Crime Thru Time
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Read the monthly book club selection and share your thoughts on the Crimethrutime discussion list! No five book commitments complete with shipping charges, just some fun chatter with likeminded historical mystery fans.
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2013
Selections |
January 2013The Fencing Master by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Stand alone) In this novel of suspense, Don Jaime Astarloa teaches fencing to fewer and fewer students in Madrid in 1866. It is an honorable art, one that requires skill, one that no longer serves much use in the modern age, the age of the pistol. Even as Queen Isabella II loses her corrupt grip on power to equally corrupt politicians, Don Jaime acquires a mysterious student, Adele de Otero, who seeks him out so she may learn "the unstoppable thrust". At first, Don Jaime refuses, then accepts her as a student. She is a gifted fencer who seduces Don Jaime into political plots and counterplots. Ultimately, he must use "the unstoppable thrust" to save all that he holds sacred. (Available for Kindle in the US, Canada, and UK) |
Febuary 2013Damned in Paradise by Max Allan Collins (Nate Heller #7) While each case of Nate Heller's "memoirs" contains some commentary about previous cases, the separate cases are self-contained. In this case, it is 1932, Nate has made something of a name for himself, and he has been invited by Clarence Darrow to assist him in finding the truth in the infamous Massie Case. 5 Hawaiians were tried and acquitted of the murder of Thalia Massie, a young, white Navy wife. Now, Darrow's clients are Thalia's widower and mother. They stand accused of kidnapping and killing one of the original accused. Heller must cut through webs of lies, secrets, and bigotry to provide justice. (Available in Kindle in US, Canada, and UK) |
March 2013A Play of Heresy by Margaret Frazier (Sebastian St. Cyr Series, #8) In memoriam. (Joliffe #7) In late spring 1438, Joliffe and his companions come to Coventry to perform in the cycle of plays presented for the Feast of Corpus Christi. In addition to all their usual issues with costumes, props, and players, trouble suggests itself when a master merchant disappears and is presumed dead. Trouble for Joliffe and his troupe is assured when Bishop Beaufort insists on Joliffe's investigation of Coventry's great and good. At one point, the players themselves are implicated in the crime. How far and how deep does the Lollard conspiracy run? How far does it reach? |
April 2013What Darkness Brings by C S Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr Series, #8) Regency England, September 1812. The death of a notorious London diamond merchant draws aristocratic investigator Sebastian St. Cyr and his new wife Hero into a sordid world of greed, desperation, and the occult, when the husband of Sebastian’s former lover Kat Boleyn is accused of the murder. |
2012 Selections
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January 2012Counterfeit Madam by Pat McIntosh (Gil Cunningham Mystery, #8) Part of the Gil Cunningham series, medieval. Gil Cunningham had hoped that the first time he set foot in the brothel on the Drygate it would also be his last, but by the time all was settled he felt quite at home within its artfully painted chambers. The bawdy house, along with the neighboring property, is offered to Gil and his wife Alys by the forceful Dame Isabella. But matters are confused by an outbreak of counterfeit coins in Glasgow, which Gil has been ordered to investigate. Then
Dame Isabella is found dead in strange circumstances, and the more
Gil pursues the cause of her death, the more false coins he finds.
Rumors circulate that the Devil is abroad in Strathblane. By the
time Gil and Alys have untangled matters, some very surprising—and
sinister—things have come to light.
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Feburary 2012 The Holy Thief by William Ryan (A.D.
Korolev #1) Capt. Alexei Dimitryevitch Korolev of the Moscow Militia's
Criminal Investigation Division has come into a certain amount
of professional success in 1936. He gets a new apartment, albeit
shared with a young widow and her daughter. He has earned the
respect of his fellow officers and his superiors for honest, thorough
work. The brutal murder of a woman in a former church, followed
by another, this time of a high-ranking Thief, a member of the
Soviet Underworld, nearly undoes his success and his life. In
the course of searching for the killer and a fabulous icon--things
he pursues even after the NKVD has warned him off--he learns what
it really means to live in the unpredictable panopticon of Stalin's
USSR. Nominated for the Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award. |
March 2012 Black
Orchid Blues
by Persia Walker |
April 2012 Tell
Me, Pretty Maiden by
Rhys Bowen
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May 2012 Dark
Voyage by
Alan Furst AMAZON - CTT
Library List |
June 2012 Mrs Jeffries Defends Her Own - Emily Brightwell [Victorian Murder Mystery, No 30] When the general office manager of Sutcliffe Manufacturing is murdered, no one is really surprised. Ronald Dearman was anything but a dear man. The tyrannical bully had more than enough enemies to go around. But who hated him enough to walk into his office and put a bullet between his eyes? For once, Inspector Gerald Witherspoon doesn't get the case; it's given to another inspector. Then someone from Mrs. Jeffries' past—someone she'd hoped to never see again—shows up and begs for her help. Now Mrs. Jeffries must step into the fray and stop a terrible miscarriage of justice… |
July 2012 The Chinese Nail Murders - Robert van Gulik As part of routine administrative movement, Judge Dee arrives in Pei-chow, an isolated frontier district in the north of Tang China, to take up his duties as magistrate. Despite its distance from the capital, Pei-Chow is no stranger to murder and intrigue. Judge Dee and his usual entourage of sidekicks--Ma Joong, Chiao Tai, and Tao Gan--must solve three intricate and intertwined cases, one of which is connected to an older, unsolved murder. Solving these cases proves especially poignant for Judge Dee, whose feelings for a suspect challenge his Confucian views of women and virtue. |
Aug 2012 Still Life With Murder - P.B. Ryan Book #1 of P.B. Ryan’s bestselling historical mystery series featuring Boston governess Nell Sweeney and opium-smoking former battle surgeon Will Hewitt. Long thought to have died during the Civil War, Will is arrested for murder, and it's up to Nell to prove his innocence. Originally published by Berkley Prime Crime. |
Sept 2012 The Hot Kid - Elmore Leonard (Carl Webster #1) Leonard (author of the short story "3:10 to Yuma") returns to western mystery with Deputy US Marshal Carlos (Carl) Webster. Young Carlos has his first encounter with a bank robber in 1921 when he is fifteen years old. It leaves an indelible mark. Carlos becomes Carl when he joins the Marshals, and he is soon on the trail of notorious crooks like Pretty Boy Floyd and Jack Belmont. When he kills the crooks, he attracts fame, reporters, and enemies. The master of dialogue, Leonard captures the sound of Dust Bowl Oklahoma and the surreality and stupidity of bank robbing during the Depression. |
Oct 2012 None Selected
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November 2012 Under the Dragon's Tail by Maureen Jennings (Wm. Murdoch #2) In late 19th century Toronto, not all is as it seems, for the Great and the Good of the city have plenty to hide. These secrets, most of them sexual in nature, make important people perfect targets for blackmail--and not even the perfectly prim wife of the hanging judge is immune. William Murdoch must solve the murder of a drunken midwife that is suddenly overlain with the murder of the midwife's "adopted" son. Are they connected? If so, how? And where is the deaf and dumb daughter of the deceased, a girl who spent time in prison for murder? Also available on Kindle in both US and UK.
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Dec 2012 The Fifth Servant by Kenneth Wishnia (Benjamin Ben-Akiva ) In 1592, the Jewish ghetto of Prague is a "relatively" safe place--so long as Jews remain within the walls. That changes on Passover, always a time of strain between Jews and Christians because of the pervasive belief that Jews need Christian blood for Passover. The blood libel. This Passover begins sundown on Good Friday. In the morning, a 7 year old Christian girl is found dead on the shop floor of a Jewish merchant, who is, naturally, is arrested for the crime. The new shammes, Ben-Akiva, insists on taking transferring the case from the local authorities to the imperial court of Rudolf II because the Jews fall directly under the authority of the Emperor. He earns three days to find the actual killer or have the Jewish ghetto destroyed. Making life even more difficult fort Ben-Akiva is his very newness. He's Polish, not Czech, just arrived, still does not know his way around the ghetto; worse, he is not seen as a member of the Prague community of Jews. Once his investigations take him into the Christian community, he runs into complications added by the Reformation and the witch-craze. Wishnia provides a gripping murder mystery that is also a meditation on community--who's included, who's not. Also available on Kindle in both US and UK.
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