book, there is also a significant storyline that will prove to be extremely interesting to fans of the previous books in the Captain Seeker series.  While performing his other investigations, the protagonist is thrust into an emotive storyline when he suddenly encounters ghosts from his past.  This new storyline is particularly intriguing as it goes deep into the protagonist’s past, uncovering old wounds and substantially increasing his emotional stake in the story.  Previous readers of this series will find it intriguing to see the usually implacable character of Seeker so rattled and unbalanced in this story.  The sudden and violent introduction into this storyline is particularly memorable and represents a noticeable change in the book’s tone, and is an excellent inclusion in an already fantastic read.

One of the most impressive and enjoyable elements of this book is the author’s spectacular use of an absorbing historical setting.  During this period, England is experiencing significant change, as the King and his followers have all been expelled from the country and a new group of people have risen in power.  Despite it being a significant part of England’s history, not too many historical fiction authors have chosen to set their books during this period.  MacLean does an amazing job of exploring the various aspects of this new regime and tying them into the overall plot of Destroying Angel.  This includes the new laws that have been put in place, the changes to local governance and the effect of military rule on the people.  However, one of the most fascinating aspects of the entire plot is MacLean’s examination of the Puritan moralities that were imposed on the people of England.  Destroying Angel focuses on how this affected day to day life, what role the new church had in England and how they treated priests who didn’t meet Puritan expectations.  One of the best parts of the book is the blatantly biased trial of the priest of Faithly village, as members of the populace and a special state examiner, known as ‘the Trier’, attempt to remove him from his parish.  The author has chosen a great location to showcase these examples of life under Cromwell, as the small village setting allows the reader to see how it affected normal, everyday people.  It also allows the reader to get an idea about some of the discontent and petty power plays that could have possibly resulted from the changes to the system.  Overall, MacLean has set his series with a deeply interesting time period that serves as the perfect background for a murder and conflict ridden story.

Destroying Angel is a fantastic and incredibly enjoyable novel that serves as an outstanding and powerful new addition to MacLean’s Captain Seeker series, combining several captivating mysteries with an outstanding and rarely utilised historical setting.  Readers will find so much to love about this book, which is historical murder mystery at its very best.

My Rating:

Five Stars

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The Honourable Thief by Meaghan Wilson Anastasios

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Historical Fiction, Thriller3 Comments

The Honourable Thief Cover.png

Publisher: Macmillan Australia

Publication date – 31 July 2018

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In her first solo novel, Australian Meaghan Anastasios has produced a deeply compelling historical drama that combines a thriller storyline with an archaeological investigation into one fun and invigorating narrative.

In 1955, world-renowned archaeologist and war hero Benedict Hitchens has been living a life of academic exile in Istanbul.  His promising archaeological career and professional reputation were destroyed after a chance encounter with the mysterious Eris, who held a horde of ancient treasures that validated the legends of the Iliad.  When Eris and her treasures suddenly disappear, Ben’s attempts to find her result in suspicion from the authorities and disbelief from the world at large.  His only tangible proof of the encounter is a small tablet that hints at the existence of Achilles, Ben’s archaeological obsession.

Now, Ben embarks on an ambitious plan to flush out the people responsible for Eris’s disappearance, hoping to bring her to justice and salvage his life and reputation.  The clues that he uncovers take him on a quest to find the tomb of Achilles, travelling through Greece, London and Turkey in order to locate one of the world’s greatest treasures.  However, a shadowy group is manipulating Ben at every turn.  Can Ben find the Achilles’s tomb before the ghosts of his past catch up with him?

Despite this being her first solo book, Anastasios is already a successful author, having previously teamed up with her husband to produce the historical drama The Water Diviner, which was adapted into a movie starring Russell Crowe.  While this book does not appear to be connected to Anastiasios’s previous work, both stories are primarily set in Turkey and focus on key events in the country’s history.  The Honourable Thief does contain a fun little callback to her other novel when its main character is at one point nicknamed ‘the Water Diviner’ due to his uncanny ability to find archaeological material.

The overall story that Anastasios presents with The Honourable Thief is a fantastic narrative that combines mystery and suspense aspects, great historical fiction elements, exploration of Greece and Turkey, and a whole lot of archaeology.  There is a great focus on the impact of World War II on Greece, especially Crete, as well as a detailed examination of Turkish history and culture.  Having the protagonist work on uncovering both an archaeological investigation and a conspiracy around missing artefacts is an interesting combination that creates a very interesting story.  The ties to the stories of the Iliad as the protagonist examines the possibility of finding the tomb of Achilles are fascinating and will appeal to fans of the classics.

The author has split The Honourable Thief into two parts and three separate timelines.  Part I of the book only briefly touches on the storyline set in 1955, and instead focuses on the events in the protagonist’s life that led up to the latest timeline.  One of these storylines looks at Ben’s early life during the 1930s and 1940s, including his experiences during World War II.  The second storyline is set in the early 1950s and focuses on the events that led up to Ben losing his reputation and the beginnings of his self-destructive life in Istanbul.  Part II of the book mostly contains the 1955 storyline, and follows Ben’s quest to clear his name.

This split into three distinct storylines is a great way to highlight The Honourable Thief’s intricate narrative, and it was interesting to focus on the earlier timelines in the first half of the book.  This also allows the main plot to continue almost uninterrupted in the second half of the book, ensuring that the reader can completely focus on the intense and electrifying adventure set around the protagonist’s hunt for answers.  This formatting decision was a great change of pace from other novels that slowly reveal their protagonist’s past through the course of the entire story.

While the vast majority of The Honourable Thief is told from the protagonist’s point of view, some very short chapters that buck this trend have been added into Part II of the book.  These smaller entries are inserted before the longer chapters that focus on the protagonist and contain brief, shadowy conversations between the story’s villains.  During these chapters, these hidden characters discuss and analyse the actions of Ben and work out ways to manipulate him further.  The identities of these conspirators are not revealed within these chapters, which builds intrigue as the reader tries to work out who they are.  These short chapters are a terrific addition to the book, as they provide the story with some short, but stimulating, breaks in the narrative.  It also adds a completely new perspective to the story and allows the reader insight into the machinations of the book’s antagonists.

Anastasios has created an interesting and memorable protagonist for her excellent story.  When Benedict Hitchens is introduced, he is a disgraced and self-destructive character who does not elicit a great deal of sympathy from the audience.  However, the author’s clever use of the separate storylines allows the reader to view his backstory, which explores his obsession with finding Eris and Achilles.  Both earlier timelines are vital in explaining the character’s motives and emotional baggage, turning Ben into a tragic and sympathetic character.  It is also fascinating to see the changes that have happened to the character during the various timelines.  For example, his experiences change his entire outlook on life and make him more likely to engage in reckless actions.  It also changes his style of archaeology as he goes from the academically accepted practice of carefully digging trenches and laboriously recording every single detail, to a more reckless technique reminiscent of a tomb raider like Indiana Jones.  Anastasios has included an interesting character flaw for her protagonist: despite him being a brilliant archaeologist, he keeps falling for a series of blindingly obvious manipulations, which becomes quite frustrating for the reader to watch.

The reader may find it is possible to predict many of the book’s various twists well in advance, and that lessens the impact of the story.  The eventual reveal of who the antagonists are also was not too uprising.  However, there is one significant, if not slightly ridiculous, twist in the last few pages of the book that nobody is likely to see coming.  While these negative aspects are slightly detrimental to the story, I felt that the all the book’s other amazing elements more than make up for it and turn The Honourable Thief into a captivating and highly enjoyable read.

This fantastic novel is a superb first solo outing from Anastasios, who has crafted an excellent story of betrayal, mystery and adventure, all bound together with archaeology and history.  Cleverly utilising three separate timelines into one compelling narrative, The Honourable Thief is a powerful and distinctive read that will appeal to a huge range of readers.

My Rating:

Four stars

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The Fire Court by Andrew Taylor

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Historical Fiction, Murder MysteryLeave a comment

The Fire Court Cover

Publisher: Harper Collins

Australian Publication Date – 19 March 2018

World Publication Date – 5 April 2018

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Bestselling author Andrew Taylor returns to the 1660’s and the scorched city of London with the thrilling murder mystery, The Fire Court.

It has only been a few short months since the Great Fire of London ravaged the city, killing many and destroying a large number of houses and buildings.  The city is now finally rebuilding itself, aided by the Fire Court, an incorruptible institution that examines legal cases around the rebuilding and ensures the best result for the city.  While the Fire Court is supposed to be neutral in all cases, there are some who seek to use it their advantage.

James Marwood, a low-level government official, is one of the few people in London doing better now than before the fire.  However, James is still caring for his ailing father, a convicted traitor whose mind has been affected by his time as a prisoner.  When his father claims to have found a murdered woman at the site of the Fire Court, James initially assumes that his father imagined the situation.  But when his father is run down in the street and killed, James begins to suspect he may have actually witnessed a murder.

As James begins to look into this possibility, he soon finds evidence that connects his suspicions to an upcoming Fire Court case that will decide who will rebuild a number of profitable properties.  His investigation once again leads him to an old acquaintance of his, Cat Lovett, the daughter of a regicide.  James previously helped Cat escape retribution for her father’s crimes, and he now turns to Cat and her new employer to gather information on the upcoming case.

When more people connected to the case turn up dead and their investigation is hampered by influential members of the court, James and Cat begin to suspect that the Fire Court may not be as incorruptible as they thought.  It soon becomes clear that death is once again stalking the streets of London and this time they will not escape unscathed.

The Fire Court is the follow-up to Taylor’s 2016 hit, The Ashes of London.  Taylor is a veteran author and has significant experience writing a range of different genres and novel types.  He has produced over 40 novels since 1982, mainly focusing on crime fiction, with some of his more recent books featuring captivating historical elements.

Taylor’s last book, The Ashes of London, was a fantastic piece of historical crime fiction that made full use of its distinctive setting of the Great Fire of London.  Having the characters solve a crime and explore the city during the immediate aftermath of such a devastating historical event was masterstroke from Taylor which has resulted in a superb and memorable piece of literature.  In The Fire Court, Taylor returns to this fascinating period to show how much rebuilding happened in the six months after the destructive fire.  The focus on the historical Fire Court that was instituted in the aftermath of this event is the most intriguing part of Taylor’s new book, and readers will be extremely interested in learning more about this unique bit of history.  Taylor does a tremendous job of introducing the role that the Fire Court played in the rebuilding of the city and how it worked.  The reader is treated to several scenes that feature cases before the court, showing how the verdicts were reached.  Several of the Fire Court’s actual judges are included as characters, which is a nice touch of historical realism.  Overall, the examination and inclusion of the historical Fire Court is a notable piece of this novel and readers will appreciate how Taylor has interlaced his complex murder mystery with this interesting historical setting.

In addition to the fire-related historical elements, Taylor has also done an outstanding job of displaying what the city of London would have looked like in the 1660s.  During their investigation of the crime the protagonists visit large and varied swathes of the city which are vividly described, which brings readers right in to the middle of this vibrant and bustling city.  This base historical setting is well written, and readers will enjoy this incredible romp back in time.

The central plot of this novel revolves around a powerful murder mystery storyline and investigation.  The Fire Court is told from the perspective of three separate narrators – James, Cat and Jemima – each of whom tries to find answers in their own way.  The investigation into the murder is very intense, and what initially starts as a single potential murder spirals into a series of killings as the culprits attempt to cover up their crimes.  This overall storyline is well written, filled with suspense, and very compelling.  Readers will be captivated by the way fire is used by both the protagonists and the antagonists throughout the book.  The use of such a tool is significant, as all the London-based characters know the power of fire and its destructive potential.  It is a potent symbol of criminal wrongdoing in this series, and the audience will be shocked by how it affects the lives of the protagonists in this book.  In addition to the symbolic use of fire, Taylor also includes a significant twist at the conclusion of the investigation that will leave the reader reeling and thinking for a very long time.

Taylor has produced a remarkable and enjoyable murder mystery that makes full use of its unique setting.  Readers will love the detailed examination of the aftermath of London’s most destructive fire and will find themselves enthralled by an excellent mystery with one hell of an ending.  This is a highly recommended read from an exceptional author.

My Rating:

Four stars

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The Lace Weaver by Lauren Chater

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Drama, Historical FictionLeave a comment

The Lace Weaver Cover.jpg

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date – 19 March 2018

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Love, war, suffering, oppression, hope and lace all come together in this emotionally charged debut from Australian author Lauren Chater.

It has been two years since the outbreak of World War II.  Following their respective expansions, Nazi Germany and the USSR now control much of Europe between them.  The small country of Estonia, located on the border of the USSR, has been occupied by the Soviets and is now controlled by Stalin’s Red Army, who have brutally installed their communist ideals.  Now all of Estonia’s resources are controlled by the Soviets and any signs of opposition are brutally cracked down on.

In the middle of this horrific occupation lives Katarina, a young Estonian woman whose family survives because their farm produces food for the occupying forces.  While the Soviets are attempting to control all parts of Estonian life, Katarina works to preserve her family’s culture through their lace shawls, which contain intricate and unique patterns and stories.  She must also deal with her feelings for her old friend Oskar, who is leading the revolution against the Soviets.

At the same time in Moscow, another young woman, Lydia, lives an ostensible life of privilege, but is really living in a gilded cage, controlled by her ruthless guardian.  Fleeing to Estonia, the land of her mother, Lydia attempts to find sanctuary but finds out just how far her captivity truly extends.

When a Soviet crackdown forces Katarina and Lydia together, these two women must find a way to survive the horrors of the occupation.  As they become part of Oskar’s resistance against the Soviets, Katarina and Lydia must learn to work together, even when Lydia falls for Katarina’s brother Jakob.  But their situation is about to get even worse, with the forces of the Third Reich set to invade.

This is fantastic first book from Chater, who has woven together an amazing tale filled with great characters and an outstanding and underused historical location.  This book is also an extraordinary piece of dramatic literature.  All of the main characters experience significant loss, heartache and disappointment as they attempt to survive the most turbulent time in our world’s history.  These heartbreaking losses of friends, family and other loved ones draw the reader in, while Chater’s fantastic writing makes them feel the character’s loss and grief as she highlights the brutal reality of those caught in the middle of war.

Perhaps the most memorable part of The Lace Weaver is the story’s central setting of Estonia.  During World War II, Estonia was in the unfortunate position of being one of the countries that fell between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.  Estonia was a significant theatre of war where many horrors occurred, and yet very few novels focus on this part of World War II.  Chater’s decision to focus on this underused period of war history is intriguing, and she has done a commendable job of calling attention to the horrors experienced by the Estonians during the time that they were occupied by two of the world’s most brutal regimes.

Estonia was brutally occupied by the Soviets in 1940, and a large portion of this book is set during this period.  Chater does an amazing job of describing this brutal period through the eyes of her Estonian characters.  There is a serious sense of dread from these characters as they anticipate what horrible crimes might occur next.  The descriptions of the Soviet soldiers’ brutality and contempt for the Estonians is at times harrowing, and there is one sequence describing a mass deportation that will stick in the reader’s mind.  While the scenes describing the occupation of the Soviets are pretty distressing, one of the most disturbing parts of this story is that for much of the book many of the characters, especially Oskar and Jakob, believe that their salvation and freedom could be granted to them by the Nazis.  Reading this can prove to be disquieting as you are forced to watch the characters help the Nazis occupy their country.  The characters working out what they have let into their country is chilling to behold, and by this point readers will be desperate to see what happens next in Estonia.

In addition to focusing on the terrible occupations Estonia suffered during the war, The Lace Weaver also contains an insightful look into some aspects of Estonian culture.  This is mainly shown through the use of the lace shawls, which are described as an important part of Estonian culture and history.  Chater spends a large part of the book investigating these shawls, and the reader soon appreciates their importance.  Katarina spends a significant part of her narration describing the significance of these shawls to her family, and her interactions allow the readers to see how vital they were to her social and familiar circles.  These shawls are also very important to the story as they draw many of the characters together, especially the two main characters, Katarina and Lydia.  The scenes in which the shawls are being worked can also be seen as an indicator of the periods when the characters are managing to survive and have some hope for the future, and are to be cherished, especially as the reader grows to care for these characters.

There are some great characters within The Lace Weaver that readers will find themselves deeply invested in.  Narration of this story is split evenly between the two main characters, Katarina and Lydia, both of whom have unique stories to tell.  Lydia’s transformation from a sheltered girl in Russia to a hardboiled Estonian survivor is particularly gripping, and revelations about who she actually is offer big thrills in the first part of the book and up her personal stakes.  Katarina’s story of survival and her attempts to keep the cultural ways of life she inherited from her beloved grandmother are also heartfelt and compelling.  The unique stories that these two characters have are deeply absorbing and emotional, and Chater does a masterful job of eventually combining these two stories together into one extraordinary and captivating tale.

The Lace Weaver is a deep and emotional wartime drama that makes full use of its dark setting, rare historical fiction location and amazing characters.  Australian author Lauren Chater has produced a very impressive first book and readers will fall in love with this fantastic tale.

My Rating:

Four stars

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The Falcon of Sparta by Conn Iggulden

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Five-Star Books, Historical Fiction11 Comments

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Publication Date – 3 May 2018

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One of historical fiction’s very best authors is back with an enthralling story that follows history’s greatest warriors on one of their most legendary journeys.  Without a doubt, Conn Iggulden is one of the top authors of historical fiction in the world today.  Since 2003 he has consistently produced some of the most in-depth, detailed and engrossing chronicles of several different historical periods and cultures.  His previous work includes lengthy examinations of Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan in his bestselling Emperor and Conqueror series, and he has also produced the definitive fictional account of one of the bloodiest civil wars in English history with his extraordinary War of the Roses series.  Now, following his 2017 fantasy debut Darien, Iggulden has once again returned to his historical fiction roots by exploring another new realm of history, the Spartans.

In 401 BC, the new Persian king, Artaxerxes II, rules the largest empire in the known world.  With an empire sprawling from the Aegean Sea to the north of India, the king of Persia is the undisputed ruler of 50 million people.  However, despite all their wealth and power, the kings of Persia have never conquered Greece.  From Thermopylae to Marathon and Platea, the Persians have suffered the ferocity of the Greeks, and none are more feared than the men of Sparta.  As a result, it has been many years since the Persians have attempted to invade Greece, and many Spartans now serve as mercenaries in the Persian army.

When Prince Cyrus, Artaxerxes’s brother, is nearly executed by the new king following the death of their father, the young prince is determined to claim the throne of Persia for himself.  After hiring an army of skilled Greek mercenaries led by an elite core of Spartan warriors and the revered Spartan General Clearchus, Cyrus marches against his brother.  But battles can be lost with a single blow, and when Cyrus is killed on the battlefield the Greeks suddenly find themselves trapped in the middle of the Persian Empire.

With Clearchus and the other Greek generals having been killed through treachery, it falls to a young solider, Xenophon, to lead the surviving Greeks to safety.  With limited supplies and no knowledge of the land before them, Xenophon must find a way to lead 10,000 soldiers and an additional 10,000 camp followers back to Greece.  Forced to endure constant attacks from the Persian army as they travel through deserts and across mountains, their journey will become legendary.

The Falcon of Sparta is a standalone novel primarily based on the classic Greek text, Anabasis, which was written by the historical Xenophon.  Iggulden’s novel focuses on the events of the first four of the seven books of Anabasis.

While The Falcon of Sparta does not contain the full version of Anabasis, in some ways it is a much more complete and detailed story that focuses on the people who featured in this great adventure.  Xenophon related his tale in a rather simple and direct manner, and Iggulden has compensated for this by providing his own storytelling and dramatic writing.  Many of the key characters now have significant backstories fictional justifications for many of these characters’ actions and motives.  For example, Iggulden attempts to provide a more complex and dramatic explanation for the schism between Artaxerxes and Cyrus, rather than the historical story that Cyrus simply desired the throne.  Iggulden also provides additional context for one of the main villains of the Anabasis, the Persian noble Tissaphernes, who led the Persian armies against the retreating Greek forces.  In The Falcon of Sparta his role as a villain is greatly expanded.  Not only is he portrayed as a former friend of Cyrus who betrayed him for power but also as one of the main reasons Cyrus fails to seize the throne and the protagonists are placed into such peril.  Iggulden’s additional backstories and character traits make for a much more compelling and complete story with thrilling and absorbing motivations and antagonists.

These additional story elements are greatly enhanced by the author’s use of character perspectives.  For the first two thirds of the story, narration is split between a number of characters, including Cyrus, Clearchus, Tissaphernes, Artaxerxes and Xenophon.  Not only does this split narration help to build up the respective characters’ histories and allow the audience a better view of their personalities, but it also adds significantly to the story as these characters provide various perspectives on the events occurring in the formative parts of the main story.  Through the narrators we are given glimpses into a range of interesting things, including Artaxerxes’s and Cyrus’s thoughts on the war for their father’s throne, as well as the events and feelings that led up to the conflict.  We also see the respect that Cyrus and Xenophon have for their Spartan allies, as they see examples of their effectiveness in combat and their legendary self-discipline.

The scenes told from Tissaphernes’s point of view further highlight his role as a villain as his inner monologue reveals his selfish motivations and ambitions.  The story told from Tissaphernes’s viewpoint helps turn him into an embodiment of the distain that the ancient Persians had for the Greeks and their soldiers.  Despite seeing the Greeks’ substantial battle prowess, Tissaphernes and many of the Persians viewed the Greeks as second-rate soldiers, and it is fascinating to see how deeply held this belief was.

After the first two thirds of the book, the story is told exclusively from the point of view of Xenophon and starts to mostly represent Book III and Book IV of the Anabasis.  This part of the book allows the reader a closer view of the Spartan and Greek forces as they participate in their epic march and is very entertaining.  Even as the story becomes confined to only one narrator, Iggulden is still able to provide the necessary detail and drama in the final part of the book to keep the story going strong and maintain the reader’s attention and enjoyment.

Special attention needs to be given to the masterful portrayal of the Greeks and Spartans in battle.  Iggulden has an incredible eye for detail and an amazing writing style that brings the reader right into the heart of the book’s large-scale action sequences.  In particular, he spends a significant amount of time focusing on the Greeks and the Spartans and does an amazing job of capturing their battle techniques, tactics and mentality.  There are a large number of battle scenes within this book, and Iggulden uses every opportunity to show off the prowess of his heroes in as much detail as possible, allowing the reader to easily witness the events in their minds.  The Persian soldiers are also examined in the scenes narrated by Cyrus, and it is interesting to see the differences in the fighting style and mentality of the Greeks and Persians.  Those interested in reading about this part of history will love the amount of attention given to the Spartans and find many of the associated descriptions deeply fascinating.

Conn Iggulden has once again produced a masterful and absorbing fictional account that focuses on an utterly intriguing historical event.  Bringing the reader right into the middle of the march of the Ten Thousand, Iggulden expands on Xenophon’s Anabasis and provides a more dramatic and elegant story of betrayal, endurance and survival.  The Falcon of Sparta is a love letter to one of history’s most legendary race of warriors, and it provides the reader with a detailed exploration of Spartan warfare, lifestyle and mentality.  This is a breathtaking and highly recommended piece of historical fiction that is guaranteed to drag you in for the long haul.

My Rating:

Five Stars

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