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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Crime & mystery > Historical mysteries
Benjamin January investigates the murder of a 'conductor' of the
Underground Railway, helping slaves to freedom. Benjamin January is
called up to Vicksburg, deep in cotton-plantation country, to help
a wounded "conductor" of the Underground Railroad - the secret
network of safe-houses that guide escaping slaves to freedom. When
the chief "conductor" of the "station" is found murdered, Jubal
Cain - the coordinator of the whole Railroad system in Mississippi
- is accused of the crime. Since Cain can't expose the nature of
his involvement in the railroad, January has to step in and find
the true killer, before their covers are blown. As January probes
into the murky labyrinth of slaves, slave-holders, the fugitives
who follow the "drinking gourd" north to freedom and those who help
them on their way, he discovers that there is more to the situation
than meets the eye, and that sometimes there are no easy answers.
First published in 1923, Jim Hanvey, Detective is a collection of
seven stories that originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post
and features private eye Jim Hanvey in classic whodunit style
mysteries. Described as the "backwoods Nero Wolfe," the genial
Hanvey befriends "good guys" and criminals alike to get the job
done. Bank robberies, jewel heists, and all-purposes cons-none are
a match for Octavus Roy Cohen's waddling sleuth.
London, 1921. Prominent Cabinet minister Lord Amersham has been
shot dead outside his Regents Park home, two bullets to the chest
and one to the forehead. The killing bears the hallmarks of a
professional hit. Tackling one of the most high-profile cases
Scotland Yard has ever faced, DCI Paul Stark is under pressure to
produce a quick result. Amersham's colleague, Secretary of State
for the Colonies Winston Churchill, is convinced the Bolsheviks are
responsible. Stark's colleagues at Special Branch believe there's a
connection to the Government talks taking place over Irish Home
Rule. Or could the motive be connected to Lord Amersham's
scandalous private life? Then there is a second murder, once again
committed by an expert marksman at close range - and the case takes
a terrifying new twist . . .
'I was seduced from John Grey's first scene' Ann Cleeves Duke's
Company actress Kitty Burgess has a stunning future before her -
until she vanishes after the opening performance of Aminta Grey's
new play, The Summer Birdcage. One of her fellow actors swears he
saw her being bundled into a black coach driven by six black horses
outside the theatre. Then no more is heard of her - until the body
of a young woman is found dead beside the road in Hertfordshire. It
appears to be Kitty, so Aminta and her husband Sir John Grey,
travel to Bishop's Stortford to identify her. The girl has been so
badly beaten it is impossible to tell who she is, but there are
three clues - the dress she is wearing, a ring and a copy of the
script of Aminta's play, left (perhaps a little too conveniently)
in the victim's hands. Back in London Aminta catches sight of a
young woman who looks exactly like Kitty but before she can do
anything, the woman runs off and is lost in the crowd. Meanwhile,
rumours abound at court that Kitty was about to become the king's
new mistress and all fingers are being pointed at Lady Castlemaine
for having arranged for her rival to be spirited away and killed.
And now John Grey finds that is no longer just his wife who is
determined to prove Kitty Burgess is alive. It would seem her
disappearance - and possible reappearance - is part of some much
wider conspiracy, and that Kitty may be about to play the most
dangerous, and possibly deadly, role of her life. A role from which
there may be no escape ... Praise for L.C. Tyler 'Len Tyler writes
with great charm and wit . . . made me laugh out loud' Susanna
Gregory 'Tyler juggles his characters, story, wit and clever one
liners with perfect balance' The Times 'A dizzying whirl of plot
and counterplot' Guardian 'Unusually accomplished' Helen Dunmore 'A
cracking pace, lively dialogue, wickedly witty one-liners salted
with sophistication . . . Why would we not want more of John Grey?'
The Bookbag
A Victorian mystery featuring private investigator Liberty Lane
September, 1840. Novelist and patron of the arts Lady Blessington
has hired Liberty Lane to escort a French gentleman to The Hague.
For he has in his possession important papers that will assist in
the forthcoming trial of Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the late
emperor's nephew who has failed in an attempt to seize power in
France. Plans for the undercover expedition are disrupted however
when a body is found hanging in the attic at Gore House, Lady
Blessington's Kensington mansion. Uncovering evidence that the
murder was meticulously prepared for and planned well in advance,
Liberty determines to track down the killer. But she is about to
find herself plunged into a highly dangerous game involving
blackmail, treachery, espionage - and cold-blooded murder.
Shortlisted for the 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize and
longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger 2021. 'An impressive and
immersive debut set in a beautifully realized sixteenth-century
Florence' Antonia Hodgson 'A first-class historical thriller . . .
Bishop's spirited and richly detailed story is a tour-de-force'
David Baldacci 'Richly atmospheric . . . transports you to another
time and place' Ambrose Parry, author of The Way of All Flesh City
of Vengeance is an explosive debut novel in an historical thriller
series by D. V. Bishop, set in Renaissance Florence, which
continues with The Darkest Sin. Florence. Winter, 1536. A prominent
Jewish moneylender is murdered in his home, a death with wide
implications in a city powered by immense wealth. Cesare Aldo, a
former soldier and now an officer of the Renaissance city's most
feared criminal court, is given four days to solve the murder:
catch the killer before the feast of Epiphany - or suffer the
consequences. During his investigations Aldo uncovers a plot to
overthrow the volatile ruler of Florence, Alessandro de' Medici. If
the Duke falls, it will endanger the whole city. But a rival
officer of the court is determined to expose details about Aldo's
private life that could lead to his ruin. Can Aldo stop the
conspiracy before anyone else dies, or will his own secrets destroy
him first?
MEET DETECTIVE GEREON RATH IN THE BOOKS THAT INSPIRED THE HIT TV
SERIES BABYLON BERLIN 'A first-rate historical thriller and Gereon
Rath is one of the most intriguing detectives in fiction.' - Paul
Burke, NB Magazine Berlin, 1932: A drowned man is found in a
freight elevator, miles from any standing water. How did he get
there? A series of murders by drowning has shocked Berlin.
Inspector Gereon Rath's hunt for the killer has stalled, and his
personal life is as turbulent as ever. His fiancee, Charly, has at
last started her probationary year with Berlin CID, experiencing
all the challenges of working in a male-dominated police force.
When Rath's work on the case of the drowned man sweeps him away to
a remote village on the Polish border, his investigation clashes
with local myths and the growing power of the Nazi party. As he
puts the pieces of the puzzle together, Rath begins to wonder if he
has a serial killer on his hands. Can he catch the killer before
another victim is claimed? About the Gereon Rath Mysteries 1930s
Berlin is a hotbed of vice and organised crime. When Inspector
Gereon Rath leaves Cologne to join Berlin's murder squad, he cannot
begin to imagine the brutality and complexity of the world he is
stepping into as communists and Nazis struggle for power.
A post-mortem photographer unearths dark secrets from the past that
may hold the key to his future in this "sensual, twisting gothic
tale...in the tradition of A.S. Byatt's Possession, Diane
Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering
Heights" (BookPage).All love stories are ghost stories in disguise.
"This one happily succeeds at both" (Kirkus Reviews, starred
review). When famed Byronesque poet Hugh de Bonne is discovered
dead in his bath one morning, his cousin Robert Highstead, a
post-mortem photographer, is charged with a simple task: transport
Hugh's remains for burial in a chapel. This chapel, a stained-glass
folly set on the moors, was built by de Bonne sixteen years earlier
to house the remains of his beloved wife and muse, Ada. Since then,
the chapel has been locked and abandoned, a pilgrimage site for the
rabid fans of de Bonne's last book, The Lost History of Dreams.
However, Ada's grief-stricken niece refuses to open the glass
chapel for Robert unless he agrees to her bargain: before he can
lay Hugh to rest, Robert must record Isabelle's story of Ada and
Hugh's ill-fated marriage over the course of five nights. As the
mystery of Ada and Hugh's relationship unfolds, so too does the
secret behind Robert's own marriage--including that of his fragile
wife, Sida, who has not been the same since a tragic accident three
years earlier and the origins of his morbid profession that has him
seeing things he shouldn't...things from beyond the grave. Blurring
the line between the past and the present, truth and fiction, and
ultimately, life and death, The Lost History of Dreams is "a
surrealist, haunting tale of suspense where every prediction turns
out to be merely a step toward a bigger reveal" (Booklist).
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