Barbara Cleverly, bestselling author of the Joe Sandilands series, introduces an ingenious new sleuth who navigates 1920s Cambridge, a European intellectual capital on the cusp of dramatic change.England 1923: Detective Inspector John Redfyre is a godsend to the Cambridge CID. The ancient university city is at war with itself: town versus gown, male versus female, press versus the police force … the police force and everyone versus the undergraduates. Redfyre, young, handsome and capable, is a survivor of the Great War. Born and raised among the city’s colleges, he has access to the educated élite who run these institutions, a society previously deemed impenetrable by local law enforcement.
When Redfyre’s Aunt Hetty hands him a front-row ticket to the year’s St. Barnabas College Christmas concert, he is looking forward to a right merrie yuletide noyse from a trumpet soloist, accompanied by the organ. He is intrigued to find that the trumpet player is—scandalously—a young woman. And Juno Proudfoot is a beautiful and talented one at that. Such choice of a performer is unacceptable in conservative academic circles.
Redfyre finds himself anxious throughout a performance in which Juno charms and captivates her audience, and his unease proves well founded when she tumbles headlong down a staircase after curtainfall. He finds evidence that someone carefully planned her death. Has her showing provoked a dangerous, vengeful woman-hater to take action?
When more Cambridge women are murdered, Redfyre realizes that some of his dearest friends and his family may become targets, and—equally alarmingly—that the killer might be within his own close circle.
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I will probably read additional books by this author in the future.
A good tight mystery!
Disappoints as both a mystery and as a historical. Cliche characters and ponderous dialogue. Superficial, everyone is batter than good, even the villain is basically a good person suffering mental illness brought on by a disease. The book gives no flavor of the frame it is set in and are always aware of 21st Century perspective.
I found it a little hard to buy into the foundation idea of the book (spoiler alert) that as far back as the ‘30’s there were militant feminist groups that would stop at nothing to further their agenda.
Delighted with this story. I loved the hero and the people he met. I enjoy the time period it is set in. The investigation was better than the mystery but I like that when it pays off in a nice ending. I am going to be buying the next in this series.
A little slow moving but a good story.
This book kept my attention throughout. It was a bit intense for me in some places, so I probably won’t read another in the series.
I really enjoyed this book! Can’t wait to read the next Redfyre story!!
There was simply too much introspection / explanation. It didn’t flow at all.
Love this book! Great start to a new series. Looking forward to the next book!
Find out what women had to do to “earn” the right to vote. British women were not granted unconditional sufferage. Only property owners over thirty were granted the right to vote. This lively, well written book uses this as a backdrop to a plot that features someone killing those women who have devoted their lives and fortunes to gaining the vote for all adult women.
Set in the male dominated realm of the Cambridge colleges, a mysogenistic maniac is killing young women who seem to have little in common. As the story continues, the women are found to belong to a shadowy group dedicated to gaining the vote by fair means or foul. Skillfully mixing in the trauma felt by the surviving WWI soldiers and that of those fighting for the vote, the author demonstrates that pain, no matter the source, grinds down the soul.
After reading this, you will give more thought to what it cost in pain to win this right for you.
Haven’t finished the book yet – finding it very hard to do so. Two main problems. Enough already about Women’s Suffrage. It really slows down the story. And… considering he’s some kind of highly respected detective inspector he interviews a subject who says “I didn’t do it, check out so and so” and he runs over and accuses that person who says “I didn’t do it, check out another guy”. This is not how a professional works. I will probably finish the book just because I’m stubborn but I won’t read any more from this author.
I look forward to reading more in this series.