Death Knows No Distinction by Lucienne Boyce# Blog Tour# Rachel’sRandom Resources# Historical Fiction#

Death Makes No Distinction: A Dan Foster Mystery
Two women at opposite ends of the social scale, both brutally murdered.

Principal Officer Dan Foster of the Bow Street Runners is surprised when his old rival John Townsend requests his help to investigate the murder of Louise Parmeter, a beautiful writer who once shared the bed of the Prince of Wales. Her jewellery is missing, savagely torn from her body. Her memoirs, which threaten to expose the indiscretions of the great and the good, are also missing.

Frustrated by the chief magistrate’s demand that he drop the investigation into the death of the unknown beggar woman, found savagely raped and beaten and left to die in the outhouse of a Holborn tavern, Dan is determined to get to the bottom of both murders. But as his enquiries take him into both the richest and the foulest places in London, and Townsend’s real reason for requesting his help gradually becomes clear, Dan is forced to face a shocking new reality when the people he loves are targeted by a shadowy and merciless adversary.

The investigation has suddenly got personal.

Purchase Links
Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Death-Makes-No-Distinction-Lucienne-Boyce/9781781328835?ref=grid-view&qid=1566655590217&sr=1-3
Wordery https://wordery.com/death-makes-no-distinction-lucienne-boyce-9781781328835?cTrk=MTYwMDMwMzgwfDVkNjE0NDg5MmE2NDk6MTo1OjVkNjE0NDgzODI2YjM5LjMyOTk5NDA2OjBhZWYwZjQz
Foyles Bookshop https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fiction-poetry/death-makes-no-distinction,lucienne-boyce-9781781328835
Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Makes-No-Distinction-Mystery/dp/1781328838
Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/Death-Makes-No-Distinction-Mystery/dp/1781328838

My Thoughts and Review:

This is the third in the Dan Foster series but works well as a stand alone. Dan is called into investigate the murder of Louise Parmeter, a beautiful writer who once shared the bed of the Prince of Wales. Her jewellery is missing  Torn from her body with a certain amount of force. Also missing are her memoirs, naming the indiscretions   of the great and good?

Dan is a principal officer in the Bow Street runners, who are charged with policing the streets and alleyways of Georgian London. There are a lot of anomalies concerning this case and the deeper Dan digs the more obstacles he finds in his way.  Was the murder for profit or was it to keep someone’s indiscretions from seeing the light of day.

This was a a refreshing read. Set in Georgian London the absence of the technology we are so acquainted with makes the time the book is set in  a great read for our jaded pallets. Lucienne has not only written a superb story but the amount of painstaking research she has done stand out and it adds to the story.

A book I’m sure you the reader will enjoy.

Author Bio –

Lucienne Boyce writes historical fiction, non-fiction and biography. After gaining an MA in English Literature (with Distinction) with the Open University in 2007, specialising in eighteenth-century fiction, she published her first historical novel, To The Fair Land, in 2012, an eighteenth-century thriller set in Bristol and the South Seas.

Her second novel, Bloodie Bones: A Dan Foster Mystery (2015) is the first of the Dan Foster Mysteries and follows the fortunes of a Bow Street Runner who is also an amateur pugilist. Bloodie Bones was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016, and was also a semi-finalist for the M M Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction 2016. The second Dan Foster Mystery, The Butcher’s Block, was published in 2017 and was awarded an Indie Brag Medallion in 2018. The third in the series, Death Makes No Distinction, was published in 2019. In 2017 an e-book Dan Foster novella, The Fatal Coin, was trade published by SBooks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children of Fire by Paul W.C Beatty#Blog Blitz#Rachel’sRandomResources#Crime#HistoricalFiction.

Thanks to Rachel Gilbey for inviting me on this Book Blitz.

Children of Fire
Can Josiah solve the puzzle before more people die, or is he out of his depth?
In 1841, at the height of the industrial revolution in the North West of England, Josiah Ainscough returns from his travels and surprises everyone by joining the Stockport Police Force, rather than following his adopted father’s footsteps into the Methodist ministry.

While Josiah was abroad, five men died in an explosion at the Furness Vale Powder Mill. Was this an accident or did the Children of Fire, a local religious community, have a hand in it. As Josiah struggles to find his vocation, his investigation into the Children of Fire begins. But his enquiries are derailed by the horrific crucifixion of the community’s leader.

Now Josiah must race against time to solve the puzzle of the violence loose in the Furness Vale before more people die. This is complicated by his affections for Rachael, a leading member of the Children of Fire, and the vivacious Aideen Hayes, a visitor from Ireland.

Can Josiah put together the pieces of the puzzle, or is he out of his depth? Children of Fire won the Writing Magazine’s Best Novel Prize for 2017

Purchase Links
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1912083469/
US – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1912083469/

MY THOUGHTS AND REVIEW:

This was my first read by this author and a real step out of my comfort zone. I don’t read much historical fiction, but I do like crime and an investigation. So looking at the blurb it seemed to tick some boxes for me. So I decided to give it a whirl and I’m glad I did. This book had a great storyline and crisp economic prose. I settled into the author’s voice and looked forward to the tale he was going to tell me.

Set in 1841 at the height of the industrial revolution the story is told through the eyes of Josiah Ainscough, who decided to join the Stockport Police Force rather than follow his father and becoming a Methodist clergyman.

There has been an explosion at the Furness Vale Powder Mill. Was this an accident? Some persons don’t think so and the blame is cast upon The Children of Fire a local, and to some, extreme religious group.

Josiah is tasked with the investigating this community, because of his religious beliefs or because some people think the investigation will be wrapped up quickly and the status quo will quickly re-establish itself. The more Josiah investigates the deeper and murkier the waters seem. The case not only involves possible religious extremism, but also political intrigue. Also Josiah finds himself torn between to forceful women. Can an investigating officer afford affairs of the heart?

This was a great read, with top quality writing and with none of the technology and forensic evidence that clutters the modern read. I enjoyed this book. You might also!

Author Bio –
Paul CW Beatty is an unusual combination of a novelist and a research scientist. Having worked for many years in medical research in the UK NHS and Universities, a few years ago he took an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University emerging with a distinction.

His latest novel, Children of Fire, is a Victorian murder mystery set in 1841 at the height of the industrial revolution. It won the Writing Magazine’s Best Novel Award in November 2017 and is published by The Book Guild Ltd.

Paul lives near Manchester in the northwest of England. Children of Fire is set against the hills of the Peak District as well as the canals and other industrial infrastructure of the Cottonopolis know as the City of Manchester.
Social Media Links – Twitter @cw_beatty