"Atmospheric, character-centric historical mystery" - review of THE BURNING GROUNDS

THE BURNING GROUNDS by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker, 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

In the Burning Ghats of Calcutta, where the dead are laid to rest, a man is found murdered, his throat cut from ear to ear. The body is that of a popular philanthropist and patron of the arts. A man, who was, by all accounts, beloved by all. So what could possibly be the motive for murder? 

Though out of favour with the Imperial Police Force, Detective Sam Wyndham is assigned to the case, and finds himself thrust into the glamorous world of cinema when his investigation leads him to a film the victim was funding.

Meanwhile Sam's former colleague, Surendranath Banerjee, recently returned from Europe after three years running from the fallout of his last case, is searching for a vanished photographer, one of the first women in the profession. When he discovers the missing woman is somehow linked to Sam's murder investigation, the two men are forced to work together once again—but will Wyndham and Banerjee be able to put their differences aside to solve the case?

After scooping a host of accolades for his contemporary standalone thriller Hunted - most notably both the 2025 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and 2025 British Book Awards (aka the 'Nibbies') Crime & Thriller of the Year, Scottish-Bengali author Abir Mukherjee makes a welcome return to his ancestral homeland and the historical mystery series where he first made his name, with The Burning Grounds, a terrific sixth novel in his Wyndham and Banerjee series set in 1920s India. 

Mukherjee does an exquisite job transporting readers through space and time, and soaking us in the atmosphere of times - the place, people, and politics, as the British Raj was still in control but in decline, and India was moving towards eventual independence. You can almost smell the smoke from the burning ghats and feel sweat trickling as we traverse Calcultta (now Kolkata) and beyond with Sam and 'Surrender-not', the duo that give this historical series plenty of heart among the mysteries. 

In The Burning Grounds, both are still recovering from the events and fallout from the previous book, The Shadows of Men, which saw Banerjee framed for murder, imprisoned, and accused of terrorism. It's an uneasy reunion, a few years later, as cases and dangerous circumstances bring the former friends back into each other's orbits. But can they trust each other, after all that has happened? 

At a time when the country seems on the brink of tearing itself to pieces, and they're each roiling through their own self-sabotaging or self-destructive tendencies, two puzzling cases offer some salve. 

Mukherjee crafts a very good mystery tale that is enriched by his great touch for character and setting. There's plenty of intriguing historic details and perspectives to please history buffs, but not too many where they overwhelm or stall the plot. The Burning Grounds is a propulsive tale that will have pages whirring, but it doesn't feel 'thin'; there's a nice mix of depth and detail, of humanity and whodunnit. 

Overall, this is a very good read that will likely please newer readers to the series, while also delivering plenty for long-time fans. Mukherjee has shown with Hunted that he also has a good touch for contemporary tales, but hopefully there's still plenty of mileage left in the investigations and adventures of Detective Sam Wyndham and fellow sleuth Surendranath 'Surrender-not' Banerjee. Recommended. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"The LeBron James of crime fiction" - review of IRONWOOD

IRONWOOD by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company, 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated—by twenty-two miles of ocean—from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven.

 

Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off.

 

An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island, and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong.

Michael Connelly has been entertaining readers and impressing reviewers and awards judges for more than thirty years now, and thankfully shows no signs of easing up. With new audiences also coming to his Los Angeles-set tales through the Ballard and Lincoln Lawyer screen series, alongside ten outstanding seasons of Bosch and Bosch: Legacy starring Titus Welliver as Connelly’s relentless investigator and first-ever series hero, Connelly last year introduced a new series detective. 

We first met LA County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell in Nightshade, where he was serving on scenic Catalina Island, among the other ‘broken toys’, and doggedly pursuing the truth behind the body of an identified young woman being pulled from the local harbour - despite being sidelined from the murder investigation being led by his nemesis. Now in Ironwood, Stilwell is confronted by a murder that hits very close to home, after he and his deputies Ramirez and Quigley are ambushed when a tip-off about late-night drug trafficking at a remote airstrip goes horribly wrong. Benched while an internal inquiry is underway, Stilwell can’t sit still. Determined to find out who set up his deputies, he starts his own off-the-books investigation, while also looking into an item of recently turned in lost property that he ties to a woman who reportedly went missing on Catalina Island four years ago. 

Both new and longtime fans of Connelly’s storytelling will find plenty to savour in Ironwood, which expands and adds extra threads to the ‘Bosch universe’ he has built over the past 30+ years on page and screen. It’s a propulsive, one-sitting kind of read that doesn’t feel ‘thin’ or breeze by too quickly; there’s depth to the characters and sense of place, alongside intriguing storylines. Stilwell has many of the qualities we’ve come to admire in Connelly’s other key heroes – Harry Bosch, ‘Lincoln lawyer’ Mickey Haller, crime reporter Jack McEvoy, and Renee Ballard – in terms of his determination to uncover the truth and find justice, no matter the personal cost, while also having his own traits. 

In Ironwood, Stilwell is fully welcomed into the Connelly universe, briefly encountering Bosch, then working on the case of the missing hiker with Detective Ballard and her LAPD Open-Unsolved Unit. Both cases get increasingly complicated, and dangerous. Meanwhile Stilwell must still deal with other policing and political matters on the island, including spraypainted monuments and vandalised grapevines. Less life-and-death, perhaps, but vital to his tenure nonetheless. Overall, Connelly spins another very fine yarn, blending cases and characters into a propulsive, satisfying tale and a climax that will have readers wanting another Stilwell book asap. 

The 2023 recipient of the MWA’s Grand Master Award, Connelly in a way is like the LeBron James or Tom Brady of American crime writing – continuing to not only perform at a high level, but evolve and lead the way even as younger, exciting new voices are welcomed to the mystery and thriller genre, and ‘change the game’. A masterful story from a masterful storyteller. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"Sharp dialogue, unforgettable characters" - review of THE FINAL SCORE

THE FINAL SCORE by Don Winslow (HarperCollins, 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

In six all-new short novels written with the trademark literary style, trenchant wit, and incisive characterization that have made Don Winslow “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Providence Journal), this repeat New York Times bestselling author serves up a collection of tales sure to delight Winslow’s most devoted fans and first-time readers.

With a foreword written by award-winning crime author Reed Farrel Coleman, The Final Score is a propulsive, perceptive, and deeply immersive collection of crime writing — the ultimate testament to Don Winslow's prowess as a living legend of the genre.

Masterful storyteller Don Winslow has shown in The Border and The Cartel that he can write epic literary crime novels that tilt the scales around 700 pages, maintaining multi-layered, crisp and compelling storytelling throughout (unlike some bloated tomes from other bestsellers). Now, in The Final Score he underlines that he’s also a dab hand at pitch-perfect short stories; intense tales, memorable characters, high-pressure situations.

In the titular tale, a legendary thief on the cusp of a life sentence plans an audacious casino heist to secure the financial future of those he loves. Elsewhere, we meet an ambitious teen looking to raise college funds by delivering illegal liquor to his town’s residents (“The Sunday List”), two gangsters before a hit sharing breakfast and reminisces (“True Story”); a promising cop facing a life-changing dilemma for love of family (“The North Wing”); and surfer-private eye Boone Daniels and his crew - who feature in earlier Winslow novels like The Dawn Patrol - battling with the high-maintenance, drug-addicted film star they’re hired to protect (“The Lunch Break”).

All building to the lengthiest story, “Collision”, where a moment of madness unfurls a whole new life for a high-achieving hotelier and family man. Short story collections can be tricky to review, as often quality can vary, and different readers may prefer different tales, but in Winslow’s case he knocks it out of the park each and every time. Sharp dialogue, unforgettable characters, tight storytelling.

The Final Score is a delightful buffet of humanity caught up in dark deeds where every morsel is moreish. A treat for long-time Winslow fans, and great entrée for those new to his talents.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"Visceral, powerful, finely crafted" - review of BEARTOOTH

BEARTOOTH by Callan Wink (Spiegel & Grau, April 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Thad and Hazen live off the grid, struggling with debt after the death of their father. Thad, the elder brother, is the capable one, while Hazen is a dreamer, more in tune with the wilderness than with people. Then a shadowy out-of-towner called the Scot appears—dressed in a kilt and with a mysterious young woman in tow. He makes the brothers a proposition that is both lucrative and a federal crime—removing resources from Yellowstone National Park, a scheme that becomes more appealing when their long-gone mother shows up, raising troubling questions about the past. 

A contemporary tale with a timeless feel, Beartooth explores the bonds between brothers, the natural world versus society, and what happens when everything you believed to be true is turned on its head—for worse and for better. 

There’s a deep contrast between the stark beauty of Callan Wink’s writing and the visceral nature of what he describes at times in his sublime novel Beartooth. A literary rural noir centred on the (mis)adventures of a pair of backwoods brothers, we initially meet Thad, the relative brains of the duo, and younger Hazen, the intuitive one, as they’re elbows deep in an eviscerated bear. Freshly poached, emitting smells “with a flavour of nightmare”; the brothers are willing to get bloody as they grasp for the golf-ball sized gall bladders that can bring in as much cash as ten truckloads of firewood.

But how much would they risk in order to preserve their family home and way of life? 

Initially Thad doesn’t entertain the notion put forward by their menacing buyer, ‘the Scot’ to surreptitiously enter Yellowstone National Park to harvest elk antler sheds. Federal land and felony crimes = big time prison time. But as things worsen, Thad and Hazen must make some tough choices, that could have deadly consequences.

Those who enjoy ‘grit lit’ are likely to love Beartooth. 

It’s an atmospheric, vivid and finely crafted tale of family relationships, desperation and death set against a ruggedly magnificent backdrop. Wink, a fly-fishing guide in Montana as well as literary starlet, expertly soaks readers in “nature, red in tooth and claw”. 

Compact and powerful.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"Exquisite modern take on a classic mystery" - review of THE GOOD NAZI

THE GOOD NAZI by Samir Machado de Machado, translated by Rahul Bery (Pushkin Vertigo, 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

1933. A body has been found on a luxury airship en route from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro. Police Detective Bruno Brückner, travelling on board, is immediately asked to investigate - and soon discovers that the murdered man was not the proud Nazi he claimed to be. What's more, he was carrying a stash of banned 'degenerate' material. 

As Brückner interviews his fellow passengers - a wealthy baroness, an antisemitic doctor, a debonair Englishman - he realizes that each of them has something to hide. Uncovering the truth will reveal a story of secret identities, forbidden love and revenge, where nothing is as it appears.

For those fancying something fresh and atypical, while a little lighter, perhaps try this fun mystery from Brazilian writer, translator and graphic designer Samir Machado de Machado, which won him the Jabuti Prize for Best Entertainment Novel (among Brazil’s most important book awards), for a second time.

Thanks to translator Rahul Bery and the fine folks at Pushkin Vertigo,  The Good Nazi is now available for English-speaking readers, who’ll discover an enjoyable tale with echoes of Agatha Christie or Dame Ngaio Marsh, while still its own unique thing.

Rather than Poirot, Marple, or Inspector Alleyn, our sleuth here is German police detective Bruno Brückner, who’s travelling on a trans-Atlantic zeppelin flight to Rio de Janeiro in 1933. Far faster, and pricier, than a seagoing voyage, it sees Brückner rubbing shoulders with an unusual grouping. Alongside some Brazilian passengers and the forty-member crew who coax the giant airship across the ocean from continent to continent, Brückner is joined by wealthy German Baroness Fridegunde van Hattem, who chases summer back and forth; Dr Karl Kass Voegler, who’s set to speak at a eugenics conference on the dangers of racial mixing; and debonair Englishman William Hay. 

They’re joined in Recife by another German, Otto Klein, for the final legs of the journey. But Klein doesn’t make it to Rio alive, dying overnight, after a dinner where the European quintet discuss classic art, how rising Nazism would fix what ailed Germany, and racial purity. Brückner is asked to investigate, and as he interviews the crew and passengers he uncovers a stash of banned ‘degenerate’ material, and a startling tale of fake identities, queer love, and revenge, where little is what it seems.

de Machado crafts an exquisite modern take on a classic mystery, with a unique historical setting that soaks readers in at-times disturbing pre-war viewpoints, while speckling his tale with several delightful surprises, right up until he absolutely sticks the landing of this aeronautical whodunnit.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"Dares to go where many others won't" - review of THE TRUTH ABOUT RUBY COOPER

THE TRUTH ABOUT RUBY COOPER by Liz Nugent (Penguin, March 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

'If my sister hadn’t been beautiful, none of it would have happened.'

Ruby Cooper and her sister, Erin, live an idyllic life in their close-knit church community in Boston. But when Ruby is sixteen, she is involved in an incident that causes her family’s world to implode. Across decades, the fallout leaves a wake of destruction behind Ruby in Dublin and Erin in Boston.

Not that Ruby wants to think about the past. But it can’t stay a secret forever.? 

Let’s start with understatement: Liz Nugent certainly knows how to spin a compelling yarn. Not just compelling with a capital C, but in all caps. 

The bestselling Irish author has a masterful touch for hooking readers with intense, high-stakes situations then leading us through an emotional minefield alongside pretty hard-to-like protagonists. 

There’s a bravery throughout her oeuvre; she dares to go where many others don’t, via characters studies of some rather horrendous people. A wife-beater (Unravelling Oliver), a wealthy judge and his wife covering up a horrible crime (Lying in Wait), a trio of brothers taking sibling rivalry to toxic, deadly levels (Our Little Cruelties) – Nugent’s thrillers are atypical, and her characters often the worst in the room, or many rooms, yet bizarrely engaging.

In her sixth novel in twelve years, The Truth About Ruby Cooper, Nugent immerses readers in the family-shattering aftermath of a life-altering incident between Ruby, the sixteen year-old daughter of a popular Boston pastor, and Milo, her older sister Erin’s boyfriend, one afternoon when the pair are alone together in the Cooper family home. 

Accusations, he-said/she-said, DNA evidence, lawyers and courtrooms, traumatising cross-examination. A community in shock. Lives never the same. Ruby and her mother flee to Ireland. Erin and her father stay in Boston. Can time, or distance, really heal?

Guilt and shame, anger and blame. 

How do you come back from the worst thing you’ve ever experienced? Nugent doesn’t spare readers, delivering haymaker reveals early that other authors may save til a finale; before diving deeper. How far will a poisonous act flow – over years and decades, through relationships and generations? 

Nugent has a rare ability to pack a novel’s worth of drama into the first half or third of a book, without it feeling overstuffed, then delivering even more unforgettable moments the rest of the way. She delves into deeply personal matters, while touching on wider themes of justice, addiction, and family. Smooth writing, layered and nuanced storytelling that hums with authenticity. 

The Truth About Ruby Cooper isn’t an easy read, but it is a brilliant one..

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"An engrossing ride" - review of THE SHARK

THE SHARK by Emma Styles (Sphere, March 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

At the height of Australian summer, a serial killer dubbed The Shark stalks a beachside suburb, targeting young female swimmers whose bodies are later found on the shoreline.

Disempowered and angry at the failures of the police to protect them, two young women are hell-bent on revenge. Raych has lost someone and will go to any length to discover what happened to her, while Carmen suspects her own disturbing connection to the killer.

Together they form an uneasy alliance and, in a moment that changes the trajectory of their lives, Carmen and Raych abduct and imprison the prime suspect. Do they think they can save the day, or are there intentions darker? Can they trust one another's agenda? And when another young woman goes missing, what stops them from going to the police?

Almost four years ago, British-Australian author Emma Styles burst onto the crime (writing) scene with the fresh and fantastic [book:No Country for Girls|165812428], a riveting tale of two young women thrust together in Western Australia, at the wheel of a dead man’s twin-cab ute with a bag of stolen gold bars under the seat, with little idea where they were heading, or how they’d survive.

That helter-skelter thriller saw Styles hand-picked, alongside Māori storyteller [author:Michael  Bennett|17854263], by modern-day Queen of Crime Val McDermid as one of the most exciting new voices in global crime fiction, getting featured on the ‘New Blood’ panel at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, UK. No Country for Girls went on to be shortlisted for several awards, and win the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize.

What next? Second-time around Styles returns to Western Australia, where she grew up, with another duo of troubled young women who find themselves in deadly circumstances. 

The Shark is a serial killer thriller, with a difference. A hot Australian summer. A year ago, self-confessed ‘gutless wonder’ Raych’s best friend Piper vanished, taking with her Raych’s hopes for ‘more than friends’. Unlike some other young women who’ve gone missing, Piper’s body hasn’t been found, but Raych is sure she was taken by the same local serial killer that has been terrorising Perth’s coastal suburbs. The police have a suspect, but don’t seem to be getting anywhere. 

Meanwhile, high schooler Carmen wonders about a disturbing connection to the killer. Raych and Carmen met on the psych ward, but now they’re out, and end up forming an unlikely (and untrusting) alliance. They both desperately need answers, and desperate times call for desperate measures.

A man cable-tied to a chair. An abandoned garage. A bag of tools. 

But what if they’ve got the wrong man? 

Alternating between Raych and Carmen’s unreliable narratives, Styles takes readers on an engrossing ride where the real villains are unclear, all building to a harrowing finale. 

The Shark is a strong sophomore effort from a rising star in the crime thriller genre. 

This review was first written for publication in the New Zealand Listener magazine

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

Review: BLACK VELVET AND VENGEANCE

BLACK VELVET & VENGEANCE by Deborah Challinor (HarperCollins, 2026)

Reviewed by Alyson Baker

Late 1872. When twenty-five-year-old Sydney undertaker Tatiana Crowe travels to Auckland to embalm the body of Evan Hunter's father events go horribly wrong, leaving Tatty stricken.

Back at home, Tatty has some enormous decisions to make, but finds herself facing challenges both personal and professional. When bodies start to go missing, seemingly snatched from the funeral train en route to the cemetery, it looks like someone is targeting Tatty's business and everything she holds dear.

Who has a vendetta against Tatty, and why? With the aid of the family she has made for herself among the misfits of Sydney she must fend off extortion demands, an irate grieving mother, Darlinghurst Gaol tittle-tattlers and the threat of ruin.

This book is the third in Deborah Challinor’s Tatty Crowe Series, set in the second half of the nineteenth century in Sydney. Tatty Crowe is a woman, an undertaker, a good friend, and a fearsome enemy. As with previous instalments, the reader learns a lot about the funeral business (in this case more than they would probably prefer!), and about loyalty, the difficult decisions women must often make, and about learning to trust others.

Black Velvet & Vengeance includes bodies stolen and held for ransom, women abused, and people killed – these crimes being a springboard for character depiction and social commentary. Tatty is no stranger to weighing up justice and culpability, having previously “murdered a husband, killed a second man in self-defence, and hunted down and terminated the activities of several Sydney baby farmers”. Her busy life continues in this novel, the plot kicked off by Evan Hunter, a character from the previous novel in the series, luring Tatty to Auckland to embalm his father.

Her trip to Auckland, a “town of around only twelve thousand”, is made with her colleague Hannah. It is a frantic trip, with Tatty resorting to cannabis to get her across the stormy Tasman Sea. Tatty’s use of cannabis is just one of the mentions of the routine use of drugs at the time – cannabis, opium (laudanum), and cocaine – for nausea, pain (including during childbirth), and in baby tonics!

Auckland proves worse than the voyage over: Hunter executes his appalling plan to get his claws on her successful Sydney business. His mother Viola reveals herself to be just as nasty as her son. And my goodness, embalming a body that’s been dead a week! When they return to Sydney from such an eventful and horrible trip, Tatty is not sure how much to report back to the others at Crowe Funerals. Especially whether to tell Henry, groom at the business and devoted to Tatty: “She loved Henry but sometimes he could be a tiny bit … bossy.”

Needless to say, Tatty’s Auckland problems don’t stay on their side of the Tasman – and soon she’s losing bodies she should be burying and finding others she shockingly recognises. She navigates the turmoil in her usual straight talking (“No, she was a bitch”), no-nonsense style. But she does find herself getting moody, emotional, and becoming prone to mental wandering – her life is getting even more complicated.

Much of Black Velvet & Vengeance is about “all the different forms that motherhood could take”, and the dangers, social views, and confusion of childbearing. At the time there was a terribly high rate of death in childbirth and of infant mortality – Tatty knows this from running a funeral business. There are the genetic fears of bearing a child of a ‘bad’ person, especially if through rape. And the social dangers of having children in non-traditional situations: “people liked to draw their own conclusions, and the more sensational the better.”

In some circles childbirth was seen as brutish and to be kept hidden: “Most women didn’t even go out in public once they were showing.” Tatty’s cook and second mother, Maggie, talks to her about how parents don’t live on if their daughters die childless. She also advises Robert, Hannah’s lover, that fornicators getting trapped for eternity in the second circle of hell. Hannah’s mother Edith responds: “I wouldn’t worry about the second circle, I’ve heard it’s just a bit windy.”

Tatty is dealing with all these concerns while trying to protect her business and those she loves. As well as Tatty, Black Velvet & Vengeance is chock-a-block with great characters, some of whom are from other series by the author, all “women with their chequered histories”. Maggie is a character whose arc in the story the reader gets to see more clearly than the other characters do. And Viola Hunter, although an evil woman, becomes a stark tragic figure as she descends into dishevelled madness.

There are amusing bits in the book despite these serious topics – such as Tatty becoming delightfully easily distracted: “She felt like a tropical tiger she’d seen as a child at the zoo in Regent’s Park in London, stuck in its little cage, endlessly circling. Not that her body was as lithe as a tiger’s – small as she was, she still felt like a hippopotamus. There had been one of those at the zoo too.”

The historical details are fascinating – almost as good as the novel are the Author’s Notes at the end, where Challinor details some of her research. Black Velvet & Vengeance can be read as a standalone, although reading the series adds to the enjoyment of following Tatty’s exploits. Of which I’m sure there will be more!

Alyson Baker is a crime-loving former librarian in Nelson. This review first appeared on her blog, which you can check out here.