Tag: blog tour

In a city rebuilding from war, truth can be the most dangerous weapon of all.

Berlin, 1930.
Historian Archie Laverick, scarred mentally and physically by the Great War, travels to Berlin to research a famed Prussian general. His quiet study is shattered when he crosses paths with Esme Carmichael, a spirited young American intent on making her name as a foreign correspondent. When a shooting at a Saxon castle leaves a young Jewish woman accused of murder, Archie and Esme are drawn into a perilous hunt for the truth.

Their investigation cuts through the glittering façades and lingering scars of a nation still reeling from war – where resentment simmers, political alliances shift, and the first shadows of a new conflict fall across Europe. Amid whispers of blackmail and betrayal, the pair must navigate intrigue and danger to unmask a killer hiding in plain sight.

A tense, atmospheric mystery set in a world between wars – perfect for fans of Philip Kerr’s Berlin Trilogy, Robert Harris’s Fatherland, and Alan Furst’s spy novels.

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Michael Ridpath is the bestselling author of over 20 crime novels and thrillers. His first novel, after a career in finance, was Free to Trade, a No 2 bestseller about the murky world of bond trading which was translated into over thirty languages. He is currently writing the Foreign Correspondent series of murder mysteries set in the capitals of Europe in the 1930s. He splits his time between London and
Massachusetts.

Facebook: @michaelridpathauthor
Instagram: @michaelridpathauthor
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Bookbub profile: @MichaelRidpath

My thoughts: I once wrote a very boring essay about the Weimar Republic of Germany between the wars, I am very glad to say this book was much better than my essay.

Sir Archie Laverick is in Berlin researching a general from the Napoleonic wars, the assistant he thought he was taking has bailed on him, but his cousin, on the ground in Germany, has found him a new one in the form of wannabe journalist, American Esme Carmichael. She’s enthusiastic and energetic, but Archie worries she might be a bit too much. Luckily they do get along and after she looks after him when he has a spell of shell shock, they bond.

When Esme’s friend is killed while weekending at a German baron’s home, and a young Austrian woman is arrested, Esme thinks the police have it wrong. She asks Archie to help her find the real killer.

But as the duo look into the case, Esme is threatened and it becomes apparent there’s more to the situation than a jealous lover.

This is a really interesting book, with a strong sense of historical time and place, interesting characters and an intriguing case at its centre.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

A nun is found dead.

A priest is horribly attacked.

An evil older than sin is loose in Yorkshire…

Marske, 1361. Sir Ralph de Mandeville with his assistants Peter and Merek have recently come from Reeth to hold a court session in Marske but are pulled away at the news of a most heinous crime having been discovered further down the River Swale.

A boat has been found, floating down the river. Inside is a truly horrifying scene – the body of a nun, her wrists cut and her hands fixed in the sign of benediction… As Ralph uses his astute skills of inspection, his mind asks a most difficult question – is this self-murder or murder most foul? Were her last moments spent in benediction prayer… or malediction warning?

With both Marrick Priory and Easby Abbey within a stone’s throw of Marske, it appears something is not quite right in the house of God…

When the body of a priest is found mutilated as if by a wild animal, the villagers fear the nun’s body has opened the gates and let loose a monster from Hell… but Ralph starts to wonder if something much more human is at the root of these evils.

As he follows the grim clues, he fears he knows where this miserable sacrilegious journey will end.

The question is, can he catch the murderer and prevent more grisly deaths – his own included?

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I was born in St Andrews and studied medicine at the University of Dundee in Scotland. I lived and worked in Wakefield in Yorkshire for 40 years, within arrow-shot of the ruins of a medieval castle, the base for a series of historical novels.

I am a retired GP, medical journalist and novelist, writing in several genres. As Keith Moray I write historical crime fiction in the medieval era and in ancient Egypt, The Inspector Torquil McKinnon crime novels set on the Outer Hebridean island of West Uist, and as Clay More I write westerns.
Curiously, my medical background finds its way into most of my fiction writing.

In my spare time I enjoy the movies, theatre and making bread. I play golf and I run at carthorse speed. As a frustrated actor I have found occasional solace as a supporting artist, but enough said about that!

I now live in Stratford-upon with my wife Rachel and whichever of our children and grandchildren who happen to pop in.

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Facebook: @KeithMorayAuthor
Twitter: @KeithMorayTales
Instagram: @souterkeith
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Bookbub profile: @dr_keithsouter

My thoughts: This was very good, a medieval murder mystery with the detectives in the form of the justice of the peace, Sir Ralph de Mandeville and his assistants, scribe Peter, and former archer Merek.

Carrying out the king’s work in Yorkshire, they become involved when the body of a young nun is found drifting in a boat on the river Swale. Did she kill herself or was she murdered? When the body of the parish priest is also found brutalised, Ralph suspects something rather nasty is going on. And when he and his assistants are attacked, he knows there’s something seriously wrong in the area.

As the case unfolds, Ralph, Peter and Merek are in danger too, they’re close to an answer and the killer wants them to stop looking. But they’re tougher than anyone realises and Ralph won’t give in to threats.

This is an engaging, clever and enjoyable read, I liked Ralph and his colleagues, they’re intelligent and thorough investigators, even with the limited knowledge of their age, willing to carry out thorough investigations, acting not only as detectives but also carrying out the roles that in modern cases would be scene of crime, and medical examiner.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.