To mark this week’s 85th anniversary of the 1939 International Rover Scout Moot at Monzie, Rob McInroy, whose latest novel is set against this huge gathering, looks back on a celebration of worldwide friendship just weeks before the Second World War broke out — causing many of these young men to end up fighting on […]
The Paris Muse by Louisa Treger
Paris, 1936, and when Dora Maar, a talented French photographer, painter and poet, is introduced to Pablo Picasso, she is mesmerized by his dark and intense stare. Drawn to his volcanic creativity, it isn’t long before she embarks on a passionate relationship with the Spanish artist that sometimes includes sadism and masochism and ultimately pushes […]
The Stranger’s Companion by Mary Horlock
October 1933, and with a population of five hundred souls, isolated Sark has a reputation for being ‘the island where nothing ever happens’. Until, one day, the neatly folded clothes of an unknown man and woman are discovered abandoned at a coastal beauty spot. As the search for the missing couple catches the attention of […]
The Sark riddle of 1933
‘Island riddle’ said the headline in October, 1933, reporting the mysterious disappearance of a man and a woman on the Channel Island of Sark. The case gripped people around the UK. And, around 90 years later, the author Mary Horlock was intrigued, too. She writes about the background to her latest novel, The Stranger’s Companion. […]
The Pyramid Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith
1930: Miss Clara Vale, chemistry major turned detective, is taking a night off from sleuthing to attend the launch party of a new exhibition at the Hancock Museum in Newcastle. But when the piece de resistance, a rare ornate sarcophagus, is finally opened and it turns out the mummy inside it is a fake it […]
How period guidebooks and maps help me write murder mysteries
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 […]
Every Spy A Traitor by Alex Gerlis
It’s 1937. Fear and suspicion stalk the Continent. A million have died in Stalin’s Great Purge and the Nazi terror grips Germany. But British intelligence is still trying to work out who the enemy is. As Europe heads towards war, treason is in the air. British spymasters know there is one Soviet agent in their […]
Munich Wolf by Rory Clements
In 1935 Munich is a magnet for young, aristocratic Britons who come to learn German, swim in the lakes and drink beer in the cellars. What they don’t see — or choose to ignore — is the brutal underbelly of the Nazi movement which considers Munich its spiritual home. When a high-born English girl is […]