Barbara Clark

The early to mid-20th century is a popular setting in the world of detective fiction, touching as it does on the cataclysmic changes underway on the brink of the modern era. The London atmosphere of Elegy for Eddie, the ninth novel in Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series, perfectly evokes these changes, as the new is rapidly replacing the old. Workhorses are just about replaced by motorcars and delivery trucks; assembly-line workers replace mom-and-pop entrepreneurs; airplanes attract attention as they fly overhead; and labor unions and feminists are assembling their forces. Behind it all, a major conflict with Germany looms. 

Private inquiry agent Maisie Dobbs tries to stay abreast of the changes as she works out of her small London investigative office. She responds to a plea from a group of street peddlers—old friends from her father’s era—who are distraught over the death of Eddie Pettit, a well-known character among the city’s street sellers and hawkers. Eddie, a man whom today we might call mentally challenged, had a willing disposition and a gift for diagnosing exactly what an ailing horse needed. He could communicate with the equine population better than anyone else around. As the use of workhorses waned, Eddie took on other projects as he found them, and one such job proved to be his undoing. Maisie sets out to show that the “accident” was really murder and discover why a gentle, somewhat simple man could have become the victim of such a brutal crime.

Thus, Maisie steps into a mess of prewar political intrigue and danger. Readers may find the protagonist excessively nosy or, in today’s terms, obsessive-compulsive. However, her perfectionism and intrusive nature gets soundly challenged by friends and acquaintances as the story progresses; from the sound of it, Maisie may start questioning her need to be in control and relaxing a bit in future installments of this series. Throughout the book, she tries her best to avoid making a commitment to the man who loves her. But there’s a cool breeze blowing at the end of the novel as we see Maisie and her sometimes-lover, James, relaxing at Sam’s café, enjoying an ice cream cone. This may signal good news for fans of these popular books.

It always seems to be dark out or raining in Nicci French’s thriller, appropriately named Blue Monday, the first in a new series featuring Frieda Klein, a loner psychotherapist who, we’re quick to find out, needs her space.

Ambiance and setting ring large in this sometimes terrifying tale. Not the least of the drama is the contrast in moods between the drab London streets and the warm, cozy atmosphere that Frieda creates for herself and her patients. In her solitary apartment, there’s always a comfy couch, a book waiting in the lamplight and a fire ready to be lit to dispel the gloom. Bedraggled patients always get to dry off and warm up, and Frieda’s cool distance and willingness to listen all but compel them to disgorge their secrets and complaints.

When five-year-old Matthew goes missing, it doesn’t take long before the strange circumstances of the abduction reach back and connect to a similar tragedy—the kidnapping of a young girl 25 years earlier. To make matters worse, one of Frieda’s patients is describing ferocious, odd dreams involving a young boy who, in the patient’s description, is remarkably similar to the kidnapped Matthew. Frieda’s tidy and solitary world turns upside down as her concerns about her patient’s dreams worm their way into her mind and force her to move out of her cozy circle of calm. She reports her worries to authorities and eventually joins a gritty, purposeful London police inspector in a race to find the child and trap a kidnapper.

This twisted, ferocious story tangles around the reader, pitting a controlled, predictable world against one of darkness, paranoia and the passions of characters who can’t escape their pasts or vanities. Flawed and unforgettable characters move throughout these pages, going about their lives, stuck in their own vulnerabilities but still struggling to have their voices heard.

Readers looking for a magical cure-all may be surprised when the pages disclose not-so-sunny twists. Still, a Christmas celebration like you’ve never seen, peopled with the odd and fragmented people of Frieda’s newly expanding world, offers an emotional and satisfying scene as the book winds down. Suspenseful writing and marvelous descriptions make this series one to follow and Blue Monday an addictive read.

Books come and go, and mysteries are prolific in the fiction category—but some stand out above the others. There’s nothing quite like a suspenseful tale well told.

Stephen Gallagher’s The Bedlam Detective is his second book to feature Sebastian Becker (after The Kingdom of Bones), an investigator for the Crown who is charged with discovering who among the affluent population may be deemed insane and therefore unable to manage their own affairs. It is 1912 in England, and Becker arrives in the village of Arnmouth to visit Sir Owain Lancaster’s estate and determine whether the once-rich landowner may be responsible for the murder of two young girls who were found dead on his estate grounds.

Sir Owain is the number-one suspect, possibly guilty of both madness and murder. His personal journals tell a creepy tale that winds throughout the story, describing dragons and monsters that he claims pursued him during an adventure into the Amazon some years back, when nearly everyone in his party was murdered, including his own wife and son. He still sees beasts no one else can see and says they have committed the recent murders.

For those who love a tale of phantoms, this engrossing book has it all. One can sense terror hiding in a derelict country cottage in Arnmouth or lurking on the mist-shrouded streets of London. Each character is vividly drawn here, including Evangeline, an energetic young suffragette, and her childhood friend, Lucy. Both girls were past victims of the mysterious killer, who left them both for dead—although they are still very much alive. Becker, too, is beset by demons of his own. He must survive a personal tragedy that leaves him to cope with straitened financial circumstances as well as the future of his troubled but brilliant young son.

Throughout The Bedlam Detective, sanity and madness are intertwined and the line between truth and fantasy is paper-thin. Near the book’s end, readers are treated to a hair-raising hallucinatory trip in which butterfly specimens come alive in glass cases; the eyes of a stone carving move; and ghosts speak. Filled with precise yet haunting prose, The Bedlam Detective will shock and sustain readers, keeping them on the edge of their seats.

Author Tessa Harris is sure to garner a host of followers for her new mystery series featuring Dr. Thomas Silkstone, anatomist and forensic detective. The Anatomist’s Apprentice opens at a time in late 18th-century England when many scientists pioneering in the new fields of dissection and anatomy have become fascinated by the field’s forensic possibilities and are increasingly being called to crime scenes to help determine cause of death in possible cases of murder.

Against this historical backdrop, Dr. Silkstone finds himself drawn away from his laboratory and classroom to assist in exhuming and examining a corpse at the request of the victim’s sister Lydia, who fears that Lord Edward Crick may have been murdered. Even more shockingly, she secretly fears the perpetrator may have been her own husband. Silkstone must isolate and identify the substances present in the victim’s body. He also must identify the people who had the means and motive to ensure that Edward would breathe his last breath at their secret behest.

When Silkstone falls in love with Lydia, he finds no solace when her husband, Captain Farrell, is arrested for the murder: He believes the man to be innocent. He must carefully investigate all those with close connections to the murdered man, including Lady Crick, Lydia’s weak-minded mother; the maidservant, Hannah Lovelock, whose own daughter has recently died tragically; Lord Edward’s cousin, Francis Crick, once a suitor to Lydia; and Captain Farrell’s own lawyer, James Lavington, a longtime tenant on the estate with an agenda of his own.

The descriptions in The Anatomist’s Apprentice will boggle readers’ minds: There are shelves of flasks, flagons, bottles, jars and other containers of herbs, leaves, oils, creams, lotions, plants, fungi and odd-smelling roots. These tools are the sort cultivated and understood not only by doctors and scientists, but by farmers and plainspoken folk who use them routinely—and sometimes not so routinely—in their daily lives.

Difficult as it is to imagine that men were attracted to women as seemingly useless and docile as Lady Crick, this is a novel of its time, and Dr. Silkstone must work through his own horrible suspicions as he seeks to protect Lydia while proving her husband’s innocence. Tricks, twists and turns prevail throughout the story. The author’s detailed research on the historical era pays off handsomely in this engrossing, lively and satisfying series debut.