Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: A Murder for Miss Hortense: A Mystery by Mel Penner

A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Penner (Pantheon, June 2025) is the first mystery in what apparently will be a series that features Jamaican immigrant Miss Hortense. Penner is an award-winning playwright who was born in London, where she was raised by an extended family which included her Jamaican grandparents who moved to England in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation. The Windrush generation refers to individuals who migrated to the UK from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1971, invited by the Commonwealth to help rebuild Britain after World War II. It’s clear that much of the story’s authenticity comes from her grandparents’ immigrant experience.

The story starts a few days after the death of Constance Brown, a social antagonist of Miss Hortense. A dead man is found in her house weeks later, a stranger in the close-knit Jamaican community of Bigglesworth. Flashbacks slowly reveal the history of the community, how they collectively defended themselves against the long-term residents who resented the immigrants. One very sore point was banking, as traditional banks denied them access to services. Miss Hortense took the lead in establishing the Pardner, a group of eight members who contributed £5 each week to a communal fund, and one member took the collected money each week. Thus, every 8 weeks each member received £40 or £240 in a year. In 1965 it had the buying power of nearly $5500 in 2025.

Another function of The Pardner was to investigate crimes against their community, as the British police refused to take them seriously. Miss Hortense proved herself an able detective but during the course of one investigation, a member of the Jamaican community died. Miss Hortense was held responsible and was removed from the Pardner. Constance took her place, as she had been anxious to do.

Despite her semi-ostracization Miss Hortense continued to live in the house she saved her Pardner money to buy and to work as a nurse in a suburb of Birmingham until she retired. Upon the death of Constance and the discovery of the body in Constance’s house, Miss Hortense is pulled back into an earlier Pardner investigation because the community knows they need her more than ever.

The dialog in this book is entirely Jamaican dialect. I had a hard time understanding it in places, others I gathered the meaning from the context. The story line moves back and forth from the early 1960s to the late 1990s, disrupting the flow. The concept is original and interesting but it was a slow read.

Similar to Kia Abdullah’s thrillers which describe the treatment of Middle Eastern immigrants in England.

·         Publisher: ‎Pantheon

·         Publication date: ‎June 10, 2025

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎352 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0593701623

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0593701621

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3TMXzlL

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: M, King's Bodyguard by Niall Leonard

M, King's Bodyguard by Niall Leonard (Pantheon, 2021) is based on the biography of William Melville by Andrew Cook (M: MI5's First Spymaster [Tempus, 2004]) and the autobiography of Gustav Steinhauer (Steinhauer The Kaiser's Master Spy [John Lane, 1930]). Melville was the founder of England’s MI5 and the model for Ian Fleming’s character called M. Steinhauer became the head of the British section of Germany’s Intelligence Service. At the time of this fictionalized account, Melville was head of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch and Steinhauer was the Kaiser's bodyguard.

It is January 1901 and the United Kingdom is undergoing cataclysmic change: Queen Victoria is dying. Ascending to the throne at the age of 18 in 1837, most people could not remember a time when she was not their queen. Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, calls Melville to Osbourne House, where the family is gathered, to enlist his assistance for the arrival of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, Victoria’s grandson and Albert’s nephew. There Melville meets Steinhauer.

Plans for the funeral have been in place for years. Melville’s job is to ensure the anarchists running rampant in Europe do not converge on London and assassinate any of the crowned heads paying their final respects. That many coveted targets in one highly visible location would be irresistible to any dissident worthy of the name, and Melville knows it. When he receives word of a credible plot to kill the Kaiser, his clueless supervisor declines to provide back-up staff so Melville enlists Steinhauer’s support instead. Locating and neutralizing a nameless radical revolutionary proved more challenging than Melville expected. The would-be killer leads Melville and Steinhauer on a chase across London from safe house to safe house, into a high-class bordello, through a muddy river, around the public gasworks, and down subway tunnels.

This fast-moving and action-filled narrative describes the people and the city of 1901 in exquisite detail, conveying authentic sights, sounds, and smells of a place from more than 100 years ago. Leonard certainly did his research; the book has a sense of immediacy I would not have expected in an historical account. I especially liked the description of Melville sailing through the air during an explosion. The writing is wonderful.

Hints of the war to come are evident even in 1901. While Melville is forced to rely on Steinhauer, he never really trusts him, aware of the underlying discord between the new King Edward and the Kaiser. Later on in their lives they become adversaries. The final pages of the book lay the groundwork for Melville’s career in what would become MI5 as well as for a sequel to this very fine historical thriller. I am looking forward to it.

 

·                     Publisher: ‎ Pantheon (July 13, 2021)

·                     Language: ‎ English

·                     Hardcover: ‎ 272 pages

·                     ISBN-10: ‎ 1524749052

·                     ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1524749057

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.