Sabrina's Teardrop by Leslie Scase

 

260 pages

You can buy Sabrina's Teardrop...Here

You can follow Leslie's facebook page...Here

You can follow publishers "Seren"...Here

You can follow Crime Cymru...Here

• The Blurb...

The third volume of the Inspector Chard series takes Chard back to his native Shrewsbury, revealing the circumstances under which he left for South Wales so abruptly. Now under arrest for a horrific double murder, and Imprisoned in the notorious Shrewsbury gaol, he must fight to clear his name or face execution.

A missing woman, human trafficking, trade-offs, foul play, scheming and brutal Victorian gentlemen, civic corruption, and a gang of “Peaky Blinders” stand between Chard and proving his innocence. With the help of faithful Constable Idris Morgan and May Roper, Chard must be more resourceful than he has ever been, and he must also find the answer to the riddle of Sabrina's Teardrop, the fabulous sapphire which sits at the centre of events.

As tensions rise, can Chard and his associates solve the mystery before it's too late?

Leslie Scase takes us back to a time and place where, despite the pretensions of Victorian society, life is cheap and passions strong. He brings Victorian Shrewsbury vividly to life in this page-turning adventure that keeps you guessing until the final page.

• Our Review...

Two party girls sneaking off to a side room to do a bit of 'Charlie.'

Match fixing betting scandals.

Young innocent girls being trafficked for sex across international borders.

Is this an entry from Prince Andrew's diary? No it's Leslie Scase's Victorian Britain, in this case Shrewsbury in 1895. It is this that elevates Scase's period drama. The more things change, the more they stay the same. As always wonderfully researched, the era and the town itself are just as much the stars of the show as Inspector Chard.

In this third outing for Inspector Chard, the author delivers another fast paced, thrilling romp through the criminal underworld of Victorian Society, including the forerunners of the infamous peaky blinders. Fans of the series will be in for a treat as the main characters grow and develop away from the centre of the previous books set in Pontypridd. Chard in particular becomes a more rounded and nuanced figure than his 'Dudley Do Right' persona in the first two books. We learn of his dodgy past and by the end of the twisty plot he does things that we never thought him capable of doing. 

His sidekicks, the mutton chopped PC Idris Morgan and the recovering addict May also develop in this episode. They are becoming more of a team. Idris tough, honest and not the sharpest and May becoming ever more resourceful and brave as she recovers. There's even a lovable non fighting, fighting introduced to the team.

The inclusion of some of the authors research notes and a map are an added bonus.

Well plotted, well researched, enjoyable characters another triumph for the Inspector Chard Series.

Leslie Scase is an active member of Crime Cymru. A collective of crime fiction authors with links to Wales. Many of these books have been reviewed on this website. 

• Selected Quotes...

"Indeed, everyone laughed laughed as a half dozen small mongrel puppies scampered out onto the flagstones.

Y'see in good old Birmingham we train our dogs with these not rats. It saves chucking the unwanted ones into the canals and slowing down the barges."

"I gave Adam some tonic during the night, perhaps a little too much. I was so tired. Then this morning he wouldn't eat or drink for that matter. He just slept, so I let him be. He just lay there all day." She sobbed and lowered the glass away from her throat"

Slowly, Chard turned towards him, moving Tilly's body as he did, and revealing her ravaged face. "He's taken her eye."

• If You Liked This, Then You May Like...

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

Victorian Murders by Jan Bondeson

The Malvern Murders by Kerry Tombs

• About The Author

Leslie Scase is the Shropshire-based author of  the Inspector Chard Mysteries, crime thrillers set in the heyday of Victorian Britain. The first novel Fortuna’s Deadly Shadow was published in 2020. The second, Fatal Solution, was published in May 2021. Sabrina’s Teardrop, a thriller set mainly in Shropshire and Birmingham was published on 10th October 2022. An advocate of the ‘classic’ murder mystery genre, Leslie is also a keen historian, which is reflected in the authenticity of his novels.

Born and educated in South Wales, Leslie worked in local industry before travelling widely across the UK during a career in the Civil Service. His first novel was inspired in part by his Italian and English ancestors having settled in South Wales in the late nineteenth century. A keen fly fisherman and real ale enthusiast, he lives close to the Welsh border, in the county town of Shrewsbury.

Buzzard House by Graham H Miller

 

358 Pages

You can buy Buzzard House...Here

You can follow Graham H Miller...Here

• The Blurb...

Institutional child abuse and missing children comes too close to home for Jonah Greene.

When a man goes under a train, it initially looks like a routine case for coroner’s officer Jonah Greene. However the more he investigates, the more he is drawn into a web of intrigue centred around Buzzard House, a now closed outdoor activity centre. Dealing with bike gangs, official conspiracies and police corruption is routine. But soon the case takes a darker turn when Jonah’s own family is splintered by the secrets he reveals.

• Our Review...

Another quietly competent police procedural from Graham H Miller. Buzzard House is the second in the Jonah Greene series. (The List was Jonah's original outing. You can find our review for The List Here) Jonah having been promoted out of the way in The List to the career backwater of the Cardiff Coroner's Office. However, the political semi-isolation suits him and allows him to fully focus on the cases on his desk.

Jonah receives a phone call in the middle of the night from CID and is asked to take over a case that should be the remit of the Transport Police. Initially Jonah sees it as doing a favour for a former colleague that may earn him some brownie points. But is the request as innocent as it seems? or is it a means to keep any potential investigation under the control. of the senior men in dark corners.

Jonah chases down leads that point towards possible historic sexual abuse of children. It centres on  an outdoor pursuits centre for children in care  based in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons just north of Merthyr. I enjoyed the author's description of the area and people as it is roughly where I am from.  Its seems a desolate and inward looking place. From his description I would hazard a guess that the author is a townie as he seems a little wary of both the geography and nature of the locals and paints it as not quite scary but distinctly uncomfortable. Jonah certainly prefers Cardiff to the Heads of Valleys.

Jonah's home life certainly doesn't seem to have improved much since book 1. He and his wife still with empty nest syndrome. She seems to spend a lot of time out with her biker friends and Jonah often finds himself waking in the early hours, on the sofa with an empty bottle. It doesn't get any better in this outing, in fact things take a turn for the worse.  He seems always a little rumpled, weary and worn, and getting older by the day, but his pursuit of the case is his one goal that keeps him going. It is a trope that the author does well. I have spoken in the past of how Jonah reminds me of Inspector Rebus, but I think he also has a touch of an older Eddie Shoestring (showing my age there) 

The case itself is difficult to write about. The Jimmy Savile case is forever in the shadows. The antagonists are powerful, influential perverts in a double sense, in that they also pervert the course of justice from the background. Historic sex abuse is notoriously difficult to prove and as it occurred decades ago there seems no point digging up things that both victims and perps don't want to come to light. It has a very faint kafka-esque whiff of endless bureaucracy and mammoth institutions where the guilty ones secrete themselves in the cracks in between. It's all hidden in mists of time, no records, no checks, no accountability, no consequences. Identifying and proving crimes and criminals is immensely difficult and often there is no end resolution. It can be very abstract. No dynamic shoot outs with young, wild  bank robbers with a definite end, more cerebral chess with dementia nursing home inmates. A worthy episode in what I hope will be a returning series.

This series would so lend itself to TV series by a local broadcaster.

Looking forward the Canton Columbo's next outing already.

• Selected Quotes...

"He was getting fed up of the Brecon Beacons and villages where you would be an incomer for the first twenty years."

"Sometimes I wonder what the point is though. From what you've said, even if I do untangle all of this, then it'll never see the light of day because of some obscure political reason." 

"Sometimes all you can do is keep your head down and keep plugging away. Don't look to the horizon, don't try to work out where it's all leading. Just do today's job well and hope the future will sort itself out."

"Think back to that time, especially how the police were viewed, especially around here. The miners' strike, followed by Lynette White. If she saw even one policeman's name on those lists of people involved in the abuse, then she would have every reason to believe that her complaint would go nowhere. In the Valleys, we were the bad guys. Still are to the old guard."

• If You Like This, Then You May Like This...
  

The Nesting Place by Jacqueline Harret. Click Here  for our review

Talking To The Dead by Harry Bingham

Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin

• About The Author...

Graham H Miller has been writing since his teenage years when he had a scenario printed in a role playing magazine. Since then he’s written articles, guest posts, unpublished novels and a book on Pagan subjects.

Born in Surrey, he lived in Kent for over 20 years before settling in South Wales. His brain is always at work, with more ideas than time. He is a house-husband proudly perpetuating the stereotype by writing books while his three boys are at school.

He has two blogs that are erratically updated – one about life as father to three special boys and the other covering his thoughts on writing and the publishing process. He is fascinated by everything including prehistory, classic cars, anything Viking and learning Welsh. He is older than he thinks he is! He can be contacted through his website, Facebook or Twitter. (from Crime Cymru)