Tag:

20Th Century

Review

The Bookbinder’s Code

by Jeff Ayers

In 1903 Oxford, Lilian “Lily” Delaney runs a bookbinding shop and bookstore with her business partner and mentor, John Caxton. At home, her boyfriend, Harry, wants to make things official and get married so they can stop pretending to be mere roommates, but Lily wants nothing to do with losing her identity, which is exactly what she fears will happen the moment she says yes to a ring. Then, a knock on the door sends Caxton spiraling: he closes the shop and disappears without explanation. Determined to find answers, Lily searches his office and uncovers a journal filled with coded messages. Deciphering them draws her into a web involving Caxton’s former colleagues; a legendary book, the Liber Numerorum (The Book of Numbers), which supposedly doesn’t even exist; and a ruthless man willing to kill for it. As Lily’s carefully built life unravels, her pursuit of the truth may cost her everything, including her life. Bell delivers a terrific follow-up to The Bookbinder’s Secret, unveiling another compelling mystery packed with codes, clues, and deception. What truly makes this series sing, though, is Lily herself, a fantastic character who would fit seamlessly into contemporary society. A woman with her talent, drive, and relentless pursuit of the truth in the early twentieth century has to fight twice as hard to solve the mystery and claim the life she wants. The rich glimpse into the world of bookbinding is a bonus to this outstanding book and great series.—Jeff Ayers

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Article

Murder on 34th Street

by Willy Williams

Book of the Week August 27, 2026

It’s a chill November afternoon in 1932, the day before the ninth annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Grace Verlander, the assistant to the store’s head of personnel, receives a note from Santa Claus saying that his life has been threatened. Who would want to kill jolly old St. Nick, or rather, gentle, sixty-ish Harry Gardner, who works in children’s shoes? Having been put in charge of talent for the parade and having cast Harry in the iconic role, Grace must now ensure his safety and enlists the head of store security, Frank Halsey, to protect Harry. Unfortunately, at the end of the parade, Halsey is found shot to death in the workshop on Santa’s float, and Grace turns store detective to identify the killer. Fredericks’ fourth historical standalone after The Girl in the Green Dress is a holiday charmer, mixing fascinating, immersive behind-the-scenes details about the world’s largest department store (the author did her homework!) with a vintage New York Christmas atmosphere and a touch of romance. Grace is a fantastic protagonist: whip-smart, funny, and empathetic, she passionately loves her job and her Macy’s coworkers. Readers may also want to rewatch Fredericks’s obvious inspiration, the classic 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street.—Willy Williams

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Review

Cold Sunset

by Dodie Ownes

Life is good for travel writer Gabriel Dax—his books are doing well, and he’s enjoying time in London and his country cottage planning his next title. But when MI6 handler Faith Green informs him that he is needed, this time to get a double agent out of Russia, he brushes off his passport and takes orders. Using his artifice skills (he thinks) to avoid confrontations with Russians, or maybe the Mafia or an insider, Dax skips from the UK to the U.S, Russia, and Finland, with some stops in between during Cold War 1964, an intriguing period in international espionage. I fell for Dax immediately—he’s a Gitane chain smoker, a low-key intellectual, and still a bit naive on how all these spying things work. And he doesn’t mind the attention of dangerous women who may or may not be trying to kill him. Boyd builds this smart tale with a delicious push and pull to the storyline, teasing readers who are trying to work out who will be taken out next. We even get to sit in on Dax’s therapy sessions! It’s easy to drop into this thriller, even though it’s the third in the series. After meeting Gabriel Dax, though, you may want to go back to the beginning; Gabriel’s Moon is the first book in the series and after that is The Predicament.—Dodie Ownes

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Review

Unspeakable Things

by Dodie Ownes

Hand, Elizabeth. Unspeakable Things. October 13, 2026. 368 pages. Little, Brown.

Belonging in the upper class in 1920s England is very much about birth and not wealth, with 18-year-old Olivia, or Livvie, living in Kerrith, a stately home in Cornwall, with her widowed father and a coterie of servants. Only there aren’t as many servants as one would like, the house is rented, and they’re in the wilds of Cornwall because Pater’s career is fading and everyone who matters knows that his chauffeur isn’t just that. Livvie herself, who sometimes goes by Oliver and dresses as a boy, is in a passionate affair with Tamsin, a local girl she met on the moor. Livvie tries to limit their relationship even after she finagles Tamsin moving into Kerrith, but it’s no use, they’re devoted, and when a visiting cousin brings Livvie to an upscale weekend party, Tamsin’s in tow. They’re secretly fleeing a death at Kerrith, with Tamsin the last person to speak to the deceased, and on the weekend away, a bizarre undercurrent of death continues while Hand skewers the always-on-the-take life of England’s wealthy. This puts class under a microscope, with offhand comments and tiptoeing meanness the currency of these people’s awful but engrossing lives. One for fans of Downton Abbey and all who enjoy a besotted relationship with a toxic undercurrent.—Henrietta Thornton

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Review

The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies

by Brian Kenney

A delightful take on espionage fiction, laced liberally with wit, mystery, romance, and a bit of Muriel Spark. It’s 1951, and England is busy putting itself back together, from physical infrastructure to its notorious class system. The setting is Oxford, where we are introduced to two students who couldn’t be more unalike: Honorable Ginevra Bishop (destined to wear red lipstick and earn top marks) and Sidney Braithwaite (from a mining family and now a war veteran who wants a successful career). The two are brilliant at ignoring each other, but M15 has its ways, and soon enough Gin and Sidney are working together to track down a poison victim and seek out a Soviet spy. Who could be next? While there is plenty of antipathy between the two, there’s also quite a bit of romantic tension, which rears itself from times to time. For fans of historical cozies and fun-yet-frightening spy capers.—Brian Kenney

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Review

The Spies of Hartlake Hall

by Danise Hoover

The year is 1917, and we begin in a seemingly mundane office of the Admiralty, where a seemingly mundane secretary finds a dead body in a locked room. She is, of course, an agent, as is her supervisor. In the dead man’s possession is a secret coded telegram that belongs in the admiral’s safe. Thus begins an incredibly tangled story of spies and deception with all the players invited to a country-house shooting party. Gallagher, boss of Mrs. Vane, our secretary, has engineered the weekend event at his stepfather’s house with the intent of smoking out the traitors and planting the right kind of misinformation in the correct ears. A greedy underhanded American, a misguided but loyal Armenian, terrible food, and cold drafty rooms liven things up.  Graham pays some homage to Agatha Christie in that members of the group keep dropping off, but there are plenty left to finish up the story. Those with poor name memory will do well to take notes, as this is as convoluted as it is entertaining.—Danise Hoover

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Review

Ruby Falls

by Dodie Ownes

Times are hard everywhere in 1928, but when Leo Lambert discovers a huge underground waterfall in a cave system outside Chattanooga, he is convinced it can be a moneymaker and names it after his wife, Ruby. There are curiosity seekers, but Ruby Falls needs something sensational to bring the crowds and their coins to town. Enter Professor Jeremiah Hagathorn, known all over the Midwest for his mind-reading skills, whom Leo challenges to find a hatpin hidden somewhere in the six miles of caves around Ruby Falls. With a small entourage in tow, including a newspaper reporter and Hagathorn’s wife, Editha, Hagathorn embarks on his mission. Unbeknownst to the group, Quinton, a cave guide, and Ada, a recent widower who has been secretly roaming the caves, have been charged with following the professor and others to ensure their safety. When the reporter is found dead after their first night in the caves, Hagathorn insists on continuing his quest before returning to the surface to report the murder, despite knowing that the killer is among them. No one is to be trusted, and as supplies dwindle, suspicions grow. Phillips gives readers two stories here—the sensational hatpin search amidst the danger and grandeur of Ruby Falls, and Ada’s grieving for a life never lived, not knowing about the one that lies before her. A historical mystery in a unique setting, adding “locked cave” to the genre vernacular.

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Review

The Italian Secret

by Danise Hoover

In a spectacular example of a post-war noir novel we have Billie Walker, a hardboiled PI following in her father’s tradition, with her specialty helping women out of terrible marriages by finding evidence of infidelity. The Sydney, Australia PI has a loyal and supportive staff, an attractive police officer to back her up, and a mystery in her background. In her father’s files, she finds an old picture, taken in an Italian town near Naples, of him, another woman, and a young girl. There follows the suspicious death of a client, a sea voyage with her mother to Naples, vendettas, the search for her father’s other family, and a deadly chase through the tunnels under the city. This is non-stop action, with an authenticity of mood, clothing, travel detail, and attitude that makes it special.

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Review

The Devil in Oxford

by Danise Hoover

Christmas in Oxford sounds like a good idea. But as might be predicted by anyone acquainted with Ruby and her housemate and employer, Mr. Owens, that is likely a false assumption. While antiquarian books are their business, the Oxford sojourn highlights Egyptian artifacts and brings Ruby back to the harsh memories of her WWI service as an ambulance driver. Her feelings for Ruan, healer and witch, must be confronted, as must her trust in old and dear friends, including Leona, her partner in ambulance duties. Circumstances require much late-night skulking involving lockpicks and a reluctant Ruan as a partner, as well as attendance (unwilling) at overblown parties.In the end, the heroes are found and the evildoers are truly evil, but as with many books in this series, reading is easier if one starts at volume one. Smuggling, murder, and cocaine are mixed within a roiling undercurrent of social and political tension in an atmosphere of scholarship. A nicely drawn period piece.

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Review

A Death on Corfu

by Brian Kenney

The island of Corfu at the turn of the 20th century, with its native Greek population, large British expat community, and tensions therein, provides an excellent background for crime fiction. When her husband died unexpectedly several years ago, Minnie Harper was left with two children to raise on a modest income, with a deathbed promise to her husband that the family would remain in Corfu. Well-educated Minnie isn’t in the position to turn down a side gig, so when she is asked by her neighbor Stephen Dorian—a well-known, and handsome, mystery author—to type the manuscript of his latest book, she can only say yes. Despite her loathing of the man. But just as the two seem to settle into a disagreeable routine, Minnie discovers that one of the island’s young Greek women, who works as a maid, has been murdered. And the British community is doing its very best to ignore the murder, if not actually suppress it, while the local Greeks, for different reasons, are keeping their lips sealed. But Minnie isn’t about to let justice go undone, and with the help of Stephen, she heads off where no British woman has gone before her. Fans of The Durrells in Corfu, a hugely popular Masterpiece Theater drama set in the ‘30s, will appreciate this prequel of sorts, as will fans of cozy historical mysteries by Rhys Bowen, Jacqueline Winspear, and Amanda Flower.

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