The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The world of Elizabethan spiery is a crowded one – but, in Shadow of Poison, Peter Tonkin once again demonstrates why he stands head and shoulders above the crowd. Given his history of writing thrillers and Elizabethan fiction, Tonkin is a master of genre and era. His...
The Bratinsky Affair is Jim Loughran’s debut novel. Set in 1976, the thrilling story unfolds through a dual perspective: one is Tom O’Brien, a closeted Irish journalist from Wicklow, seeking the story to prove his ability to his higher-ups, and Irina Bratinsky, a...
Most historians, including this reviewer, are wary of reading historical fiction. The danger is in overlap. Did one get one’s view of life in the Georgian navy from Admiralty records, or from the pages of Patrick O’Brien? Similarly has one’s opinion of Marshal Marmont...
Rufus Varro returns for another thrilling mystery in Richard Foreman’s latest instalment to the Spies of Rome series. Assassin is the third novella and sixth story, and a welcome addition for fans of the series. But with a fast-paced plot, new readers will soon be...
The Essex Rebellion: Who Tells the Story In August 1999 Cornwall experienced a total eclipse of the sun on a cloudy day. Positioned along the south coast, BBC and other journalists reported the national disappointment. Locals and tourists on the north coast had a...
Richard, our favourite reluctant spy and even more reluctant poet Rufus Varro is back – and there’s been a murder. Why was Assassin a story you wanted to add to the Spies of Rome series? I partly wanted to write a novella that was in the mold of Steven Saylor's Roma...
So, we are back in Tomis – will there be another murder to be solved by the Roman love poet Ovid? Oh yes! I was chatting about this the other day with some fellow crime writers, and we decided that the ideal detective and hero for a mystery series is – a writer. There...
Richard, you covered Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt in your Band of Brothers series. Was it your intention to write about Crecy too back then? I wrote Band of Brothers some years ago. As much as I grew to admire the courage and skill of the longbowman (it's more...
Oath breaker is the second book in Staten’s Honour Bound trilogy, following on from Blood Debt, released earlier in 2024. Before I start, I should confess two things: first, that this era is an era that ranks among my favourites, meaning I am predisposed to enjoy...
Alec Marsh on Cut and Run Alec, another book so soon - what's going on? It’s like the rural bus network – you wait for years for one to arrive, and the two turn up at once… The truth is that Cut and Run is a story that I’ve been working on for a very long time. It was...
