Review:- Ann GRANGER – “A Better Quality of murder”

Year Published: - 2010
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978 0 7553 4908 1
Pages: - 312pp
Genre: - Historical Crime
Location:- Victorian London, 1867
How I came across it: - Reading through this author’s works.
Rating: - ***** ***
One sentence summary:- This is the third Lizzie Martin and Inspector Ben Ross crime story.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:-
A spooky creature known as The River Wraith is frightening prostitues alongside the Thames but is he responsible for the murder of a woman in London’s Green Park. As Ben begins to investigate his wife Lizzie gets herself involved.

AUTHOR Notes:- see A Rare Interest in Corpses

Rerview – Ann GRANGER – “Mud, muck and dead things”

Year Published: - 2009
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978 0 7553 2051 6
Pages: - 281pp
Genre: - Cosy crime
Location:- Cotswolds
How I came across it: - Continuing to read this author’s works
Rating: - ***** ***
One sentence summary:- Inspector Jess Campbell investigates the discovery of a dead girl in a lonely and deserted barn while ta the same time coping with a new superintendent, Ian Carter.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- Lucas Barton hates the countryside. To him it’s nothing but mud, much and dead things. Unfortunately when he turns up at a lonely barn for an illicit rendezvous he finds out that the dead things can include young girls. He flees the scene but is spotted by Penny Gower, a local stable owner. It isn’t that long before Barton gets a visit from someone he’d rather not get involved with...

General comments:- This new series of Campbell and Carter looks like a worthy partner for the Mitchell and Markby crime novels. Ann Granger is rapidly becoming one of my favourite cosy crime writers.

AUTHOR Notes:- See A rare interest in corpses.

Review:- Ann GRANGER – “A Restless Evil”

Year Published: - 2002
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 0 7472 7472 X
Pages: - 280pp
Genre: - Cosy crime
Location:- Cotswolds
How I came across it: - Continuing this author’s works
Rating: - ***** ****
One sentence summary:- Detective Superintendent Alan Markby and his fiancee Meredith Mitchell go house-hunting only to find themselves embroiled in a twenty year mystery and a much more recent murder.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:-
Markby is foolish enough to house-hunt in the very village which had left him with an unsolved case twenty years earlier. The finding of some old human bones in the local wood lead to death rearing it’s ugly head.

General comments:- A great skill at story-telling combined with a good plot, realistic locations and a likeable pair of sleuths make this a first rate cosy crime novel.

The series so far:-
Mitchell and Markby Village
1. Say It With Poison (1991)
2. A Season For Murder (1991)
3. Cold In The Earth (1992)
4. Murder Among Us (1992)
5. Where Old Bones Lie (1993)
6. A Fine Place For Death (1994)
7. Flowers For His Funeral (1994)
8. Candle For A Corpse (1995)
9. A Touch Of Mortality (1996)
10. A Word After Dying (1996)
11. Call The Dead Again (1998)
12. Beneath These Stones (1999)
13. Shades of Murder (2000)
14. A Restless Evil (2002)
15. That Way Murder Lies (2004)

AUTHOR Notes:- Ann Granger, born 1939, held various jobs in the diplomatic service and now lives near Oxford.

Review:- Ann GRANGER – “A Mortal Curiosity”

Year Published: - 2008
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978 0 7553 2048 6
Pages: - 312pp
Genre: - Historical crime
Location:- Hampshire, 1864
How I came across it: - Continuing this author’s works
Rating: - ***** ****
One sentence summary:- The second Lizze Martin /Ben Ross crime story sees Lizzie involvced in more murders as she goes to be a companion in Hampshire.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:-
Lizzie is asked to be a companion to a woman who is recovering from childbirth but whose child has died. The woman will not accept that herchild is dead but there’s no do8bting the corpse in the garden has departed this life.

General comments:- Set in 1864 the background detail is as much fun as the criminal element of Ann Granger’s story

AUTHOR Notes:- Ann Granger, born 1939, held various jobs in the diplomatic service and now lives near Oxford.

Review:- Ann GRANGER – “A Rare Interest in Corpses”

Year Published: - 2006
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 0 7553 2042 5
Pages: - 310pp
Genre: - Historical Crime
Location:- Victorian London
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** *****
One sentence summary:- A Rare Interest in Corpses is the first in a series of Victorian crime novels by established author Ann. Granger.

Also published as ‘The Companion’

Describe the plot without giving anything away:-
It is 1864 when Lizzie Martin from Derbyshire takes up the post of companion to a wealthy London woman – the widow of her godfather. Lizzie is intrigued to learn that her predecessor as companion disappeared, supposedly having run off with an unknown man. But the girl's body is found in the rubble of one of the recently demolished slums around the prestigious new railway station at St Pancras. Lizzie has re-made the acquaintance of a childhood friend, now Inspector Benjamin Ross. The pair of them go their largely separate ways to track down the person responsible.

General comments:- The atmosphere of Victorian London is brilliantly evoked on the first few pages and continues throughout the book. The plot is gripping and the various candidates for villain are paraded before the reader who would be hard pressed to identify them before the end. All in all an excellent book and i’m looking forward to the next ones in the series - 2. A Mortal Curiosity (2008) and 3. A Better Quality of Murder (2010)


Quotations:
“I am an old-fashioned fellow who believes that woman is the greatest ornament to her sex when she realises the boundaries nature has set for her. Perhaps your hero Darwin should have given some thought to that when he was drawing up his ideas on natural selection.” (Which just goes to show there can be villains of various sorts in a book!)

AUTHOR Notes:- Ann Granger, born 1939, held various jobs in the diplomatic service and now lives near Oxford.