Category: British mysteries

  • A gift for mystery lovers: Hercule Poirot, on the case

    HERCULE POIROT’S SILENT NIGHT.  By Sophie Hannah. William Morrow. 362 pages. $30. Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson Yes, that’s right. Just in time for Christmas, there’s a new mystery out starring Agatha Christie’s inimitable Hercule Poirot, the eccentric, dandified little Belgian detective with the egg-shaped head, turned-up moustache and busy “little grey cells” that solve…

  • Flag waving, patriotism and spies

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE HOLLYWOOD SPY: A Maggie Hope Mystery. By Susan Elia MacNeal. Bantam. 352 pages. $27. If you believe the inspiring old stories about how patriotism united America during World War II, Susan Elia MacNeal’s latest Maggie Hope suspense novel will be an eye-opener. When we last spent time with Maggie,…

  • The ticking bombs…

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE KING’S JUSTICE. By Susan Elia MacNeal. Bantam Books. $17, paperback. Over the course of eight previous novels, Maggie Hope has been an assistant to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a code breaker, a spy, a prisoner…. She’s come way too close for comfort to a serial killer trying to emulate…

  • Business as usual – or is it?

    Thanks to Bob Moyer, here’s another British detective novel series I’ll have to try.  Hmm, I see it’s been a TV series too.  Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer MANY RIVERS TO CROSS: A DCI Banks Novel. By Peter Robinson. William Morrow. 336 pages. $28.99. In the beginning, a young Syrian boy is found stuffed in a garbage bin.  In the end —…

  • Flavia on the case(s)

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE GOLDEN TRESSES OF THE DEAD. By Alan Bradley. Random House Audio. Read by Jayne Entwistle. 9 hours; 7 CDs. $35. Also available in print from Delacorte Press, 323 pages. $26. A new novel starring Flavia de Luce, the precocious young English girl who uses her extensive knowledge of chemistry…

  • There’s nothing like a murder to make life worth living

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE GRAVE’S A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE. By Alan Bradley. Random House Audio. Read by Jayne Entwistle. 10 hours; 8 CDs. $35. Also available in print from Delacorte Press. 363 pages. $26. Things are grim in Flavia de Luce’s world. A few months earlier, her father died unexpectedly, leaving Flavia…

  • No. 20: Inspector Rutledge, at his best

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE GATE KEEPER. By Charles Todd. William Morrow. 306 pages. $26.99. It’s hard to believe that The Gate Keeper is the 20th entry in Charles Todd’s mystery series starring Inspector Ian Rutledge, a British World War I veteran who’s now a Scotland Yard detective. But A Test of Wills, the debut novel,…

  • What the tide brings

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson BRYANT & MAY: STRANGE TIDE. By Christopher Fowler. Bantam. 436 pages. $27               Confession: I was so despondent upon finishing Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May and the Burning Man last year that I never wrote the review. Something terrible had happened to Arthur Bryant,…

  • “Jack is back,” and fortunately, so is Maggie Hope

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE QUEEN’S ACCOMPLICE. By Susan Elia MacNeal. Read by Susan Duerden. Books on Tape. 10 ½ hours; 9 CDs. Also available in paperback from Bantam Books, $16. Maggie Hope, intrepid spy, code-breaker and all-around spunky young woman, is at it again, in the thick of World War II action and…

  • Flavia, unbanished

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THRICE THE BRINDED CAT HATH MEW’D. By Alan Bradley. Read by Jayne Entwistle. Random House Audio. 9 hours; 7 CDs. Hardback print edition form Delacorte Press. 331 pages. $26. It’s happy days for the many fans of Flavia DeLuce, the 12-year-old sleuth and chemist. After a brief “banishment” to a…