It is a beautiful warm August day in 1880: perfect weather for the annual Metropolitan Police Annual Fête held at Alexandra Palace. Inspector Best is summoned to uncover the identity of 'Quicksilver' who has sent an anonymous note threatening to cause an horrific explosion at the event. When a second note is received and its threats become increasingly confusing with their literary allusions, Best seeks out the help of Helen Franks, a close friend from the past. However, i...

***'A gripping and satisfying murder mystery with an unguessable final twist'***- Mystery Women***'[A] gripping Victorian mystery'***- Publishers Weekly***'Asking an historian to review a historical novel is asking for trouble – but Joan Lock's book is something else. Her knowledge of London and its policing in the 19th century makes this into a very different kind of novel – one with an extremely realistic setting'***- London Archive Users ForumWhen the bod...

It is a beautiful warm August day in 1880: perfect weather for the annual Metropolitan Police Annual Fête held at Alexandra Palace. Inspector Best is summoned to uncover the identity of 'Quicksilver' who has sent an anonymous note threatening to cause an horrific explosion at the event. When a second note is received and its threats become increasingly confusing with their literary allusions, Best seeks out the help of Helen Franks, a close friend from the past. However, i...

The explosion was heard twenty miles away. It killed boatmen and wrecked the exotic villa of Lawrence Alma-Tadema, the fashionable St John's Wood artist. But what caused the 1874 Regent's Park explosion? Fenian bombs? Sabotage by rival railways or other firms? Or was it something personal? And whose was the other body found in the canal? An artist's model? The missing King's Cross barmaid? Or another victim of the so-called Thames murderer? As he struggles to find the answ...

Joan Lock's warm and nostalgic account of her three years of training as a young student nurse in the early 1950s. Perfect for fans of CALL THE MIDWIFE.When Joan Lock began her formal training as a young nurse in the 1950s, she was unprepared for the strict discipline and long hours which were to follow and quickly realised she was no Florence Nightingale. Her honest and humorous account of the next three years reveals her most intimate experiences of being a nurse...

Many Golden Age detective novels, with their engrossing puzzles and attractive backgrounds were a comforting read – particularly after the horrors of the Great War. The murders often left the bumbling police without a clue but some aristocrats and Oxford Graduates found them a piece of cake to solve.Meanwhile, real life was painting a different picture. Guns were left over from the war and many men were familiar and hardened to the results of using them. There was a surplus of wome...

Bow Street Magistrates Court is justly famous as the birthplace of an efficient system of summary jurisdiction. Less well-known are some of the fascinating characters who have taken part in the court's dramas over the years. Most people know of the early pioneer stipendiary magistrates, Henry and John Fielding. But what of Nicholas Bond, the ambitious and devious Bow Street Runner, who (under John's patronage) became a clerk of the court, and later a Bow Street Magistrate? And what of the ...

When Scotland Yard’s first detective branch was set up in 1842, crime was very different from today. The favoured murder weapon was the cut-throat razor; carrying a pocket watch was dangerous; the most significant clue at a murder scene could be the whereabouts of a candlestick or a hat; large households (family, servants and lodgers) complicated many a case and servants sometimes murdered their masters. Detectives had few aids and suffered many disadvantages. The bloody handprints found a...

In 1878 the Criminal Investigation Department replaced Scotland Yard's corrupt and discredited Detective Branch. In this classic story of the early days of detection, Joan Lock tells the fascinating story of the creation of the CID, the scandal which preceded it, and the successes and failures of the new organisation, including early cases such as the four murders by Ernest Southey, the ferocious outbreak of dockland killings in 1869 and the more familiar Bravo, Neill Cream and Jack the Ri...

In this first instalment of the Bow Street Rivals series a riot breaks out in Dartmoor prison, enabling some American inmates to escape. The twin detectives Peter and Paul Skillen catch wind of a projected assassination but the target is unknown. Trouble ensues when a woman from the Home Office vanishes; a mysterious lady turns up at the archery shooting gallery; and Paul's gambling addiction worsens . . .

An eagerly awaited collection of brand new, specially commissioned short stories from the master of historical crime fiction Edward Marston, featuring his quick-witted Railway Detective, Inspector Robert Colbeck.In this thrilling selection of stories, a young porter is found dead in a coal tub; Colbeck devises a trap to catch a thief; and a burnt train carriage holds a gruesome secret in a small coastal village. As Colbeck and his trusty aide Sergeant Victor Leeming begin to piece ...

A wonderfully moving Christmas midwife story from the author of Call Nurse Millie.Christmas is approaching - but for Nurse Millie and Nurse Annie babies are still being born, and in the East End of London, new mothers still need all the care and support they can give.Vividly summing up all the friendship of a close-knit community - both for the midwives and for the families - CHRISTMAS WITH NURSE MILLIE powerfully brings to life post-war London - w...