A Bespoke Murder (Audible Audio Edition) Edward Marston Gordon Griffin Soundings Books
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May 1915. With thousands of Britons fighting in the trenches, a severely depleted police force remains behind to keep the Home Front safe. Scotland Yard is already overstretched when the sinking of the Lusitania sparks an unprecedented wave of anti-German riots and arson attacks.
Among the victims is the immigrant tailor Jacob Stein, found dead in his burnt-out shop. Initially Jacob's killing appears to be the tragic excess of wartime hysteria - but when it transpires that Jacob had been stabbed, his safe ransacked, and his daughter Ruth raped, the possibility that these assaults were long-premeditated crimes becomes unavoidable.
Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Keedy must take on this case of cover-ups and contradictions and track down Jacob's killer and Ruth's assailants.
A Bespoke Murder (Audible Audio Edition) Edward Marston Gordon Griffin Soundings Books
The sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by a German submarine and the subsequent loss of civilian lives was one of the great tragedies of World War I.That tragedy was compounded in England because the sinking led to violence against German immigrants and Jews by mobs of British citizens bent on a misguided retaliation for what they considered to be the murder of innocent men, women, and children by a ruthless enemy.
It is against that backdrop that author Edward Marston has fashioned an interesting murder mystery featuring two London-based police detectives trying to solve the murder of a German tailor, the looting and robbery of his shop, and the rape of his teenage daughter. The investigation ultimately takes them to the front lines of the war in France as well as throughout the London metropolitan area.
Marston flavors his narrative with some interesting secondary characters: Lusitania crew members who survived the torpedoing and are now trying to piece together their lives; a young female teacher who wants to do more to help the war effort; and Jewish families trying to cope with anti-Semitism.
"A Bespoke Murder" is written in a straightforward style. There are not a lot of twists and turns in the plot, making this novel read like a police procedural. What sets it apart from that genre is the fact Marston gives readers much more than a passing glance at the lives of the detectives and of some of the secondary characters.
An interesting read set in a momentous period in world history, I give it four stars.
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A Bespoke Murder (Audible Audio Edition) Edward Marston Gordon Griffin Soundings Books Reviews
Writing certainly occupies much time and energy for Edward Marston, the prolific author from South Wales--and each time I pick up one of his books I always feel that not only will I be entertained, but that I will also learn something. Marston writes children's books, literary criticism, and plays in addition to his more popular historical crime novels.
Now, in "A Bespoke Murder," Mr. Marston takes us to a World War I setting, or rather to events that are quickly making this "War to End all Wars" a global undertaking and tragedy. He opens with scenes from the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, wherein we meet Irene Bayard and Ernie Gill, two employees of the luxury ship, who, through skill, good luck, and Providence, survive. They are to play a further role in the plot's development.
Marston then takes us to England where news of the sinking (and the general political climate on the Continent) has kindled much furor, anxiety, and demonstrations against Germans in particular. So much so that in this anarchy and "mob behavior," Jacob Stein's tailor shop in Jermyn Street is torched and the tailor is found dead inside. His daughter Ruth escaped but not before being brutalized and raped by demonstrators. When police investigate the fire, they discover that Jacob was murdered before the shop was set ablaze. Jacob is Jewish and his name, for the demonstrators, is "too German" and he deserved what he got.
Here we now meet the two central characters of this police procedural
Inspector Harvey Marmion and Joe Keedy, his sergeant, two more-than-capable police officers Marmion, older and wiser and definitely a family man, and Keedy, younger, brash, handsome, and NOT a family man.
"A Bespoke Murder" is in good hands with Marston, who knows a thing or two about crime fiction (he's a former chairman of the Crime Writers Association). Marston is adept at handling a not-too-complicated plot line, fleshing out the story with the requisite side-bars, one of which, naturally, is the romantic interests of Keedy and Marmion's daughter (which no doubt will be a continued "cause" in later books of this series). In addition, Marston makes a good attempt at giving the reader a substantial "view" of the overall picture of this War, although he clearly lets us know that this is a "home front" view, and not meant to be a "war novel." It reads fast, is not complicated, and holds the readers' interests. This is the first in his Home Front Detective series and we wish him well for a continued success.
I started to read this book, because the author writes great medieval mysteries (Domesday Books) and I thought I'd give this series a try.
It starts with the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, then jumps to an attack on a Jewish tailor's shop in London by a mob hysterical with anti-German fever. During the attack, the tailor is murdered, his shop (and corpse) burned and his daughter is raped as she tries to run to safety.
With these events, a new hero and sidekick are introduced. Inspector Harvey Marmion and his partner, Joe Keedy are assigned to solve the London crimes of arson, murder and rape. How does the Lusitania fit it to this? You don't think I'd give away any hints do you?
The book starts rather slow and the dialogue between the characters, especially on the Lusitania, seems a little stilted. But it does pickup and I became more and more interested in this novel.
You will be taken from the terror of being on a sinking ship, to the terror of a young woman as she is assaulted, to the Inspector Marmion's family life as his 20s something daughter, Alice, seeks her independence in 1915 England.
WWI is the backdrop for this book and as a result, there is little "forensic science"; only fingerprinting (in its infancy) and mugshots assist the detectives as they try to identify suspects and solve the horrific crimes.
I have to confess I had only partially guessed who was involved and was caught off guard at the end.
The one issue I had with this book is that it's a little more graphic than the Domesday books (at least during the rape). The rest of the book is fairly "clean" in language and detail.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good, solid mystery.
The sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by a German submarine and the subsequent loss of civilian lives was one of the great tragedies of World War I.
That tragedy was compounded in England because the sinking led to violence against German immigrants and Jews by mobs of British citizens bent on a misguided retaliation for what they considered to be the murder of innocent men, women, and children by a ruthless enemy.
It is against that backdrop that author Edward Marston has fashioned an interesting murder mystery featuring two London-based police detectives trying to solve the murder of a German tailor, the looting and robbery of his shop, and the rape of his teenage daughter. The investigation ultimately takes them to the front lines of the war in France as well as throughout the London metropolitan area.
Marston flavors his narrative with some interesting secondary characters Lusitania crew members who survived the torpedoing and are now trying to piece together their lives; a young female teacher who wants to do more to help the war effort; and Jewish families trying to cope with anti-Semitism.
"A Bespoke Murder" is written in a straightforward style. There are not a lot of twists and turns in the plot, making this novel read like a police procedural. What sets it apart from that genre is the fact Marston gives readers much more than a passing glance at the lives of the detectives and of some of the secondary characters.
An interesting read set in a momentous period in world history, I give it four stars.
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