Meet Peter Maxwell: film buff, golden-hearted cynic, bow-tied eccentric teacher . . . and reluctant amateur sleuth.
When Peter Maxwell’s history club meeting sparks a deadly explosion,
leaving a charred body behind, the police suspect Maxwell was the intended target.
Then a hit-and-run attempt leaves Maxwell in no doubt. Someone wants
him dead — but why?
Now his neighbour, Mrs. B, is abducted — and Maxwell uncovers a chilling truth — someone is using his history lessons as a call to violence.
As the arsonist closes in on his next target, can Maxwell stop a deadly campaign of vengeance?
Or will history repeat itself once more…
M J Trow (the ‘M’ as most people know by now stands for Meirion, a Welsh name few can manage, so he writes as M J, is known by all and sundry as Mei, rhyming with ‘my’) has been writing for many years, with his first book – The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade – being published in 1984 by Macmillan.
More Lestrades followed and then some true crime and somehow it all snowballed so now he has many historical biographies and three other crime series (Maxwell, Marlowe and Grand and Batchelor, the latter two written with his wife, writing as Maryanne Coleman, though her name is
Carol, actually!) to his credit.
He claims to be retired, but that’s just from teaching. In fact he has never been busier and is a sought after ‘ghost’ these days as well as historian and novelist, with many different subjects’ stories having been told
through him. He has recently started collaborating on fiction projects (with
someone other than his wife, that is) and finds it a really exciting and pleasurable experience.To relax he … actually, that’s a bit tricky, as he doesn’t really ever relax.
He has been known to garden, he is a keen cook and artist and likes to travel. This is rather easier these days as he is a popular speaker on cruise ships – in fact his profile picture was taken on a very gusty day in
Cape Town, setting off on a long voyage home to Southampton through some of the scariest seas he and his wife have had the pleasure to meet!
It really was the calm before the storm, despite being a Force 9 just leaving the Bay.
My thoughts: Maxwell seems to have upset someone so badly this time they want him dead!
Forced by the terrifying headteacher of his son’s school into speaking at her history club, there then follows both several complaints about him, a house gets blown up (not his, but one mistaken for his), another gets set on fire and someone tries to run him over with a car.
The police can’t work out why a history teacher has provoked such rage and violence, but as there’s at least one dead body so far, they’d rather it stopped. Obviously Maxwell feels the same.
Luckily, with a bit of help from him, the police soon have it all sorted out, poison pen letters, and murderous history fan, but sadly not without another loss. And Mrs B getting kidnapped.
Bits of this book are laugh out loud funny, and I very much enjoy Maxwell’s conversations with the Count and the Chancellor (his cats) as well as the genuine love between the members of his family.
The resolution is a bit of a shock, as are the motivations behind it, and may even have Maxwell deciding against speaking at another history club meeting.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 