Tag: murder mysteries

Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Mysteries set on boats 2

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Happy Wednesday everyone. I’ve already done one set of murders set on boats, but I’m back with even more this week. And I’m not ruling out a third post in the further – because there’s the latest Three Dahlias that I still haven’t read and I’m sure I can find some more…

Death on Lusitania by R L Graham*

Set on the Lusitania in 1915, if you’ve spent any time looking at maritime history around this time you’ll know that the omens are not good for the passengers on board the voyage from New York to Liverpool, but on board is Patrick Gallagher, who in charge of getting a disgraced diplomat back to Britain. Gallagher is a former sailor turned civil servant of a fairly specific type and when another passenger is found shot dead in a locked room, the captain asks him to investigate. He quickly uncovers a range of people who could have wanted the victim dead and the countdown is on until they enter the war zone. This is a carefully constructed mystery, that moved a bit slower than I wanted it too initially until all the twists and turns really started to kick in. The pace did pick up as the end approached, but the actual ending was over pretty quickly. I liked Patrick as a character though and I’m pleased to see that there is another book featuring him because there are definitely some lose ends left about him and his personal life.

Murder Below Deck by Orlando Murrin*

This is the second book about Paul Delamare, and after the murderous events of the first book he’s been inveigled into a trip on a super yacht to help a friend write her memoirs. Except that once he gets on board things start going wrong and all is definitely not quite what it seems. I really enjoyed Knife Skills for Beginners as you may remember and was really pleased to be back in Paul’s world again. A book set on a super yacht felt like it was something a bit different but I think this plot is more far-fetched (I can’t really say why because: spoilers) but it moves so quickly that you don’t really notice that until the end when you have time to think about it. It has got a large cast of pretty unlikeable characters outside of Paul and the claustrophobia of the limited communications on the yacht really adds to the tension. I enjoyed it and will happily read a third book if it should come along.

Murphy’s Law by Rhys Bowen

This is the first in Rhys Bowen’s Molly Murphy series and is a little bit of a cheat because the murder happens at Ellis Island just after Molly has got off the ship to New York, but a lot of the build up to it is on the ship. Molly is fleeing to America after committing murder in self defence. She’s also travelling under an assumed name and looking after children that aren’t hers, so being prime suspect in a murder investigation really isn’t what she needs. This also looks at the Tammany Hall corruption of the era as Molly tries to clear her name and keep her chance to stay in America. It’s a promising start to a series – I will read some more just as soon a as I get the to read pile down!

That’s your lot today – Happy Humpday!

Christmas books, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: New Christmas Mysteries 2025

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Happy New Year’s Eve everyone, I’m finishing the year with my last batch of Christmas reading of the the season in a post that was going to be new Christmas reads, but has actually turned out to be new Christmas Mysteries and so I have adjusted the title accordingly!

Miss Winter in the Library with the Knife by Martin Edwards*

And I’m starting with the book that I finished the most recently, because it’s the most different (I think) as it gives puzzle to the reader to solve as they go along. Six people have been invited to the remote and mysterious village of Midwinter for a Christmas Murder Mystery puzzle weekend. Their task is to solve the clues and work out who killed a fictional crime writer. But soon after they arrive as the snow falls and blocks them off from the outside world, a body is discovered. Was it an accident or is one of the group a murderer – and if so why? As well as writing his own detective fiction, Martin Edwards writes the introductions to the British Library Crime Classics series (more on them later) and literally wrote the book on the history of the murder mystery genre, and this is very much in that tradition, with a few nifty twists. I’m not a puzzle person (especially when reading as an ebook) but I’m sure that element will appeal to some, but I enjoyed the murder-within-a-murder nature of the story and the shifting points of view of the narrative which managed to both add to the reader’s knowledge and confuse them further about the solution. A lot of fun.

The Christmas Clue by Nicola Upson

Now I appreciate that I mentioned Nicola Upson in last week’s Recommendsday but for Christmas 2025, Nicola Upson has broken away from her Josephine Tey series to write a standalone murder mystery novella based around the genesis of the board game Cluedo (or Clue if you’re American) or at least the imagined version of it. At Christmas 1943, Anthony and Elva take a break from their war work to head to the hotel where they used to work before the war to run a murder mystery weekend. But when they arrive they find themselves caught up in a real crime. Can they work out what has happened before it is too late. I really enjoyed this – it’s under 150 pages but there are plenty of twists and turns and I raced through it. I got it on a 99p deal on Kindle and it was totally worth it.

Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth

Lee has been invited to spend Christmas with her friends in a country village. But what should be an idyllic trip starts to turn sour when a Christmas party is disrupted by a new resident and then soon after another resident suffers a stroke and then dies. But rumours soon start that it was actually murder, and Lee finds herself working with the Scotland Yard detective who has been called in to investigate. Does it count as new if the book was actually written in 1952? I’ve decided it does because this is this year’s British Library Crime Classic Christmas offering. Lee is an interesting character and she has a prior relationship with DI Gordon from another book (also long out of print) that is slightly flirtatious despite the fact that she is married (which may not please some people) but it didn’t bother me because it made for a really interesting dynamic in a clever murder mystery.

The Christmas Alibi by J G Colgan

It’s 1938 and a Christmas house party is assembling near Hexham. The host is a retired colonel, Monty and among the guests are his niece along with several men she has been entangled with and their wives. Among the men are a newspaper journalist, an MP and a man injured fighting against the Fascists in Spain. At the end of a ghost story, one of the guests is dead and as they are snowed in, the house party set about investigating whether it was suicide or if there is a murderer on the loose. This is a newly written book, but with a cover designed to make you think that it is in fact a classic mystery* and it felt a bit like the author was throwing every 1930s history event that they could think of at it. It’s pretty readable as you’re going along, but I didn’t think it stuck the landing on the ending – probably because of all the plot that was going on. Definitely one where you get to the end and realise you had more problems with it than you thought! There’s promise in there, but it needed more work. Why am I including it? Well if your algorithm is anything like mine, it’s been bringing it up as a recommendation for about a month now, so i thought it was worth reporting back!

And that’s your lot – and probably my lot for Christmas reading this year. I mean until I discover a Christmas book on the to-read shelf that I just have to read right now (probably in June). Thank you for reading the blog this year – and have a great night if you’re celebrating tonight, and no matter how good or bad your 2025 has been, may your 2026 be better.

Happy New Year everyone.

*there are quite a lot of these about – Hugh Morrison is definitely doing something similar with his covers and there are some that are even more BLCC coded out there.