Dear Readers,
Before I publish my book review on @NetGalley site, I’d like to share it with you.
I read a lot. Like really a lot. I read a huge variety of genres. However, my favourite one is CRIME FICTION. Once upon a time I even wrote MA Thesis on Russian Crime Fiction using Boris Akunin and his Erast Fandorin’s adventures as examples.
However, even though I read a lot and far and wide, I rarely come across books where characters are so likeable by me, so in tune with me that they become my imaginary friends.
I guess Sulari Gentill’s Rowly Sinclair and the gang, Kerry Greenwood’s Miss Fisher and Co, and J.R.Ellis’ DCI Oldroyd and team are among the gem I found in the book universe.
If I like someone, I like them a lot. I read all the books about Rowly, Phyrne and DCI that have been published so far. I remain faithful fan and reader to the authors. I love them to bits. I do not want their stories to end, ever.
I am happy to report that recently I found another bunch of friends. Series (2 books so far) of novels by Lynn Brittney about an unusual team of detectives is the place.
1915 London, World War I is raging across Europe. Men are called to arms. Suffragettes movement is fresh in the memory but is not on the agenda. Women are taking over men’s jobs. Police is reluctant to let women join the force, but…
High-born ladies will only speak to their equals, won’t they? Thus, an unusual, multi-talented team is born of high-born ladies (one of them is a doctor and another is a lawyer), a detective invalided from the front, ex-boxer police man and know-it-all mature detective. They are aided by a colourful bunch from aristocratic Lady to woman pharmacist, two cozy sisters and a terrier.
All in all, the stories in both books are on the cozy and uplifting side. Yes, there are murders and horrors of the WWI, criminals and shady personalities, aristocracy and the issues of ‘upstairs downstairs’. But I found the books be more about people, relationships between them, changing world and changing priorities.
When you like characters you laugh with them, you cry with them, you root for them. I can’t wait for Ms Brittney to write more books about this special team.
Stay safe Read Books
Svetlana Tishchenko 