School is back in session and it’s time for a field trip. I make no apologies, I absolutely adore London and so when I want to disappear to another time or place, you can find me either buried in an English novel or watching a BBC production. I decided that for this last month of summer I would introduce you to a plethora of English mysteries from multiple time periods.
Where Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris will take you to 1812 London, where you are introduced to the strong willed, headstrong Hero Jarvis. Not the run of the mill prim English rose, Hero finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation when she is the sole survivor of an attack on a home for “soiled doves”. She had been interviewing a young Cypriote named Rose when the attack began and when Rose dies in her arms, Hero vows to get to the bottom of this heinous crime. When she learns that the murders are to be covered up, and her father, Lord Jarvis, seems to be at the bottom of it, she is forced to call upon Sebastian St Cyr to come to her aid. While they do not like each other, they recognize each other’s talents and form an unlikely alliance to solve the mystery.
1866 Oxford is the setting for our next tale. A widow is frantic because her son is missing in The September Society by Charles Finch. Charles Lennox is the detective charged with unraveling the strange clues left in the wake of George’s disappearance from his Oxford room. One of the clues, A card with the words “The September Society” written on it is a mystery in itself. What is this society and how is it involved in this murder? A well rounded lead character and lovely plot progression keeps you intrigued from the start.
Move forward in time to Victorian England and A Curious Beginning by Deanna Rayburn. 1887 is the setting of this fascinating story of murder and intrigue involving an orphaned young adventuress. Veronica has traveled the world hunting butterflies and collecting men. When someone tries to abduct her, she is thrown together with a bad tempered natural historian named Bram Stoker. They must work together to discover the secret of her parentage and why people are trying to kill her and frame Stoker.
David Dickinson brings us a British historical novel orbiting around the wine industry in 1907 England. Death of a Wine Merchant is one of a series of mysteries Dickenson has written about Lord Frances Powercourt and it brings the reader some interesting perspective on the wine snobbery and subterfuge during that period. The opening murder takes place in a locked room at a wedding and the unfortunate victim is the father of the groom. The victim’s brother, Cosmo, is found beside the body with a smoking gun in his hand but refuses to say an word, leaving Powercourt to unravel this mystery with very little help. The courtroom drama adds to the flare of this English mystery.
The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester is my favorite on this long list of UK treats. Suffragettes are on the march in 1912 London and a trapeze artist who had previously crashed a political rally at Prince Albert Hall has suddenly vanished. Frankie George is a Fleet Street reporter looking to get a good story that will gain her some respect in the male dominate newspaper world. She teams up with detective Frederick Primrose to investigate a secret society called the Hourglass Factory. This mystery covers the newsroom, politics, high society drawing rooms and the prison system of this era. Like all good books it led me to explore its subject matter further and I began to read more about the suffragette movement in England. It is a fascinating subject that I knew very little about previously.
Now we have made it up to today’s London and Robert Bryndza’s The Girl in the Ice. This is a real thriller that opens with a young woman’s body found frozen in water. Erika Foster is a hot headed detective new to the area. She is still recovering from a profound personal loss and is thrown into a high profile case that sets her teeth on edge. When the body proves to be a socialite found in an unsavory area of London, there is sure to be a scandal to follow. With the murder victim’s family uncooperative and a new police team that she doesn’t know, the odds are stacked against Erika. Will she prevail? Read this modern thriller to find out.
So take a walk through time and space with this foray into British mysteries and thrillers now that the kids are back in school and learn a little history in the process.