Tag: mystery

Review – All Of Us Murderers

Posted November 18, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Review – All Of Us Murderers

All of Us Murderers

by KJ Charles

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 343
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

A genre-bending Gothic mystery with a strong LGBTQIA+ romance from beloved, award-winning author KJ Charles.

When Zeb Wyckham is summoned to a wealthy relative’s remote Gothic house on Dartmoor, he finds all the people he least wants to see in the world—his estranged brother, his loathsome cousins, and his bitter ex-lover, Gideon Grey. Nothing, he is certain, could possibly be worse.

Then the grizzled old patriarch announces the true purpose of the gathering: He intends to leave the vast family fortune to whichever of the men marries Cousin Jessamine, setting off a violent scramble for her hand and his wealth. Disinterested in being tied further to a family he can barely stand, Zeb tries to leave…only to realize that he’s been trapped. The walls are high, the gates are locked, and when the mists roll in, there’s no way out.

And there may be something trapped within the dark monstrosity of a house with them.

Fear and paranoia ramping ever-higher, Zeb has nowhere to turn but to the man who once held his whole heart. As the mists descend, the gaslight flickers, and terror takes its hold, two warring lovers must reconcile in time to uncover the murderous mysteries of Lackaday House—and live to tell the tale.

It took me a bit to get into KJ Charles’ All of Us Murderers: I was pretty sure I would enjoy it, because I’ve really enjoyed almost all of her books, but the opening has almost the whole cast being really unpleasant to each other. Which I should’ve perhaps expected, given that it’s heavily gothic in inspiration, but I guess it felt like a bit of added nastiness than the main character plainly has ADHD, and that’s used as a weapon against him.

That said, once Gideon and Zeb actually start talking to each other and not just sniping, and especially as they work through what happened and start working together, it becomes a lot more fun. It isn’t just Zeb with a massive target on his back, but the two of them against the united forces of Zeb’s horrible family, and you can be pretty sure they’ll win out in the end.

It didn’t take me long to figure out basically what was happening, but it was still interesting to be along for the ride and watch Zeb steadfastly refusing to believe in supernatural occurrences… and it was still fun to have the dramatic and very gothic reveals of what exactly is going on, and what the plan is.

Gideon and Zeb — once they’re talking to each other — make a good team, and I love that (despite his self-recriminations) it’s really plain that their break-up wasn’t all Zeb’s fault. There’s a bit of sharpness round the edges with how they’ve handled Zeb’s ADHD together in the past: Gideon covering for him and taking care of him, but also sometimes getting exasperated and seeming to treat him like a child, or sniping at him because of it. The relationship feels so vivid and realistic, even (or especially?) against the ridiculous gothic background.

To clarify: when I call it a ridiculous gothic background, I say this with affection. Charles was clearly having fun with the setting and genre, and I enjoyed it very much. But it’s ridiculous all the same, if you try to explain the plot outside of the story itself and all the atmospheric trappings it builds up.

I was a bit surprised by how it ended for Zeb and Gideon, because that felt pretty un-gothic — but then, they could hardly have had a happy ending if they’d let the gothic story decide their fate, and this was the best way for them to be happy. I was very pleased by that part!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – I Could Murder Her

Posted November 14, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – I Could Murder Her

I Could Murder Her

by E.C.R. Lorac

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 191
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Muriel Farrington is a domineering woman who, unfortunately for them, has her entire family living with her in her stately home. She tries, often successfully, to run the lives of her children, her stepchildren, her in-laws, and her husband, and she seems to be despised by all except her husband and one son.

When she is found dead one morning in her bed, the family doctor, who is old, ill, and hasn’t been very able for years, is unable to attend and bestow a certificate, which he would have done without investigation or thought.

A younger, more able and perceptive doctor has to be called in, to the shock of whoever the murderer was, and he does not find the death natural...

I Could Murder Her features E.C.R. Lorac’s series detective, Inspector Macdonald, digging once more into a tense net of family relationships and rivalries in order to discover who murdered their (rather awful) matriarch, who was a bit of a strangling vine. There are a couple of very likeable characters — straightforward, capable, earnest — of the type Lorac’s so good at writing, people with good hearts, and I didn’t guess the murderer this time at all.

It’s possible I should’ve seen it coming, because Macdonald and his subordinate seem to have had their eyes on it the whole time, but I suppose I didn’t really want it to be that character. For all that each book features an almost completely new cast, I can’t help but end up caring about Lorac’s characters, and feeling strongly about some of them.

Whiiiich means that at the end of this book I ended up feeling decidedly uncosy and unhappy, because I didn’t want that person to be the murderer and the effects on all the other characters would be awful as a result. It’s still a good mystery, and a good example of Lorac’s writing; personally it didn’t entirely work because I didn’t want it to end like that, but that tells you something about Lorac’s ability to make a reader care. Even though most of her books stand alone, each one gets me fully invested.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Mockingbird Court

Posted November 10, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Mockingbird Court

Mockingbird Court

by Juneau Black

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Mystery
Pages: 249
Series: Shady Hollow #6
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

In the latest installment in the beloved Shady Hollow series, everyone’s favorite vulpine investigator Vera Vixen must contend with a cold-hearted killer—and the ghost of her own past.

It’s a crisp, cool autumn in Shady Hollow, and preparations are underway for the annual Harvest Festival. Creatures have flocked from far and wide to partake in the seasonal festivities, from pumpkin carving to pie tasting to soup throwing. With all these new faces around town, it’s the perfect time for someone to slip in unnoticed.

Unless that someone is Bradley Marvel, the most famous author—and most noticeable personality—in any woodland warren. It seems the wolf is on the lam. Back in the city, a body was found in his penthouse apartment at Mockingbird Court, and Marvel skipped town before the questioning could commence.

Marvel claims to be innocent, and it’s up to Vera and her friends to piece together what might have happened that fateful night so many miles away in the beating heart of the big city. But things get complicated when Vera learns that she also knows the victim … and might even be implicated herself.

I snagged Juneau Black’s Mockingbird Court as soon as I could lay hands on it, of course — I love the Shady Hollow series, and this installment takes us back to the town and to the usual cast, after Summer’s End took us to another town. This time Vera’s in trouble, with Bradley Marvel showing up again, and skeletons from her past — barely hinted at in previous books — tumble out of the closet.

I did find the book a bit frustrating in that it felt like Vera’s relationship with Orville has barely progressed, with Orville coming off all righteous and cross, Vera failing to communicate, etc, etc. It wouldn’t have hurt to have Orville actually come after Vera for an explanation, for instance, or for Vera to stay and explain things rather than running away.

Still, it’s cute how the town come together to try to protect Vera, and it’s also nice to start to understand her backstory and how she came to Shady Hollow. I will say that I worked out the culprit quite a bit before she does, and I was a liiiittle worried by the dramatic confrontation scene — that could have been majorly frustrating! But the way it worked out wasn’t so bad.

Not my favourite of the series, I’d say, but some nice autumnal vibes, good character moments, and a reasonable if not super-exciting mystery.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Continental Crimes

Posted November 4, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Continental Crimes

Continental Crimes

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 352
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

A man is forbidden to uncover the secret of the tower in a fairy-tale castle by the Rhine. A headless corpse is found in a secret garden in Paris--belonging to the city's chief of police. And a drowned man is fished from the sea off the Italian Riviera, leaving the carabinieri to wonder why his socialite friends at the Villa Almirante are so unconcerned by his death.

These are three of the scenarios in this new collection of vintage crime stories. Detective stories from the golden age and beyond have used European settings--cosmopolitan cities, rural idylls and crumbling chateaux--to explore timeless themes of revenge, deception, murder and haunting.

Including lesser-known stories by Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, J. Jefferson Farjeon and other classic writers, this collection reveals many hidden gems of British crime.

Continental Crimes is a collection of classic/Golden/Silver Age crime stories from British writers but set in Europe, and is edited as usual by Martin Edwards. It actually contains a Christie story, which is rare for the series (though Parker Pyne is a fairly meh detective), along with a non-Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle… but. I’m afraid it got a bit boring, and e.g. the Reggie Fortune story chosen was almost incoherent and had an absolutely infuriating number of random exclamations from Reggie (“my aunt!” etc etc).

It’s a fun idea for a collection, and they weren’t all duds, but the overall effect is fairly uninspiring. Despite the convincing line-up of authors, the stories just don’t sparkle, so it feels pretty stodgy.

Might be better reading one at a time/spacing them out, or just dipping in for the ones that sound interesting.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency

Posted October 28, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency

The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency

by Kusama Sakae

Genres: Manga, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 265
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Matsuda Kei is a private investigator who specializes in quirky cases centered on his local neighborhood around the shopping arcade. He's recently taken on a new roommate (and lover) named Kamiko who is unemployed, ruthlessly horny, and was actually a classmate from his past.

While the two work together to solve cases, they carry on in what starts as a strictly physical relationship... until Matsuda finds that this temporary situation he has entered with Kamiko might be turning into something more.

Sakae Kusama’s The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency is a one-shot manga which features a private investigator (Matsuda Kei) and a former classmate (Kamiko) who ends up running into him as part of a case. Kamiko starts freeloading on Matsuda, and it becomes obvious that they were both intrigued by each other back in school, but Matsuda judged Kamiko for his dating habits and Kamiko felt unfairly judged.

They start off in a super casual sexual relationship and have lots and lots of sex, which I think comes somewhat at the expense of developing a relationship between them. There are glimpses of it, for example when Matsuda decides to figure out what happened to Kamiko’s childhood dog in order to set his mind at rest about it, but mostly it’s just a lot of sex.

Still, when I think about it, both definitely had redeeming characteristics: Matsuda might be grumpy all the time, but he helps people out, and Kamiko begins to care about Matsuda and apply himself to doing the same work (and really throws his heart into it when Matsuda’s in trouble).

I wasn’t a huge fan of the art, but the story (the detective stuff but also Kamiko’s horndog ways) kinda reminded me a bit of Dee and Ryo in FAKE — it’s not the same story by any means, far from it, and doesn’t go as deep into either character’s background or thoughts, but that did give me a nostalgic smile.

Not for me, ultimately, but that’s mostly a personal taste thing.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – Pagans

Posted October 26, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Pagans

Pagans

by James Alistair Henry

Genres: Alternate History, Crime, Mystery
Pages: 321
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Two cops. One killer. Hundreds of gods.

21st Century London. The Norman conquest never happened. The ancient tribes of Britain remain undefeated. But murders still have to be solved.

The small, mostly unimportant, island of Britain is inhabited by an uneasy alliance of tribes - the dominant Saxon East, the beleaguered Celtic West, and an independent Nordic Scotland - and tensions are increasing by the second. Supermarket warpaint sales are at an all-time high, mead abuse shortens the lives of thousands, and social media is abuzz with conspiracy theories suggesting the High Table's putting GPS trackers in the honeycakes.

Amid this febrile atmosphere, the capital is set to play host to the Unification Summit, which aims to join together the various tribes into one 'united kingdom'. But when a Celtic diplomat is found brutally murdered, his body nailed to an ancient oak, the fragile peace is threatened. Captain Aedith Mercia, daughter of a powerful Saxon leader, must join forces with Celtic Tribal Detective Inspector Drustan to solve the murder - and stop political unrest spilling onto the streets.

But is this an isolated incident? Or are Aedith and Drustan facing a serial killer with a decades-old grudge? To find out, they must delve into their own murky pasts and tackle forces that go deeper than they ever could have imagined.

Set in a world that's far from our own and yet captivatingly familiar, Pagans explores contemporary themes of religious conflict, nationalism, prejudice... and the delicate internal politics of the office coffee round. Gripping and darkly funny, Pagans keeps you guessing until the very end.

James Henry Alistair’s Pagans is set in an interesting world in which the Norman invasion of 1066 never happened, and Britain is divided into Norse, Saxon and indigenous British contingents which don’t get along super great. Britain’s also a bit of a backwater, with geopolitics all flipped around from what we know — clearly a lot more than the Battle of Hastings did and didn’t happen/work out the way we know it. That’s never explored at great length, and is actually just the backdrop for a mystery.

This works… okay. I had so many questions, including a lot of them about the marginal (nearly unknown) nature of Christians in the story, given that the Norse, Saxons and native British, or at the very least subgroups thereof, all converted to Christianity at some point in their histories, without any need for the Normans to invade. It doesn’t make sense.

If you set that aside, and accept the idea of a modern Britain that’s Saxon, Norse and indigenous British (with heavy marginalisation for “the Indij”), there are some fun details about how this works and how people experience the world, some of which are semi-reasonable to consider having grown out of Saxon, Norse and British beliefs. If you accept the context, the mystery that plays out against it is a fun one, playing the groups against one another (while having them work together in the form of the police) and leading up to quite the climax.

I actually enjoyed Aedith and Drustan’s characters, and the supporting cast; as a mystery, and with them as the cops, it’s quite fun. I could never take it quite seriously, and some of the obvious flips from reality to do with marginalisation are a bit ham-handed, but I sat back and let it take me where it wanted to go, and it was an interesting ride.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Blood on the Tracks

Posted October 20, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Blood on the Tracks

Blood on the Tracks

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 288
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

“Never had I been given a tougher problem to solve, and never had I been so utterly at my wits’ end for a solution.”

A signalman is found dead by a railway tunnel. A man identifies his wife as a victim of murder on the underground. Two passengers mysteriously disappear between stations, leaving behind a dead body.

Trains have been a favourite setting of many crime writers, providing the mobile equivalent of the “locked-room” scenario. Their enclosed carriages with a limited number of suspects lend themselves to seemingly impossible crimes. In an era of cancellations and delays, alibis reliant upon a timely train service no longer ring true, yet the railway detective has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the twenty-first century.

Both train buffs and crime fans will delight in this selection of fifteen railway-themed mysteries, featuring some of the most popular authors of their day alongside less familiar names. This is a collection to beguile even the most wearisome commuter.

Blood on the Tracks — edited by Martin Edwards, as usual for the British Library Crime Classics series — is a collection of stories on an apparently very specific theme: railway mysteries. And yet there’s plenty, and several novels as well that one can point to (more than one by Agatha Christie alone, as I recall!), so it’s definitely a worthy theme.

As ever, there were some stories that spoke more to me than others, but overall it’s a collection I enjoyed, including the Holmes pastiche by Knox (despite being often wary of Holmes pastiches). Reading E. Bramah’s story featuring Max Carrados made me almost resolve to write to the lecturer back at university who refused to include more diverse characters like disabled detectives/characters in the course material (“what’s next, animal detectives? This would be really scraping the barrel”) — Max Carrados being, of course, totally blind. These collections are really fun for how they dig for forgotten stories and bring them back to light.

Overall, one of the most fun collections; not just interesting because I’m interested in the genre, but with stories I enjoyed in and of themselves.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – The Man Who Was Thursday

Posted October 16, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The Man Who Was Thursday

The Man Who Was Thursday

by G.K. Chesterton

Genres: Classics, Mystery
Pages: 224
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

In a park in London, secret policeman Gabriel Syme strikes up a conversation with an anarchist. Sworn to do his duty, Syme uses his new acquaintance to go undercover in Europe's Central Anarchist Council and infiltrate their deadly mission, even managing to have himself voted to the position of 'Thursday'. When Syme discovers another undercover policeman on the Council, however, he starts to question his role in their operations. And as a desperate chase across Europe begins, his confusion grows, as well as his confidence in his ability to outwit his enemies. But he has still to face the greatest terror that the Council has: a man named Sunday, whose true nature is worse than Syme could ever have imagined...

I don’t know quite what I expected from G.K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday. It’s a book I’ve known about for a long time, but I had no idea about any details, other than that it was kind of a thriller and that it was pretty influential (or at least popular or talked about).

Having read it now, I wouldn’t have pegged it as being by the same guy as the Father Brown stories. I also still couldn’t tell you entirely what I think it’s about: it does have thriller elements, as Syme and later others go up against anarchists, culminating in a weird chase across the country (twice). I know it’s a spoiler, but it’s hard to explain how weird this book is without adding that of course it later turns out to have all been a dream.

It’s hard to know how to take it all in part because it all turns out to have been a dream. There are parts which are pretty funny, but then there are also moments where Syme’s repugnance really comes through and it feels almost horrifying.

Such a weird mix, and I don’t think I enjoyed it, though it’s interesting to have read it and have it logged as context somewhere in the back of my mind when people write about it or mention it in passing.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – Deadly Earnest

Posted October 14, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Deadly Earnest

Deadly Earnest

by Joan Cockin

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 288
Series: Inspector Cam #3
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

They were eight candidates who arrived in 'Humpstead Manor' - otherwise known as 'the Hump' - all of whom were part of an elite interview process for a major job in Africa. But even before the examinations began, one of the assembled seemed to be being singled out for something rather more a great job. Murder. Inspector Cam finds that what he thought was a relaxed trip observing how the process worked, finds he is needed to do a lot more than observe. Deadly Earnest, published in 1952 was the third and final novel that came from the Joan Cockin stable. It's a strong candidate to be her best.

Joan Cockin’s Deadly Earnest is a very classic kind of mystery, which was exactly what I wanted of it: methodical in building up a situation, letting it all fall apart like a house of cards, and then letting the detective set everything to rights and recreate order. It’s quite atmospheric at times, but in the end it delivers the expected payoff.

Most of the cast comes across as rather unpleasant, and even Inspector Cam — who I’ve liked in past books — didn’t always sit well with me. It’s partly the rather nasty atmosphere, I think, and from a modern perspective, also the smug colonialist attitudes of the characters who plan to go off and become administrators of the Empire.

Not a favourite, but overall it delivered what I was hoping for from it.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Paladin’s Strength

Posted October 13, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – Paladin’s Strength

Paladin's Strength

by T. Kingfisher

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 426
Series: The Saint of Steel #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

From two-time Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Paladin's Strength, the perfect blend of cosy fantasy romance and classic fantasy adventure featuring an order of secretive nuns, a swashbuckling paladin and a strange hive of rabbits.

He's a paladin of a dead god, tracking a supernatural killer across a continent. She's a nun from a secretive order on the trail of the raiders who burned her convent and kidnapped her sisters.

When their paths cross at the point of a sword, Istvhan and Clara will be pitched headlong into each other's quests, facing off against enemies both living and dead. But Clara has a secret that could jeopardise the growing trust between them, a secret that will lead them to the gladiatorial pits of a corrupt city, and beyond...

I really enjoyed T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Strength, even though at times I think it could’ve used being a bit shorter — a few pages less here and there. I think I had the same thought about The Wonder Engine, so I suspect it’s partly a matter of style, and I do enjoy T. Kingfisher’s writing quite a bit. She has a thing about paladins, and Istvhan is a fun example of the breed: a little less absolutely subsumed by being a paladin than Stephen, a bit less haunted than Galen, but still profoundly bound by requiring himself to be decent.

So decent that he can’t see that Clara’s a perfectly capable, willing women who would like to go to bed with him. The will they/won’t they is pretty frustrating given we see both sides of the potential relationship and thus know that they’re just totally failing to communicate, and I think it’s here that some pages could’ve been cut profitably. It all feels like it drags out a bit too long, though on the other hand, they’re both so stubborn that I guess it’s not super surprising that they have to be dragged slowly to a conclusion.

The discovery of the origins of the smooth men is fascinating — and definitely surprised me, since I figured it was going to be a bigger plot running through all four books, and it seems kinda… wrapped up? And it was fascinating to explore more of the world too, learning about St Ursa, the Aral, Morstone…

Looking forward to the next book, which looks quite short compared to this one!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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