Mystery*File: A 1001 Midnights Review: MICHAEL GILBERT – Game Without Rules

 Mystery*File: A 1001 Midnights Review: MICHAEL GILBERT – Game Without Rules

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Parting Breath: Catherine Aird

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Parting Breath: Catherine Aird: Parting Breath is an academic mystery set in Catherine Aird's fictional county of Calleshire, England; it features Detective Inspector ...

Mystery Fanfare: McDonald & Dodds News!

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Aubrey's Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Witching Hour by Catriona McPherson

The sixteenth book in the Dandy Gilver historical mystery series by Catriona McPherson is scheduled for release in the UK on 2 May 2024 and in the US on 3 September 2024. I had the great good fortune to receive an advance copy of the story so I don’t have to wait until September.

The series began shortly after the end of World War I in 1922, with Dandy the epitome of a bored housewife, and has progressed chronologically through the social and economic upheaval of the interwar years. The Witching Hour (Hodder & Stoughton/Mobius) takes place in spring of 1939, with a second war imminent, to the great fear of Dandy whose two sons are now the right age to be called up.

Hugh Gilver’s 60^th birthday was being observed with all the pomp it deserved. The family and close friends were gathered for an enormous feast and the family cook had done herself proud. Of especial interest to Dandy is the guest her younger son had invited. To all appearances Dandy was to acquire a second daughter-in-law. Dandy’s close friend Daisy Esslemont was there alone, her husband Silas had pleaded a previous unbreakable engagement, and Daisy was peeved about it. Silas has a long history of philandering and Daisy has tolerated much from her sadly deficient husband.

In the night the telephone unexpectedly rang. The police in a remote village are looking for Daisy. Silas has been found dead, and they think Daisy has killed him. Dandy is happy to advise them Daisy was sound asleep in Dandy’s guest bedroom. But on inquiry, Dandy learns both Daisy and Dandy’s automobile are gone. She and Alec Osborne, Dandy’s investigative partner, tear off to the village where Silas was found and hope that Daisy is not there.

The village turns out to be an odd little place with hints of otherworldliness and witchcraft. No one is especially helpful but Dandy is desperate to clear Daisy and Alec, who had his own reasons for disliking Silas, is up for the challenge.

I am once again reminded that this series is not cozy, despite blurbs that say otherwise. Inevitably there are serious underlying issues at play in each book, even if perhaps the overall premise is lighthearted and improbable. The UK is facing the advent of war once again, and this time Dandy knows she may lose her sons. The memory of the earlier war is all too clear and her entire generation is devastated at the thought of a repetition. Dandy also has the opportunity to review her very fortunate marriage compared to that of her friend Daisy. While Hugh is boring, he is also kind and would never humiliate her the way Silas mistreated Daisy. The contrast emphasizes how little freedom women had then to improve their circumstances. A bad marriage was something to be borne, not discarded.

The resolution was entirely reasonable, considering the life that Silas led, but I found the fact so many others suffered from his thoughtlessness deeply sad.

For fans of social history the bits about proper dinner table and drawing room behavior are fascinating. The conversation between Dandy and Hugh about their potential new daughter-in-law reveal the conventions about appropriate marriages in the landed gentry and just how much those conventions had changed.

A fine addition to a solid historical series. Recommended.

 

 

·         Publisher: ‎Mobius (September 3, 2024)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1399720392

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1399720397

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4dfrw6s

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024

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

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Christmas Reading Beyond A Christmas Carol and A Visit From St. Nicholas

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Bitter Tea and Mystery: Colonel Butler's Wolf: Anthony Price

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Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson

Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson (William Morrow, 2013) is the 20^th contemporary UK police procedural featuring Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks in a layered and complicated story of a missing girl, a murdered cop, and human trafficking.

A crossbow is not a common murder weapon, yet that’s what was used to kill DI Bill Quinn at St. Peter’s Police Convalescence and Treatment Center, an isolated privately run in-patient facility for police personnel. Because the victim was a police officer, Professional Services is assigned to monitor the investigation to determine if the motive for the murder affected, or was the result of, his casework in some way. Banks resents being assigned an unofficial supervisor and is quickly at odds with his new team member.

Quinn was a recent widower and both of his children are away at college, leaving no reason to believe something in his personal life prompted his murder. No clues at the scene or at Quinn’s home or office leave Banks drawing a blank. Sifting through his casework Banks keeps coming back to the disappearance of an English girl on holiday in eastern Europe six years earlier.  Quinn was part of the original investigating team and visited the city where the missing girl was last seen. Banks can’t find concrete evidence that the two events are linked but nothing else seems to provide a semblance of a motive.

In the meantime his usual sidekick DI Annie Cabot, who recently completed a lengthy recovery from injuries sustained during her last case, begins working on what turns out to be a wide-ranging case of human trafficking and forced immigrant labor that covers most of northern England.

Robinson manages to keep this series fresh, partly by using plots from current events. Human trafficking is receiving significant attention by the authorities in the western world, who are trying to limit it and the damage it does. Likewise, the disappearance of girls on vacation overseas has filled the news headlines far too often in the past 20 years.

Although this is a long-running thread of stories, I have read the books out of order or skipped some altogether and don’t have any trouble in following the personal and professional lives of the main characters. A strong entry in a strong series.

·         Hardcover: 368 pages

·         Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (January 8, 2013)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 9780062004802

·         ISBN-13: 978-0062004802

Aubrey Hamilton ©2018

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