Tag: crime fiction

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: A Husband is Hushed Up – Helen Golden

ramblingmads


A fatal fall. A duchess determined to uncover the truth. And barely any time for tea.

Fenshire, 1891. It was meant to be a birthday celebration weekend in the country— cucumber sandwiches, polite conversation, and maybe a waltz or two.

But when the Duke of Stortford is found dead in a crumpled heap at the foot of the stairs everything goes dreadfully sideways. The police declare it a tragic accident. His wife, Alice, has her doubts.

After all, only hours before, the Duke had promised to give up his mistress and make a go of their marriage. Now he’s inconveniently deceased.

Driven by a need for answers, and helped by her fiercely loyal maid Maud, her observant footman George, and her childhood friend Lord Rushton, Alice sets about uncovering the truth. But as she navigates a house full of secrets, simmering tensions, and more than one
guest with murderously bad manners, her suspect pool grows to include those closest to her.

Can she piece together the truth? Or will her husband’s murderer get away with it after all?

The guests are leaving. The killer may be among them. Time is running out…

Amazon UK Amazon US


Helen Golden spins mysteries that are charmingly British, delightfully deadly, and served with a twist of humour.

With quirky characters, clever red herrings, and plots that keep the pages turning, she’s the author of the much-loved A Right Royal Cozy Investigation series, following Lady Beatrice and her friends—
including one clever little dog—as they uncover secrets hidden in country houses and royal palaces.

Her new historical mystery series, The Duchess of Stortford Mysteries, is set in Victorian England and introduces an equally curious sleuth from Lady Beatrice’s own family tree—where murders are solved over cups of tea, whispered gossip, and overheard conversations in drawing rooms and grand estates.

Helen lives in a quintessential English village in Lincolnshire with her husband, stepdaughter, and a menagerie of pets—including a dog, several cats, a tortoise, and far too many fish.

If you love clever puzzles, charming settings, and sleuths with spark, her books are waiting for you.

Follow Helen Golden
Instagram Facebook TikTok Twitter

My thoughts: Alice, Duchess of Stortford, is visiting her parents’ estate for her father’s birthday, it’s also a reunion with her erstwhile husband, and a chance for them to give their marriage another go, after leading rather separate lives. Unfortunately Alice’s cousin, who also happens to be her husband’s mistress, is also there, as well as a rather determined widow looking for her next assignation.

And things seem to be going in Alice’s favour, when tragedy strikes and her husband, Vance, is found dead at the bottom of the stairs. But did he fall or was he pushed? Alice launches into investigation mode, perhaps to stave off her grief, but the things she uncovers could get someone the rope.

Everyone’s a suspect, even Alice’s family, until she can rule them out, or in. Either way, this is not quite the jolly weekend anyone was expecting.

With her signature humour and clever quips, once Alice gets a canine or feline chum, this will be classic Helen Golden crime, and all the more enjoyable for it!

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Death of a Billionaire – Tucker May

ramblingmads

Ever dream of killing your boss?

Alan Benning knows how you feel.

The problem: his billionaire boss actually winds up murdered. And the whole world thinks he did it.

When globetrotting tech billionaire Barron Fisk is found dead on the floor of his swanky Silicon Valley office, all evidence points to Alan.

Alan must venture into the glitzy, treacherous world of tech billionaires to clear his name by sorting through a long list of suspects with motive aplenty. If he can’t find the real culprit, Alan’s going down.

The clock is ticking.

Who killed Barron Fisk? The truth will shock— and change— the entire world.

Fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club series, Carl Hiaasen’s tales of high-stakes hijinx, or Ruth Ware’s page-turning mysteries will love Death of a Billionaire.

Amazon UK Amazon US

Tucker May was raised in southern Missouri. He attended Northwestern University where he was trained in acting and playwriting. He now lives in Pasadena, California with his wife Barbara and their cat Principal Spittle. He is an avid reader and longtime fan of the Los Angeles Rams
and Geelong Cats. Death of a Billionaire is his debut novel.

Instagram BlueSky Facebook

My thoughts: Alan Benning is probably the least likely murderer in the world. A quiet unassuming man, happiest dealing with numbers (he is an accountant) and when his boss is found dead in his office, the police don’t seem that interested in looking further.

His fingerprints are in the office, his shoe print outside and there’s CCTV of him going up to the floor. But Alan knows he didn’t do it. Luckily so does Sharla, formerly PA to Barron Fisk, and she wants to find the real killer. The unlikely duo team up to solve the case and keep Alan out of prison.

Funny and entertaining, voiced by a rather condescending narrator (all will be revealed), this is very 21st century, tech mogul murder.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Corpse Bell – Ian McFadyen

ramblingmads

The last thing Penny Carmichael expected when she joined the local bellringing group was for her debut to be thwarted by the discovery of a body just yards from the belfry door.

As her husband and his loyal team painstakingly sift through the evidence and delve deep into the dead man’s past, it’s clear that solving Peter Mackenzie’s murder may prove a challenge, even for someone with DCI Carmichael’s renowned detective prowess.

What was a man who’d lived for decades in North London doing in Moulton Bank? Was his chequered past a factor?
And what about the other members of Penny’s bellringing group. Did any of them have a reason to do Peter harm?

As the case unfolds, DCI Carmicheal and his trusty team seek answers to a complex puzzle which leads them along various paths and, at times, way outside the comfort zone of their rural Lancashire
surroundings.

This fast-paced, cleverly crafted whodunit is the eleventh murder mystery in the gripping Carmichael series from the pen of Ian McFadyen.

Amazon UK Amazon US


Ian McFadyen was born in Liverpool and enjoyed a successful career in marketing before becoming a writer. Ian’s titles are available in Italian and Czech and, although the author isn’t totally convinced
it’s true, he’s been favourably compared with Wilkie Collins and Colin Dexter. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife but spends a great deal of his time writing in his bolthole retreat on the Norfolk / Suffolk border. The Corpse Bell is the eleventh in his series featuring DCI Carmichael.

Facebook Website
Twitter / X : @ianMcFadyen1
Instagram : @ianwmcfadyen

My thoughts: The victim might have been murdered in Moulton Bank but he lived near me in North London, so that made me smile.

This is a cleverly plotted, slightly convoluted to keep the detectives on their toes, story, where incidents in the past come to matter a great deal. The deceased, Peter MacKenzie, wasn’t a very nice man, a convicted embezzler, he ran a heir finding business and returned to Moulton Bank, where he’d grown up, for reasons unknown.

Found outside the church bell tower by two bellringers, the police are puzzled, why was he there? Was he meeting someone, and if so, who? His wife thought he was in Yorkshire, at a conference, but clearly that wasn’t the case.

And when one of the bellringers who had found him is also murdered, the plot thickens. What was this man’s connection to it all?

As DCI Carmichael and his team look into the lives of both victims, they uncover some unpleasant things, and slowly piece together the puzzle of who killed them.

I love a carefully constructed, slow burn case, where the tiniest details help bring things together, where the police are looking for the mistakes the killer has made, the things they’ve overlooked, much as in this case.

Really enjoyable (can I really say that about murder? I think I can!) and peopled with interesting characters. That’s another series I now need to read all the backlist books for!  

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Skin of Their Teeth – Michelle Kidd

ramblingmads

MEET DETECTIVE NICKI HARDCASTLE IN THIS GRIPPING SUFFOLK-BASED CRIME SERIES.

One broken body. Seven missing teeth. A killer who’s only just begun.

Detective Nicki Hardcastle is midway through painting her living room — she’s supposed to be off-duty — when the call comes in. ‘You might want to see this one, boss.’

Minutes later, she’s standing at the foot of a four-storey townhouse in the heart of Bury St Edmunds. A man lies impaled on a black iron spike, his body blood-soaked and broken.

It appears Jacob Towers took his own life. But the details don’t add up.
Why was the dead man carrying seven of his own teeth in his pockets?

Then a chilling voicemail surfaces: ‘It’s time to pay for what you did.’

Two days later, there’s another death. Just as sudden. Just as brutal. And once again — seven teeth.

Someone is dealing out justice, one gruesome death at a time. And they’ve only just begun . .

Goodreads
Purchase

Michelle Kidd is a crime fiction author best known for the DI Jack MacIntosh and DI Nicki Hardcastle series. Michelle qualified as a legal executive in the early 1990s, spending ten years practising civil and criminal litigation.
But the dream to write was never far from her mind and in 2008 she began writing the first book in what would later become the DI Jack MacIntosh series.
Michelle now works full time for the NHS and lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
She enjoys reading, wine and cats — not necessarily in that order.

Facebook Instagram X Website

My thoughts: I’m not a fan of teeth, I hate going to the dentist, I go but it really sets my anxiety levels to sky high. There was a task in the last series of Taskmaster involving teeth that made me feel sick. And there’s a very disturbing scene in this book that I really didn’t like.

Having said that, it’s a very clever case, the team are often completely stumped because there’s nothing the victims have in common, beyond the seven teeth.

Whoever is behind these deaths, that at first glance appear to be suicides or accidents, is clever, manipulative and possibly a sadist.

Their motive is so well hidden, and without a key piece of evidence, they might never get the answers. It’s very well done, with plenty of shocking moments and twists. Michelle Kidd really knows how to hook you and keep you hooked.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Lethal Storm – Pauline Rowson

ramblingmads

A missing comrade.

A cryptic note.

A conspiracy that will test Art Marvik to the limit.

Meet Art Marvik. A battle-hardened commando with the scars to prove it. He’s used to high-stakes operations. But nothing has prepared him for what awaits in the coastal town of Ballycotton, Ireland . . .

Marvik receives a disturbing call from the Garda. His friend and former comrade, Shaun Strathen, is missing. His yacht’s been found drifting in Ballyandreen Bay. But there’s no sign of Strathen.

A cryptic note is discovered onboard: Art, sorry it’s come to this. Look after things for me. Per Mare, Per Terram.

Marvik wastes no time. He heads straight for Ireland, determined to find his friend. His search leads him to a cottage by the sea. A decomposing body is discovered inside.
It’s not Strathen.

If the body isn’t his comrade’s, then who is it? And where the hell is Strathen?

As Marvik digs deeper, the truth begins to unravel, but so do the dangers.

Can Marvik survive this lethal storm long enough to expose a network of criminal masterminds, and save his friend?

Goodreads
Purchase

Adventure, mystery and heroes have always fascinated and thrilled Pauline, that and her love of the sea has led her to create her exciting and gripping range of crime novels.

Born and raised in the coastal city of Portsmouth in the UK, Pauline Rowson draws her inspiration for her crime novels from the area. When she isn’t writing (which isn’t often) she can be found walking the coastal paths on the Isle of Wight and around Langstone and
Chichester Harbours looking for a good place to put a body!

Pauline is the author of twenty-four crime novels — sixteen featuring the rugged and flawed Portsmouth detective, Inspector Andy Horton; four in the mystery thriller series featuring Art Marvik, the troubled former Royal Marine Commando now an undercover investigator for the UK’s National Intelligence Marine Squad (NIMS); two standalone thrillers, the award-winning In Cold Daylight and In For the Kill, and the 1950 set mystery series featuring Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Alun Ryga, who makes his debut in Death in the Cove with his second
investigation Death in the Harbour.

Her crime novels have been highly acclaimed in the UK, USA and Commonwealth and they have been translated into several languages. Multi-layered, fast-paced, and compelling, they are full of twists and turns and are played out against the dramatic and powerfully evocative British marine landscape of the south coast of England.
Pauline is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Authors.

Before becoming a full-time writer, she was a renowned marketing and training guru, with a collection of ‘how to’ business books and a successful marketing, media and training career behind her.

Facebook Instagram X Website

My thoughts: Art Marvik finds himself in the middle of a complete nightmare situation after his friend Shaun goes missing in Ireland. His boat is at anchor in the bay, a strange thing to do if he really committed suicide. The clues lead Marvik to an old cottage and a dead body – which thankfully isn’t his friend.

But it all seems to be part of something much larger – a conspiracy that leads to murder, where Marvik can’t be sure who to trust, where a friend may not be quite who they seem to be.

A tangled web, full of dead ends, lies, and a knotty mess that Marvik must unravel before he ends up dead too.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Breakthrough – Judy Kroll

ramblingmads

Is Blood really Thicker than Water?

Something is terribly wrong at Angiras, a family-owned medical start-up. Neddy Emory and her brother Charles are about launch a revolutionary life-saving therapeutic device. But they’ve hit a major snag. Critical research is unraveling and, to their shock and horror, one-by-one, team members are falling mysteriously ill.

Neddy and Charles race to move the project forward, while struggling to keep their employees safe. Failure is not an option. Without the device, their younger brother Daniel will die. But Neddy begins to suspect the company’s innovative research methods are being tampered with. When probed, Charles gaslights her. He refuses to slow down, claiming he is
Daniel’s only hope.

Torn between loyalty to her family and the welfare of the staff, Neddy desperately searches for the truth. Then the unspeakable happens. A fatality. Charles appears to finally be persuaded. But his next move shocks her, and she realizes: the danger is only beginning. And
she is on her own.

For fans of THE MAIDENS who will appreciate Neddy’s determination and perseverance as she fights to keep her family together despite fractured relationships, greed, and treachery.

Goodreads
Purchase 

Judy Kroll worked for over twenty years in large and small corporations, including four years in the pharmaceutical industry, as a human resources professional and later as a career counselor. She provided job search assistance to hundreds of individuals, including physicians,
pharmacists, medical device developers, chemists, and other scientists impacted by mergers and downsizings. She is a practicing yogi (twenty-three years.)

Both corporate experiences as well as many years ‘on the mat’ inspired her book, Breakthrough. Specifically, in both of these
very disparate worlds, she observed the same phenomenon: the devastation wrought when a much-respected boss or mentor turns out to be unethical, and one must find a new path forward, seemingly alone.

She lives in northern New Jersey, and in addition to writing, gardening, and practicing yoga, Judy co-chairs a not-for-profit conservation organization.

Instagram

My thoughts: Neddy and her older brother Charles are developing a revolutionary medical device that might help younger brother Daniel, as well as millions of others, their company is due to complete a merger with another firm and raise some more capital, but then Neddy realises something very wrong is going on at the company.

As she investigates the strange things that have happened to their engineers, she risks destroying everything they’ve built, but is that a risk worth taking?

Clever, intriguing and compelling, this might be the author’s first book but I couldn’t tell, it’s such a well plotted and enjoyable read.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Other Mother – Heidi Field

ramblingmads


Suzannah is pregnant with her third child. The first is in prison. The second is dead. How far will she go to keep her unborn baby safe?

When Suzannah learns she is pregnant, she feels like safety and happiness are finally within reach.
Her handsome, successful fiancé, Alec, is over the moon about the baby. He proposes and pampers her. He thinks this is Suzannah’s first marriage and first child, but she’s keeping a few secrets.
Actually, a lot of secrets. And they are dangerous…putting Suzannah in a position where she must choose who and what she’s willing to sacrifice to keep her baby and her freedom.

Drowning in her lies, Suzannah is desperate to bury her past, but her ex-husband, who abandoned her years ago, returns, stalking her and demanding to know what really happened to their daughter.

When the imprisoned serial killer who lured and groomed her son, threatens to sell his story to the press, Suzannah feels like the life she’d built and the precious one she’s growing, teeter on a precipice. Now the two children she’s hidden from Alec may be the least of her worries.

Amazon UK Tule Publishing Amazon US Google Books Kobo


Heidi Field was raised in the beautiful countryside of the South of England with her parents and her two sisters. In her twenties she was a freelance Sports Massage Therapist. She achieved a Degree in Zoology at the age of thirty and then went on to raise two boys and became the stepmother of three more young children.

She still lives near her family home with her partner, their Great Dane and the
children that have yet to fly the nest. In her early forties Heidi completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Winchester University. She entered the course hoping she would become a children’s fantasy writer and left with a burning desire to write contemporary mysteries and thrillers. Heidi wanted to put relatable people in extraordinary situations, challenge them, push them to their limits
and watch them fight for their sanity.

The Other Mother is Heidi’s second novel, the next book in The Peasedale Woods Killers series.

FaceBook page: Heidi Field Author
Insta: Heidi.field.75 Tiktok: @fieldheidi11

My thoughts: Suzannah’s whole relationship with her fiancé is about to fall apart because of the many, many secrets she’s been keeping. She hasn’t told him about her previous marriage, her children,  their fathers, or where she goes every few weeks.

She’s hoping she won’t have to, until an unwelcome blast from the past forces her to. Now things are falling apart completely, because she just can’t seem to tell the whole truth, and Alec’s patience is getting short, he’s worried about her mental state and whether their baby’s safe.

Suzannah’s an unreliable narrator, even to herself she keeps up the pretence and doesn’t share the full truth.

There are plenty of shocking things that come out and more that happen as Suzannah scrambles to stop some of the secrets from spilling out and destroying her life.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Secret Sauce – M.J. Porter

ramblingmads

The Secret Sauce, the third book in the Erdington Mysteries

Birmingham, England, November 1944.
Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is summoned to a suspicious death at the BB Sauce factory in Aston on a wet Monday morning in late November 1944.

Greeted by his enthusiastic sergeant, O’Rourke, Sam Mason finds himself plunged into a challenging investigation to discover how Harry Armstrong met his death in a vat containing BB Sauce – a scene that threatens to put him off BB Sauce on his bacon sandwiches for the rest of his life.

Together with Sergeant O’Rourke, Mason follows a trail of seemingly unrelated events until something becomes very clear. The death of Harry Armstrong was certainly murder, and might well be connected to the tragedy unfolding at nearby RAF Fauld.

While the uncertainty of war continues, Mason and O’Rourke find themselves seeking answers from the War Office and the Admiralty, as they track down the person who murdered their victim in such an unlikely way.

Join Mason and O’Rourke for the third book in the quirky, historical mystery series, as they once more attempt to solve the impossible in 1940s Erdington.

Amazon UK Amazon US

I’m an author of historical fiction and non-fiction (Early English (Saxon), Vikings and the British Isles as a whole before the Norman Conquest, as well as five twentieth-century mysteries), born in the old Mercian kingdom at some point since the end of 1066.

Historical mysteries allow me to use such modern inventions as the telephone and the car, which is very exciting when I spend so much of my time worrying about feeding the horses my warriors usually ride.

I was raised in the shadow of a strange little building and told from a very young age it housed the bones of long-dead kings of Mercia, it’s little wonder my curiosity in the early English ran riot. I can only blame my parents!
I like to write. You’ve been warned!

Linktree 

A quick note for non-British readers; BB Sauce isn’t real but is inspired by HP Sauce, which is. As far as I know, no one has ever drowned in a vat of it. Sometimes referred to as brown sauce (as opposed to tomato ketchup aka red sauce), some people enjoy it on their bacon sandwiches, chips and other savoury dishes. I am not a fan.

My thoughts: A rather strange death, a man drowned in a vat in a sauce factory near Birmingham. He was the delivery driver for the factory and shouldn’t have been inside after they closed half day on Saturday, so why was he there and who killed him?

There don’t appear to be many clues, most of the workers had been heading off to the football after finishing up for the weekend. The few clerical staff had gone too, and the owner had locked up. There was no reason for Harry to even be inside that part of the factory, as the driver he only needed access to the yard and loading dock.

The police are stumped. But as they investigate the BB Sauce factory, its staff and Harry’s own history, it becomes clear that plenty of people have something to hide. There are secrets galore. 

There’s also a terrible explosion at the nearest RAF base, and as the case goes on, there’s a worry that it might be connected. Could someone working at the factory in fact be some sort of enemy agent? With the war still raging on, people are supposed to be on the lookout for anyone suspicious, and several of the employees certainly are. 

In the end this is a much more complex case than the accident it has been made to look like, Harry didn’t put himself in the vat, he certainly didn’t trip and fall from the gangway above, and the stench of vinegar is overwhelming. A bit like guilt.

Clever, complex and occasionally quite funny, this was a very enjoyable outing for Mason and the excellent O’Rourke (who will probably end up running the place one day!)

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Shocking Crimes – Michael Hambling

ramblingmads

A body in a suitcase. A woman in a coma. A cold case that’s suddenly red-hot.

When a child’s mummified body is discovered in a suitcase hidden in the loft of a rundown terraced house in Bournemouth, even Sophie Allen and her hardened team of detectives are
shocked to their core.
The only clue to the victim’s identity is a badly-spelt note: Im Jan. im only 10. plees help me.

Meanwhile, a young woman lies in a coma in the local hospital. Student Holly Evans was jabbed in the thigh with a potentially lethal drug while out clubbing with friends. Was Holly simply in the wrong place at the wrong time — or was she deliberately targeted?

When Sophie’s team uncovers a link between Holly and the body in the suitcase, the case takes a shocking twist.
Twenty years ago something very nasty happened inside 68 Crawley Terrace — and someone is prepared to go to any lengths to ensure the truth remains hidden.

Goodreads Purchase

I try to write thoughtful, contemporary crime novels and include several plot layers in my books. The adult novels feature DCI Sophie Allen and her close-knit team of detectives. I don’t write simple whodunnits, nor violent, all-action, gun-toting thrillers.

Facebook

My thoughts: This was an excellent addition to this series of crime novels featuring Sophie Allen and her team.

The body of a young child has been found in a suitcase, wedged inside a hidden alcove in the attic of a house. The house belongs to a woman in prison for murder, but before that it belonged to her uncle. She knows something about it, but won’t disclose anything unless the police give her something in return to help with her case.

Meanwhile a student at the University has been ‘spiked’ while out with friends, jabbed in the leg with something in a club. She has a heart condition and is now in a coma. Wrong place, wrong time? It appears so at first, but once they gather more information, something more sinister appears to have been going on.

Could these cases, despite the twenty odd years between them, be connected?

Clever, full of twists and with a team of dedicated detectives on the case, along with some rather suspicious types, who know more than they’re saying, this is the kind of case that will keep you guessing!

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Death of a Stranger – John Pilkington

ramblingmads


1594, Bishopsgate Ward, London. Within the walls and without, unease and uncertainty lurk beneath the noise and bustle of a smoky, teeming city.

Matthew Cutler, newly widowed and caring for two spirited daughters, takes his position as constable for the parish of Spitalfields very seriously. So when Paulo Brisco, a quiet Venetian perfumer is found brutally murdered in his own shop, Cutler throws himself into his first major crime, and one which threatens to set all Bishopsgate alight. 🔥

Being a humble parish constable, Matthew Cutler’s powers are slight – and yet he possesses a skill which most others do not. As a former actor, he can employ disguise, to considerable effect and to his
unique advantage…

Plunged into a treacherous world of notorious rakes, angry tradesmen and a community seething with anti-foreigner sentiment and suspicion, Cutler must decipher shattered clues and confront a
killer whose motive remains a baffling mystery – until the very last.

Step into the dangerous world of Elizabethan London with this cracking murder mystery!🩸🔍

Purchase

A writer for over forty years, John Pilkington was born in Lancashire and worked at many jobs including laboratory assistant, farm worker, weaver, shipping clerk, picture frame-maker and cabaret
musician before taking a degree in Drama and English and finding his true vocation.

He has since written plays for radio and theatre, television scripts for a BBC soap, a short-lived children’s series and numerous works of historical fiction, concentrating now on the Tudor and Stuart eras. He also
ventured into speculative fiction with his biography of Shakespeare’s famous jester, Yorick.

He now lives in a village on a tidal estuary in Devon with his long-term partner Elisabeth; they have a son who is a psychologist and musician. When not at the desk he walks, swims, listens to music, and tinkers with DIY. projects, and is enjoying being a grandfather.

Bookbub profile: @jpscript

My thoughts: Elizabethan London was full of danger, although murder was rarely one of them, you were far more likely to fall into the Thames or die of plague. However, it’s murder that concerns Matthew Cutler, constable of Bishopsgate in the City of London. A perfumier, an Italian (people from other countries were known as strangers, hence the title) has been killed in his shop.

While Matthew’s powers are limited, it is up to him to find the killer. No proper police force exists, and there’s an obvious political angle as the victim was not only foreign, but Catholic, religion being the current main issue in England. Could one of his customers have killed him? He certainly seems to have popular.

As Matthew and his friend Margaret investigate, Matthew uses his player’s skills to gain access to some of Brisco’s higher-class clients and discovers that far from merely supplying scent, the Italian was also involved with some of the ladies he sold to. Perhaps an angry husband might be the killer. Until they discover that the pillow talk Brisco engaged in could have compromised England’s defences.

There’s a lot of intrigue and the more Matthew investigates the more suspects he finds, Brisco was clearly more than just a good salesman and the suspicion of strangers that Matthew has tried to avoid, may in this case, be justified. Can he find a way through the many strands of Brisco’s life and actually find a killer or will the threats to his family make him stop?

Full of historical details brought vividly to life, thankfully without the odours of 16th Century London, this is a clever, engaging read with a really interesting plot and characters.

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