Jun 26, 2014
Visit Ancient Rome and the nastier outposts of the Roman Empire in the company of Marcus Didius Falco, private detective and lovable put-upon family man, in the excellent novels by Lindsey Davis. For a bonus weekend break, try The Course of Honour for her terrific novel of a secretary's view of Caligula's rule, while...
Nov 22, 2013
Secrets and politics and multiple kidnappings at the League of Nations, and some pointed messages about early feminism. Rose Macaulay's Mystery at Geneva is a fine satirical novel in the mystery mode. (NB this version replaces the inadvertently gigantic version...
Jun 20, 2013
Trent's Last Case is a very modern Edwardian detective novel, with a Bohemian setting, the police in a cosy relationship with the media, and a cracking good mystery to solve ahead of the artist-journalist-detective hero.
Nov 16, 2012
Come to London clubland in 1923, and follow Richard Hannay on the trail of a riddling rhyme and secret plots to overthrow civilisation as we know it. In John Buchan's The Three Hostages, human evil battles with the manners of the gentleman's club, and north London is revealed as a den of criminality and sin. For those...
Mar 9, 2012
In the middle of the Second World War, Lady Carados found a dead woman in her son's bed, so she decided to move it somewhere else, which is why Albert Campion got involved because the body ended up in his bed instead. In Margery Allingham's Coroner's Pidgin, Campion is struggling with sleep deprivation, the blackout,...