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.

Liza lives with her reclusive mother, Eve, in the gatehouse of Shrove, a remote English country house. Liza has never been to school and has been kept apart from the world. When Eve is about to arrested for murder, she sends Liza away to a friend in London. Instead Liza runs off with the boyfriend she had met recently. She spends much of the book, like Scheherazade, telling the story of her life to Sean, as she gradually learns to live in the world.

The story may be quiet and …continue.

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.

Twenty years after her dis­ap­pear­ance, the body of teenager Sarah Crosswhite is found. Her older sister Tracy, now a Seattle detective, believes that the man convicted of Sarah's abduction was framed, and sets out to overturn his conviction. But some people in her hometown are not happy about this.

Dugoni is an en­ter­tain­ing sto­ry­teller. The plot moves along briskly, with enough twists and turns to keep one on the hook. However, the story was pre­dictable and not par­tic­u­lar­ly original.

Four long novellas about Dalziel and Pascoe: "Fat Andy" Dalziel, the crude and wily Yorkshire su­per­in­ten­dent, and Peter Pascoe, the university-educated, much politer detective inspector. The stories include their first meeting and their last case, set in the future of 2010, in­ves­ti­gat­ing a murder on the moon. The stories are en­ter­tain­ing, combining decent plotting with good char­ac­ter­i­za­tion.

An Irish newspaper magnate has been found with his head blown off by a shotgun. Quirke, the pathol­o­gist, looks into it and realizes that it's not suicide but murder. As he digs deeper, he finds secrets that the wealthy elite of 1950s Dublin do not want revealed, and he finds himself drawn to the dead man's French widow.

Benjamin Black (aka John Banville) deftly recreates 1950s Ireland through the eyes of Quirke, who, though well placed, is more of an observer than an insider, and of …continue.

It's 1592 and Elizabeth I has ruled England for nearly 35 years. The Virgin Queen has never named her heir, creating both un­cer­tain­ty and op­por­tu­ni­ty. John Shake­speare used to be an "in­tel­li­gencer" for the late Sir Francis Walsingham, Eliz­a­beth's spymaster. With reluctance, Shake­speare is drawn back into that life when the Earl of Essex insists upon com­mi­sion­ing him to find a woman who should be dead—a survivor of the lost Roanoke settlement has been sighted in London. Essex wants her as does his mysterious ally, a …continue.

As I mentioned last week, we've been listening to some audiobooks. We finished listening to The Bee­keep­er's Apprentice last night. I read the book many years ago and I've read most of the subsequent books in the Mary Russell series.

Fifteen-year-old Mary Russell is walking on the Sussex Downs with her head in a book one spring day in 1915, when she literally trips over Sherlock Holmes. Although Holmes is almost four decades her senior, the two brilliant, lonely people become friends and Holmes tutors Russell in the …continue.

Detective Inspector Tony McLean of the Edinburgh Police has multiple deaths to deal with: an elderly rich man, murdered horribly; the newly discovered corpse of a girl killed in some ghoulish ritual sixty years ago; and the death of the grand­moth­er who raised him. Then more elderly men start being murdered.

I enjoyed this police procedural and I liked the character of Tony McLean. The two cases start dove­tail­ing together (one of my pet peeves) and I was surprised when the author introduced su­per­nat­ur­al elements, since I had thought it …continue.

Marsh Tanner is a San Francisco private in­ves­ti­ga­tor. His secretary Peggy is starting to unravel, as she's been getting sexually harassing phone calls for months, which she's hidden from Marsh. Thing is, she's also started to develop a case of Stockholm syndrome with her stalker. Marsh discovers more about Peggy—and him­self—than he really wants to.

Moderately enjoyable. I found the plot and the characters plausible, unlike so many modern stories.