In 1051, a monk of Canterbury Cathedral made a bizarre observation in what would eventually form part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In his chronicling of the year’s events, he described the establishment of a new fortification in Herefordshire by French members of the king’s party. More sophisticated than the typical Saxon burh, the word provided […]
Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England by Annie Whitehead
Many Anglo-Saxon kings are familiar. Æthelred the Unready is one; yet less is written of his wife, who was consort of two kings and championed one of her sons over the others, or of his mother, who was an anointed queen and powerful regent, but was also accused of witchcraft and regicide. A royal abbess […]
The Mannequin House by RN Morris
London, 1914. Called out to investigate the murder of an employee of the House of Brackley, an upmarket Kensington department store, Detective Inspector Silas Quinn finds himself investigating one of the most bizarre cases of his career. For the chief murder suspect is a monkey. One of the store’s fashion models has been found dead […]
Review: The Forgotten by Mary Chamberlain
Sarah Day reviews Mary Chamberlain’s new novel, The Forgotten, a “compelling mystery” set in Berlin in 1945 and London in the late 1950s. Most of us encounter the history of the Second World War at some point in the school curriculum. I remember learning about the rise of Nazism, the horrors of the Holocaust, the […]
Sisterhood by VB Grey
It is 1944 in war-battered London. Freya and Shona are identical twins, close despite their different characters. Freya is a newly qualified doctor treating the injured in an East End hospital, while Shona has been recruited by the SOE. The sisters are so physically alike that they can fool people into thinking that one is […]
Wolf at the Door by Sarah Hawkswood
The body of Durand Wuduweard, the unpopular keeper of the King’s Forest of Feckenham, is discovered beside his hearth, his corpse rendered barely identifiable by sharp teeth. Hushed whispers of a man-wolf spread swiftly and Sheriff William de Beauchamp’s men, Bradecote and Catchpoll, have to find out who killed Durand and why, amidst superstitious villagers, […]
The Honey and the Sting by EC Fremantle
George Villiers is rich, powerful and has the King’s ear. Doctor’s daughter Hester is a mere servant – to be cast aside when he has done with her, especially since she is pregnant. Returning to her family, Hester vows that Villiers will never lay eyes on their son. She and her sisters Melis and Hope […]
The Art of the Assassin by Kevin Sullivan
1899, Glasgow. A man is stabbed to death in a tenement courtyard, and Juan Camarón, photographer-cum-sleuth, is enlisted to assist the police investigation. His innovative photographic method can bring to light what the eye may have overlooked. Yet Juan has problems of his own: his late father’s legacy – a monumental photographic record of the […]