Benjamin Black (the mystery-writing pseudonym of Irish novelist, John Banville) channels Raymond Chandler as he writes a Philip Marlowe novel. Robert Parker wrote a couple of books about a quarter-century ago with the approval of the Chandler estate. Black's book is also authorized.

The book has all the familiar elements of a Marlowe novel: the femme fatale of the title, the idle rich, ungrateful offspring and murderous staff, cynical cops, the baking heat of California, beatings and booze, Marlowe cracking wise, and the trademark Chan­dleresque similes.

If you like Chandler, you'll probably like Black's con­tri­bu­tion to the …continue.

The first in a series about Sir John Fielding, the blind magistrate who founded the Bow Street Runners, London's first pro­fes­sion­al police force in 1749. Jeremy Proctor, a newly orphaned 13-year-old, is taken under Sir John's wing and assists him in dis­cov­er­ing how the rakish Lord Goodhope was murdered in a locked room.

Although I figured out the murderer halfway through, I still enjoyed both the plot and the characters. Alexander vividly brings Georgian London to life.

Occupied France, January 1943. Detectives Jean-Louis St-Cyr and Hermann Kohler are sent to the German submarine base at Lorient in Brittany to in­ves­ti­gate a murder. The Gross-Admiral wants a quick resolution to the case since the prime suspect is a U-Boat captain known as the Dollmaker, whose crew are de­mor­al­ized after many months of punishing cruises and who won't go back to sea without him.

St-Cyr and Kohler are unlikely partners, a Chief Inspector from the Sûreté in Paris and a longtime criminal policeman now in the Gestapo. Both are …continue.

The Rosetti siblings, Christina, Dante (Gabriel), Maria, and William, are haunted by the vampire who was once their uncle, John Polidori. The vampires pos­ses­sive­ly love certain humans and grant those humans great powers of creativity. Christina both loves her uncle and yearns to be free of him. The other humans who receive the attentions of the vampires likewise feel both a forbidden attraction and a horrified repulsion at their own potential damnation.

Tim Powers is known for his “secret histories”, wherein he takes historical …continue.

Mary Russell—Sherlock Holmes' much younger wife—in­ves­ti­gates the odd goings on in a British silent film company that's making a pirate film on location in Lisbon and Morocco in 1924. The filmmakers get more than they bargained for, as the rogues they cast as pirates seem to be real pirates.

A decent entry in this series.

In 1942, Ernest Hemingway ran a counter-espionage ring and submarine-seeking operation from Cuba. Staffed by amateurs, it was approved by the American ambassador. The narrator, Joe Lucas, is sent by J. Edgar Hoover to infiltrate Hem­ing­way's op. There seems to be a lot of espionage going on in Cuba and it looks like Hemingway is being set up for something.

Based loosely on true events, this is en­ter­tain­ing, if a tad longwinded and confusing.

Tom Musgrave, sword master and master of logic, is called away from the Eliz­a­bethan court to the Scottish borders, where his brother has been found dead­—ap­par­ent­ly frozen in terror by the sight of a hellhound. Musgrave uncovers a nest of intrigue and murder when he returns home to in­ves­ti­gate.

Tonkin has written a good historical mystery, though I found the pro­ta­gan­ist's ra­ti­o­ci­na­tive powers improbable.

Two mysteries are in­ter­twined in this novel. In the present day, a long-lost diary of Arthur Conan Doyle's from 1900 has apparently been re­dis­cov­ered, but the finder has been murdered, while in 1900, Doyle and Bram Stoker in­ves­ti­gate the murder of several young women.

The two mysteries are artfully in­ter­twined and the plots move along nicely. I was irritated by the author's ignorance of Victorian England—"It was a Victorian-era shilling, worth only five pennies in its day" (twelve, dammit, until dec­i­mal­i­sa­tion in 1971)—and weak grasp of ACD's style.

A murder in Sussex bears sim­i­lar­i­ties to another recent murder in Scotland, but what could the link between the two men be? One of the victims left a half-written letter addressed to John Madden, who is now retired from Scotland Yard. Soon there are more victims and Madden and the police struggle to find the killer.

Airth evokes both the First and Second World Wars, exploring the damage done to those who survived and the injustices visited upon some who did not.