A Pretty Folly and Strangers at the Gate

A Pretty Folly by Charlie Garratt is the second in a series set just prior to the outbreak of war in 1939.  Although there are a couple of mentions to the previous book's mystery, this one works as a stand-alone.  

Inspector James Givens is Jewish, but doesn't practice, although he is very close to his parents.  Assigned to stop the attack on Jewish businesses in Coventry Givens interviews the victims and searches for the perpetrators.  Then a case closer to his home in Kenilworth divides his attention.

The body of a young woman is discovered in the ancient crypt of a chapel on the grounds of a charity school.  The body has been laid out in a staged manner and the conditions of the crypt preserved the body, but who she is and when and how she died presents problems.

I liked the setting with all the tensions of the period before England enters the war and the traditional style of the writing and investigation.  Givens is an interesting character, and I look forward to more in this series.

NetGalley/Sapere Books
Historical Fiction.  Oct. 7, 2019.  Print length:  268 pages. 


Catriona McPherson's books have consistently chilled and intrigued me.  Strangers at the Gate makes the fifth of her intense mystery/thrillers that I've read.  Each one is a stand-alone, which is unusual for such a prolific writer.  

Strangers at the Gate proves the old axiom "Too good to be true."

Paddy's new job results in a new job for Finn, and the rent free gate house on the boss's estate is an added bonus.  Paddy is enthusiastic, Finn less so, but when opportunity knocks, turning down so many advantages proves too difficult.

Simmerton is located in a valley and the mountains that surround it make sunlight brief; combined with the lack of sunlight, Finn is uncomfortable with the oppressive atmosphere of the surrounding woods.  

Shortly after moving in, Paddy and Finn are invited to have dinner with Paddy's boss and his wife.  The Dudgets, Lovett and Tuft, live in a grand dower house called Widdershins, a short walk through the woods from the gate house.  Finn is reluctant to go, but once there, she has a surprisingly good time.  Tuft is irrepressible and funny, and Finn enjoys the evening.  

As Paddy and Finn are walking home after the dinner, Finn realizes she has forgotten her bag.  The two return to find that in the short time they were gone, Lovett and Tuft are dead.  Finn tells Paddy to call the police, but he persuades her to wait until the return to the gate house where they discuss their shock and horror.  We also discover why Paddy would rather not call the police at all and why Finn finally agrees.

As they wait for the deaths to be discovered by someone else, the strain on Finn and Paddy increases.    

Was it a suicide or murder?  The suspense and twists increase when an email from Lovett to his office was after the time Paddy and Finn found the couple dead.  Finn makes some too rapid assumptions about what has happened and there are a few connections that don't feel coherent, but I was glued to the pages until the end ignoring a few details (or lack thereof) that bothered me.  McPherson is a master of suspense, and I was along for the ride.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press
Suspense.  Oct. 22, 2020.  Print length:  368 pages.

Shadows of the Dead by Jim Eldridge

The first book in this series is Assassins (Inspector Spark series), a police procedural set in post WWI London.  I enjoyed Assassins partly because it had me looking up information about Michael Collins, but also because I like the time period.  

In Shadows of the Dead, early hints of fascism in England are beginning to show.  The author brings this forward by 5 or 10 years and gives the group the name British Union of Patriots or the BUP, which is a slight change in title from the group that actually did begin to gain influence in the 1930's under Sir Oswald Mosely, the British Union of Fascists or BUF.  

(The Six:  The Lives of the Mitford Sisters which I read last year gives a great deal of information about the BUF  and Diana Mitford's marriage to Oswald Mosely.) 

The plot begins with the murders of Lord Fairfax and an American visitor.  The American was an undercover American Bureau of Investigation agent who was keeping an eye on an American member of the Ku Klux Klan who was reaching out to fascists.  (I could find no evidence that the Klan reached out to British Fascists in the 1920's, but it would not be inconceivable as they shared many goals.)

DCI Paul Stark, the main character in Assassins, is on the case, but has a number of complications involving family and his lover.  Special Agent Donald Noble arrives from the States and is allowed on the case since one of the victims was not only an American, but a colleague.  

One of the places the story fell down for me is Special Agent Nobles explanation of his hatred of the Ku Klux Klan.  His recounting of a terrible racial incident when he was about 13 feels like a combination of mushy and pedantic. Similar incidents to what Nobles describes happened more often than Americans would like to admit and should never be forgotten, but for some reason this recounting felt more emotionally manipulative than genuine.

The other place where the novel failed for me was the conclusion.  Although it would have been interesting if people had begun to recognize the threat Hitler was becoming as early as 1921--it was not until later that Churchill became almost a lone voice in his concern about German rearmament.  I will avoid giving the spoiler about the event that didn't feel realistic to me.  

So...this could have been a great cautionary tale about the rising nationalism that we are seeing now in so many countries, but the effort had flaws for me.  I didn't like it as well as I liked Assassins, but as with his previous book, Eldridge kept me engaged.

It was amusing to see Noel Coward in a kind of cameo appearance as someone to turn to for theater gossip, but who also had a keen insight into a suspicious character.  

Digression:  Noel Coward, known for his flamboyance and wit, played an important role during WWII.

With the outbreak of the Second World War Coward abandoned the theatre and sought official war work. After running the British propaganda office in Paris, where he concluded that "if the policy of His Majesty's Government is to bore the Germans to death I don't think we have time",^[62] 

Had the Germans invaded Britain, Coward was scheduled to be arrested and killed, as he was in The Black Book along with other figures such as Virginia Woolf, Paul Robeson, Bertrand Russell, C. P. Snow and H. G. Wells. When this came to light after the war, Coward wrote: "If anyone had told me at that time I was high up on the Nazi blacklist, I should have laughed ... I remember Rebecca West, who was one of the many who shared the honour with me, sent me a telegram which read: 'My dear – the people we should have been seen dead with'."^[66]

I hope Mr. Eldridge will add Mr. Coward to his list of characters in his next novel and give him a larger role.

Read in Feb.; blog post scheduled for April 10

NetGalley/Severn House

Historical fiction/Police Procedural.  May 1, 2017.  Print length:  224 pages.

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan and The Superintendent's Daughter by Marjorie Eccles

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer L. Ryan is set in the small English village of Chilbury.  Since the lack of men during the war has had a huge impact on the choir, the decision is made to disband the choir entirely.

Until, that is, the vibrant Primrose Trent arrives and manages to persuade the women to continue the choir without men.  Primrose is actually the most vibrant character, but she gets very little time in the novel.

A bit of romance, family dysfunction, switched babies, spies, and more.  Told through letters and journals--and you had better keep track because sometimes you have to check to see which character is writing.  The midwife's letters are probably the least believable, but she does have a recognizable voice.  


Entertaining, but not The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Read in July; blog review scheduled for Jan. 26, 2017.

NetGalley/Crown Publishing

Historical Fiction.  Feb. 14, 2017.  Print length:  384 pages.

Whew!  I read The Chilbury Ladies' Choir  6 months ago and have had it scheduled since last summer!

Back to more recent books...

I looked for a better cover for The Superintendent's Daughter, but couldn't find one.  This one has little to do with the content.  I have not read any other books in this series, although I read and enjoyed another book by Eccles several years ago.

Registering under the name of Julia Mayo, Kat checks into a country house hotel where she is murdered in short order.  When her body is found, Superintendent Gil Mayo is notified and arrives horrified at the idea.  His fears are dispelled when he discovers that the body is not that of his daughter, but sadly, that of Julia's best friend.

Mayo is excluded from the investigation because he is too close to the situation, but since he is unable to locate his daughter, he proceeds on a separate and parallel search to locate Julia.

The novel begins with a letter from Kat to Julia--and is quite slow.  The information in the letter(s) provides information that will be useful later, but does not intrigue as it was intended.  Nevertheless, the plot does pick up, and Eccles deftly introduces the characters who could be guilty of Kat's murder.  

Sometimes having a number of suspects feels contrived, but the way the suspects are introduced makes each one a genuine possibility, and I suspected each one without ever being confident.

Initially,  I was not even certain whether Kat or Julia was the intended victim.  

Recently republished.

NetGalley/Endeavor Press

Crime/Police Procedural.  1999. Jan. 13, 2017.  Print length:  248 pages.