Fiona Veitch Smith explains how period guidebooks and maps help her write 1920s & 30s murder mysteries. The next, The Pyramid Murders, comes out on 13 June. “The Pyramids – The indispensable excursion on the outskirts of Cairo is that to the Pyramids. There is an excellent tram service, and many people will find that […]
A Nest of Vipers by Harini Nagendra
When Edward, Prince of Wales, begins a tour of a number of Indian cities in 1921, he encounters passionate crowds demanding independence from Britain, with rioting on the streets of Bombay in November. The mood of the prince’s subsequent trip to Bangalore and Mysore in January 1922 appears, at first glance, very different and is […]
Magic versus jadoo in 1920s British Colonial India
Harini Nagendra writes about the street magicians of India and how these performers of jadoo fascinated Westerners, who copied their ‘tricks’ unashamedly. But the jadoogars, unlike some of their cobras, still had fangs. Growing up in India in the 1970s, I read widely, but was especially fascinated by books that featured animals, and magic. Enid […]
Queen of Diamonds by Beezy Marsh
London, 1922. Orphan girl Alice dreams there’s more to life than toiling long hours in Pink’s jam factory. Inspired by stories about the legendary Queen of Thieves, Mary Carr, who terrorised the streets of Victorian London, Alice decides to set up her own gang: The Forty Thieves. Sly seamstress Kate Felix from Whitechapel has the […]
The Pantomime Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith
December, 1929. Snow is falling, and Miss Clara Vale is wrapped up against the cold as she braves the icy streets of Newcastle in her latest investigation. When a young actress from the touring pantomime of Cinderella arrives at her door, Clara isn’t sure what to make of her request. Sybil Langford, the legendary fairy […]
Murder under a Red Moon by Harini Nagendra
When new bride Kaveri Murthy reluctantly agrees to investigate a minor crime during the blood moon eclipse to please her domineering mother-in-law, she doesn’t expect to stumble upon a murder — again. With anti-British sentiments on the rise, a charismatic religious leader growing in influence, and the fight for women’s suffrage gaining steam, Bangalore is […]
The Winter Guest by WC Ryan
January 1921, and though the Great War is over, in Ireland a new, civil war is raging. The once-grand Kilcolgan House, a crumbling bastion shrouded in sea-mist, lies half empty and filled with ghosts — both real and imagined — the Prendevilles, the noble family within, co-existing only as the balance of their secrets is […]
The Manhattan Girls by Gill Paul
New York City, 1921. An impossible dream. The war is over, the Twenties are roaring, but in the depths of the city that never sleeps, Dorothy Parker is struggling to make her mark in a man’s world. A broken woman. She’s penniless, she’s unemployed and her marriage is on the rocks when she starts a […]