Pagan Rite by Leslie Scase

 

Our Rating 4 ⭐

You Can Buy Pagan Rite...here

You Can Find Out More About Leslie Scase...here

280 Pages

First published 2026

• The Blurb...

1897
Inspector Thomas Chard is sent to investigate the discovery of a mutilated corpse feared to be the work of Jack the Ripper. His investigation leads him to a ‘Festival of the Unknown’ and when a second murder occurs, rumours of demons and hell-hounds flood the public’s imagination. With the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations fast approaching, Chard has to fight his prejudices to deal with psychics, fortune-tellers, druids and scientists in order to expose a deranged killer.

• Our Review...

This is the fifth in the Inspector Chard series, the others being 

Fortunas Deadly Shadow

Fatal Solution

Sabrina's Teardrop 

Flames of Anarchy

Each has a slightly different taste but all under the genre of Victorian Industrial Noir. I dont actually know if thats a thing. I may have just made it up, but it sums up the field of expertise that the author writes in. I use the word expertise deliberatley. The author includes a section on his research at the rear of the book and it is almost as fascinating as the fictional narrative. So why do i keep coming back to this series, and why this book in particular. Well theres a few reasons..

Atmospheric Verisimilitude: Scase doesn't just describe the setting; he makes you smell the coal dust and feel the damp Welsh mist. The tension between the burgeoning industrial world and the deep-seated "old ways" of the hills is the book's strongest asset.

The Protagonist: Thomas Chard remains a refreshingly grounded lead. He isn’t a "super-sleuth" with flashes of divine inspiration; he’s a methodical, dogged, and often weary investigator who relies on local knowledge and persistence.

The "Pagan" Element: The title isn't just window dressing. Scase explores the revival of Druidic traditions and neo-paganism in the 19th century with historical nuance, avoiding the "occult thriller" clichés while keeping the stakes high.

"Pagan Rite" is a slow-burn procedural that rewards patient readers. While it helps to have read the previous books  Scase provides enough context that this functions well as a standalone mystery.

The story is set against the backdrop of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. While the British Empire is celebrating its height, Pontypridd is gripped by fear. A mutilated corpse is discovered, and the brutal nature of the crime immediately sparks a media frenzy, with headlines suggesting that Jack the Ripper has moved to the Valleys. As Chard investigates, he finds himself caught between two worlds: The Rational: A group of scientists and Victorian sceptics trying to debunk the supernatural and The Mystical: A "Festival of the Unknown" arriving in town, featuring fortune-tellers, psychics, and a revived interest in ancient Druidic rituals.

Some of the key themes and elements are mass hysteria: When a second murder occurs, the public’s imagination runs wild with talk of "hell-hounds" and demonic entities. Scase brilliantly captures how quickly a rational community can descend into panic when traditional beliefs are challenged. The clash of eras: The book highlights the friction of 1897—a time of rapid scientific advancement (the rise of forensic thought) clashing with a desperate nostalgia for ancient Celtic "pagan" roots.  The "Ripper" shadow: By invoking the specter of the Whitechapel murders, Scase raises the stakes for Chard, who has to solve the case quickly to prevent a full-scale riot during the Jubilee celebrations.

It may be a bit selfish but I also like the series because I know the locale in which it is set. I have drunk in the Llanover Arms. I have walked over the old bridge in Ponty. I have been on the Gower many times. Geographical experience always adds a little to the experience of reading a book. I recently found a website that suggests books set in the place that you are about to visit. Isnt that a good idea! The link is Trip Fiction

Unlike the earlier books, which focused more on industrial espionage (Fatal Solution) or anarchist plots (Flames of Anarchy), Pagan Rite is much more atmospheric and eerie. Chard is a fantastic "fish out of water" here; he is a man of facts and evidence who is forced to navigate a world of "miracles" and mysticism to find a very human killer. 

• Selected Quotes...

The tiny pistol’s hammer made a gentle click as it was cocked and placed against skin and bone. A crack, no louder than the sound of a snapped twig went unheard as the bullet found it’s mark…… then oblivion ………… at least for a while……

he’s a simple-minded soul, but pretty. It was her sixteenth birthday and fruit ripe for the plucking.’ ‘A chip off the old block!’ laughed the magistrate.

‘She asked about someone, and I consulted the cards. It was this one,’ said Sibylline, turning over the one in her hand, ‘the ten of swords.’ Chard looked at the image of a figure lying on the ground, pierced by blades, and felt a shiver through his spine.

Bugger won’t talk, despite walking into the wall a few times.’ ‘You know I don’t approve of prisoners having “accidental” injuries,’ admonished the inspector. ‘But as he’s a lying bastard of a killer, I’ll let it pass, just this once.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like.

The House of Silk by Anthony Horrwitz

Blood Among The Threads by David Ebsworth

The Railway Detective by Edward Marston

Sinister Inheritance by Graham H Miller

 

Our Rating...4⭐s

You can buy Sinister Inheritance...Here

You can find out more about the author...Here

• The Blurb...

Melinda Lewis was the sole survivor when her family was murdered twelve years ago. She went on to die four years later. Which leaves Jonah Greene wondering why he's seen her in a cafe in France.

Anthony Bailey appears to have died in his sleep. But he leaves behind a property empire, and a widow that no-one in his family has ever met.

These are two of the cases that Jonah Greene must wrestle with when he returns from a break in France, while the powers that be try to shut both cases down. As the politics get more complicated, Jonah must use all his skill to investigate under the radar, and ensure justice is done.

• Our Review...

At last he is back.. "The Canton Columbo, The Shoestring of Splott." After 6 long years Jonah Greene, the Cardiff Coroners Officer returns to tackle not one but two cases of dodgy inheritance.

After recently reading a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, reading Sinister Inheritance felt like having a meal of fish and chips, after having a week on the froi gras and port. Simple but tasty but just what was needed after such a rich diet. 

So we have two potential perps (as the kid's say.) in one, if the person of interest is guilty they may have had provocation and mitigating circumstances. The other perp in the second crime is just an out and out wrong un. Contrast the two and even though both crimes are similar we view them in very different ways.

In the main case there is very little face to face confrontation. So much so that there is no direct dialogue between Jonah and his adversary until the last scene. This, I feel actually adds to the narrative. It has a feel of a cold war submarine war film. Both combatants, probing from a distance finding each others weakness. Imagine fighting an enemy you can't see.

I like the fact that Jonah is a semi-insular soul. Yes he has acquaintances and relationships. Yes he works for the coroner but he is a department of one. He doesn't spend a great deal of time with any one group or even one person including his wife. He is of his time I think in that he is in large part a loner, and he is comfortable with that. This seems to be the trend in modern society. 

Oops I'm rambling again. Back to the book. I really enjoyed it, as I knew I would. It bears the hallmarks of Graham H Miller, intriguing, interesting and easy to read.

This is Jonah's third outing after "The List" and "Buzzard House" both twisty police procedural novels. Once again in my head Jonah is operating in my head in the same literal universe as DI Mandy Wilde in the novels of Jacqueline Harret and possibly DI Mark Fagin books by Jason Chapman. I can get all the murder mystery I want without leaving Glamorgan, Gwent and Powys!

Graham H Miller never lets you down. But please don't make us wait another six years for the next instalment. 

• Selected Quotes...

Despite the warmth and friendly atmosphere he felt a sudden melancholy. It was the forced recognition that his children were growing up, forging their own lives. He knew they'd always need him, but not as much as previously. He'd be someone in their lives, just not at the centre of it.

November in Wales was never going to be good for someone’s mental health.

'I know it's not fashionable and probably doesn't fit in with modern restorative justice theories, but some people are just born wrong. With something missing. They are evil. Hundreds of years ago they'd have been driven out of villages or hanged. Now, they just walk among us.

closure.' He chuckled to himself although there was no humour in it. 'Stupid American phrase. What are those parents meant to do, once they get the news? Their only child was killed. Once they know, are they supposed to close that chapter? Just forget and get on with their lives.'

• If You Liked This Then You May like...

Chasing Shadows by Matthew J Evans (review...here)

Death by intent by Jacqueline Harret (review...here)

Close to Death by Anthony Horrowitz (review...here)

The Welsh Man by Dave Lewis

 

Our Rating 3⭐s

You can buy The Welsh Man...here

About the author...here

• The Blurb..

An authentic British road trip and old-fashioned love story. A violent but compelling tale of grim landscapes and dark morality. Paul Thorne is no angel. A hard man with a troubled past, his mistake was to fall for the wrong girl. When he said yes to love, he opened the door to death.

A tragic accident finds him running for his life from a vicious London crime boss. He seeks sanctuary in a sleepy, Welsh seaside town but instead of solace, he finds jealousy and betrayal.

A brutal journey through the underbelly of 80s and 90s Britain. Violent and sad. Powerful, beautiful prose lingers like a bruise, haunting the mind, long after the last page is read.

• Our Review...

The Welsh Man tells the tale of Paul. Big  lovable but rough man from a lovable but rough part of the world. The Welsh Valleys are a place like no other. To most brits going to the valleys is like going back in time 50 years, which can be a good thing or a bad thing.

 Due to their weird geography they are not your average urban rough area. Most valleys run north–south, roughly parallel to each other, creating a “hand and fingers” pattern of development. flanked by steep hillsides, often covered in open moorland or dense forest. Between the valleys lie high, relatively remote plateaux that contrast with the busy valley floors. The topography restricts movement between valleys, with only a few high passes connecting them. Settlements stretch along the valley bottoms and lower slopes, forming long, narrow towns rather than compact cities.The geography shaped the rise of coal and iron industries in the 18th and 19th centuries, with mining communities built into the hillsides. Railways and roads snake through the valleys, linking communities but rarely crossing the uplands. 

The result is often ribbons of semi autonomous urban wasteland. very different to the rougher areas of London, Manchester or Glasgow. I often thought of the valleys as being like heroin. Amazing but cruel and can even drag you down to despair. But I love it (The valleys not drugs obv) 

The humour is self deprecating. eg. more blown out windows than Beirut, twinned with Mordor. Being a valley commando (as locals are known within Wales) is akin to being a member of the mafia, or the IRA. Once you're in you're never out. Fierce enemies and fierce friends, they will rob your last penny but will give you their last penny. They are honest and honest to your face, which some find rude. 

It is hard to find novels set in the valleys. As always Wales flies under the radar. So I chose this novel to read in part to see how the author (a fellow valley boy) portrays the mothership. And he's got it bang on. Hard as nails with a heart of gold.   

We follow Paul from Porth. A kind but tough kid from a broken home who finds his way into being a bouncer back in the 90s. He meets and falls in lovely with Charley. So far so good, but Charley one day just leaves, leaving Paul heartbroken. He eventually drifts to London and ends up working for some very serious gangsters. I'll leave the story there to avoid spoilers.

The story isn't a particularly complex one, but then not all stories have to be complex. The novel is very violent, as the subject matter dictates. The prose is sparing but accurate. Reminded me of Cormac McCarthy but from Wales with better punctuation.

 Overall I though it was OK and nice to read about the valleys.  

• Selected Quotes...

The valleys left a mark on you for sure and I’ve certainly inherited the sick sense of humour and extraordinary spirit about the place. Deprivation and hardship became a badge of belonging. You know what I mean? Everyone’s had to suffer something; otherwise you wouldn’t fit in.

The bouncers know the clubs are swimming with drugs, the punters know, the dealers know, the manager knows and of course the cops know. Nobody does anything though. There is just too much money to be made and it’s too much hassle to try to stop it. Everyone knows this except the poor, law-abiding parents of the unfortunate sods that get poisoned every weekend.

It’s getting late and Charley decides it’s time Cara was safely tucked up in bed. Michael wasn’t arguing and was keen to do the tucking, with a capital F.

The legacy of the Tory policy to divide and conquer, leaving the hapless and hopeless to scrounge around for the scraps thrown to them by those lucky enough to have been dealt a better hand in life’s sick poker game.

I decided enough time had elapsed to risk it. I’d go home. Back to the land of my father. The father who was god knows where.

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

East of England by Eammon Griffin (review here)

Get Carter by Ted Lewis

He Died With His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond

Here Be Dragons by Sharon Penman

 

Rating 3.5⭐s

You Can Buy Here Be Dragons...Here

About The Author...Here

• The Blurb...

Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce by marrying the English king's beloved illegitimate daughter, Joanna, who slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband.

But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales – and Llewelyn – Joanna must decide where her love and loyalties truly lie.

Beginning the medieval trilogy that includes Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning, Here Be Dragons brings thirteenth-century England, France, and Wales to tangled, tempestuous life.

• Our Review...

As a proud Welshman I have always been a little perturbed by my lack of historical knowledge of my people. When I was a child we were taught history from England's viewpoint, Longshanks and all. I did a little research and now the GCSE curriculum focus in Wales is on Wales, eg The Lord Rhys, Owain Glyndwr  and it's place in European and world history e.g. Wales in The Civil War. This awareness of OUR history is nice to see and long may it continue. I have recently seen in the UK Black History Month in addition to South Asian Heritage month on sky. While these are worthy promotions I despair that in Great Britain we do not have a Celtic Heritage/History month concentrated through BBC/ITV/Sky. The media of Tv, films and indeed books have a huge part to play in keeping a nations heritage alive. Before the flawed but exciting epic Braveheart I guarantee not may people outside of Scotland had heard of William Wallace. 

I enjoy historical fiction so I decided to go for two birds one stone approach. Fun and educational.. Here Be Dragons is the fictionalised Biopic (Biobook?) of Llewellyn the Great, one of Wales favourite sons. Here again the story of Wales is heavily influenced by England. The focus of the book is actually Llewellyn's wife Joanna. The illegitimate daughter of KIng John (yes the bad guy from Robin Hood!) Both Llewellyn and Joanna are coerced into a political marriage which by all accounts went very well...until it didn't (no spoilers but the marriage encounters a big bump in the road!)

I found the book really hit the spot in feeding my quest for historical learning. I could really place myself in the room with Llewellyn and Joanna and developed a far better understanding of the timeline than I would if i had just read a straightforward dry non-fiction. When I read an historical fiction novel it ceases to be history, I am transported to that time and place and the history spontaneously evolves into something more akin to current affairs.

The author does have a nice way with words and  smooth style. The focus of the tale, I felt, was more from Joanna's point of view, so affairs at court took precedence over affairs on the battlefield. While I realise most readers are female, I being a Welshman would have liked more emphasis on Llewellyn. A little more Bernard Cornwall a little less Gregory for me would have been my sweet spot. Again this is purely subjective. I suppose there is a subtle difference between male and female historical fiction. You pays your money and takes your choice. This slight caveat aside I did enjoy this book and I will no doubt at some point delve into the author's Biobook of the greatest Welsh hero Owain Glyndwr. 

• Selected Quotes...

They say a Welshman’s word is worth spit in the wind. And they are right, lad. An oath given to an enemy is made to be broken; we understand that. We use what weapons we have available to us, and when we fight, we fight on our terms, not theirs.

I do not mean to offend you, but the Welsh have been given little reason to love the English.” Joanna had never thought of herself as English; in fact, to one of Norman-French descent, that qualified as an insult. She did not quibble at Adda’s inaccuracy, however, realizing that to the Welsh, the distinction drawn between Norman and Saxon was irrelevant.

it would be a drawn-out, bloody, and brutal war. Wars with the Welsh always are. They disappear into inaccessible mountain retreats, phantom foes we cannot find. But they have no trouble finding us, my liege; they excel at ambush, at surprise attack and counterattack upon the morrow. There is no glory in wars against the Welsh, only blood-spattered rocks and shallow graves, and once you win, you find precious little for the plundering.

A scar signifies past pain, a wound that did not heal as it ought. But it testifies, too, to survival, breila

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

The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick

Katherine by Anya Seton

The Bruce Trilogy by Nigel Trantor

Banquet of Beggars by Chris Lloyd

 

Our Rating 5⭐s

You can buy Banquet of Beggars...Here

You can find out about the author...Here

• The Blurb...

In Paris 1940, survival means sacrifice. Like most in the city, Detective Eddie Giral has already lost so much under Occupation: the people he once loved, the job he once believed in.

And his latest investigation into the murder of a black-marketeer has made it clearer than ever: Eddie is no longer just catching criminals. He's working for them. Because when a German trader is the next to die, the authorities decide it's innocent civilians who will pay the price - unless Eddie can find the killer in time.

As hunger grows, tensions rise and a fierce rebellion brews, Eddie will tread a dark path between doing whatever it takes to live with the enemy... and also with himself.

• Our Review...

This is the third in Chris Lloyd's "Occupation series" following The Unwanted Dead and Paris Requiem. Reviews for these two novels can also be found on this blog. All feature the anti hero Eddie who I have previously labelled "a tough, vulnerable, relentless, thug of an honest cop." And yes he is still all those things and yes he is still played by a French Bob Hoskins in my head. 

I am running out of superlatives for this series. I religiously follow only 2 series of books and the Occupation series is the only I have given 5 stars for every review.

Again its a murder mystery set in occupied Paris in 1940/41, but this time the investigation follows the murder of a local black marketeer who has been profiting at the misery of the starving citizens of Paris. Later another murder is committed linked to the Black Market. There are numerous plot twists and turns before Eddie can work out who the killers are. If the whodunnit plot were to be lifted from this novel and placed in a modern setting then it would still be a very good if not excellent mystery but the absolute beauty (and genius) of this book and the others is the setting.

Eddie is a good cop with a good heart but he is a bad man. . His situation is finely balanced like an elephant on a see saw. The crooks hate him because he is a cop, the citizens hate him because they think he is a collaborator, The Wehrmacht hate him because he may be resistance and the Gestapo hate him because well just because he's not a Nazi. The old joke springs to mind... It's not paranoia, if they really are out to get you, and the situation he finds himself in is akin to a paranoid's fever dream.

I feel I must give special mention to the first chapter mini spoiler alert coming. but not really a big one as its only about the first chapter. Act 1 Scene 1 Eddie wakes up in a sweaty underground room, parched and exhausted. He licks moisture of the walls.... Immediately the reader thinks prison cell. As the scene unfolds french people are encamped with him, the reader switches to thinking air raid shelter. Eventually it becomes clear the reason why he is there is something very different. The author cunningly guides us through this mini mystery tour with just descriptions of thoughts and feelings till you get a feeling of waking up somewhere where you cant remember from the night before. It's a very carefully thought out false trail, he intentionally gives us mental breadcrumbs to follow to lead us into the  assumptions of "Oh he is in a prison cell." quickly followed by "Oh he is in an air raid shelter." The author knows what he is doing in planting the thoughts in our minds. False trails., obfuscation and frustration, he sets the tone right at the start of the book Wonderful example of an opening chapter.

Again the authors research is amazing. Actual dates, timings, events, processes, of occupied Paris, these are the things that he is good at. These are our black and white lines and the colour is added through Eddie and his emotions and thoughts through out his adventures. It is every bit a spellbinding mixture as Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, it's just that the era and country are different.

 The feeling of oppression and never ending stress living under the constant pressure of an institutionally psychopathic regime makes for a teeth clenching, heart pounding read. I have mentioned before how Eddie is like a 1920s LA noir detective but thrust into an alien backdrop of occupied Paris. The narrative also reminds of Orwell's authoritarian hell-scape of 1894. The terror of saying the wrong thing, of thinking the wrong thing, of being the wrong colour or just being in the wrong place. How could you conduct an honest murder investigation in this world. An Eddie type would be your only hope.

Of course occupied 1940s Paris, or Orwell's 1984 aren't the only fascist games in town. Trump's USA is coming to the boil and it is terrifying. I'm off to buy some guinea pigs ready for the incoming world collapse and subsequent right wing terror.  Oh guinea pigs? You'll have to read Banquet for Beggars. I promise you will never look at a guinea-pig in the same way again.

Another great book in a great series.

• Selected Quotes...

"If they cut the meat allowance any further, I might even become fashionable."

"Butter was the new cocaine."

"you know my boys Eddie. They wouldn't hurt a fly." "I know they wouldn't." She backed away to close the door. They'd be too fucking stupid stupid to hit it."

"This is not how we do things Judge." "This is how we do things now. This is an opportunity for France. A chance to sweep away the old." "You mean things like justice and law?" "Wasters and hopeless people. The ones who offer nothing and take everything." "I've got a few names for you."

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

The Gathering Storm by Alan Jones. (our review..here)

• About The Author...

Chris was born in an ambulance racing through a town he’s only returned to once, which probably explains a lot.

Straight after graduating in Spanish and French, he hopped on a bus from Cardiff to Catalonia where he stayed for the next twenty-odd years, first in the small and beautiful city of Girona, then in the big and beautiful city of Barcelona. He’s also lived in Bilbao, pre-empting the Guggenheim by a good few years, and in Madrid, where his love of Barcelona football club deepened. During this time, he worked as a teacher, in educational publishing, as a travel writer and as a translator. He still spends part of his day translating lofty and noble academic and arts texts.

Besides this, he also lived in Grenoble for six months, where he studied the French Resistance movement, a far deeper and more complex subject than history often teaches us and one that has fascinated him for years.

He now lives in his native Wales, where he writes crime novels and translates stuff.

The result of his lifelong interest in World War 2 and resistance and collaboration in Occupied France, The Unwanted Dead (Orion) is Chris’s first novel set in Paris, featuring Detective Eddie Giral. The series will see Eddie negotiate his way through the Occupation, trying to find a path between resistance and collaboration, all the time becoming whoever he must be to survive the ordeal descended on his home.

He also writes the Elisenda Domenech series (Canelo) set in Girona, featuring a police officer in the devolved Catalan police force. The head of an experimental Serious Crime Unit, she fights the worst of human excesses in the most beautiful of settings.

When he’s not writing or trying to keep up with his reading pile, Chris loves travelling, languages, red wine, Wales and Barça at football, Wales at rugby, cryptic crosswords, art, rock music and losing himself in European cities.

He’s especially proud to be a member of the Welsh crime writing collective Crime Cymru, the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Authors.

Death By Intent By Jacqueline Harret

Rating 4⭐s

You can buy Death By Intent...here

You can find out more about Jacqueline Harret...here

• The Blurb...

A woman’s decomposing body. The Church of ‘Forgotten Souls’. A dubious priest.

Di Mandy Wilde has a new case on her hands.

Was the death natural? Can she solve the mystery under the critical gaze of her ex-fiancé, DCI Lucas Manning?

And who hated Barbara Vixen enough to kill her?

• Our Review...

Death by Intent is book 4 in the D.I. Mandy Wilde series and yes I have read all 4! and in order! 

First up what a brilliant cover! Very memorable. 

We open with the putrefying corpse of an old lady. Another of those terrible cases you hear of, where an elderly person, all alone in the world with no friends or family dies on their own of natural causes and lays for weeks until by chance they are discovered. Or was it natural causes and what was this old lady like. We automatically think of old ladies are gentle, caring and benign. But who was this woman in her life.

This is the challenge for Mandy and her team. Josh, Olivia and Helen. each with their own skill-set and personality. However this time Mandy is hampered by the appointment of a DCI to follow and scrutinise her every move following her maverick ways on previous investigations. Mandy needs to up her game and this time stay the right side of the line. There is one major obstacle to this in that the watchdog DCI is her former fiance. In addition Mandy has issues at home. Mandy looks after her teenage niece Tabitha, and now Tabitha's mother and Mandy's errant, black sheep of a twin sister is back on the scene. It cant get any more powder keggy can it? Oh yes it can and its all going to kick off! 

I'm trying not to give spoilers, suffice to say numerous suspects are investigated and false paths explored and red herrings swallowed whole. One of the characters, Father Michael, a long haired, tattooed con man who had turned to God and seen the light and became a preacher in particular resonated. He reminded me of Russell Brand. 

I must say I'm very impressed by the work ethic of the South Wales Police force in the Mandy Wilde universe. No stone, no matter how minute is left un-turned, no trivial piece of information left un-scrutinised. I know its fiction and in the real world cases like these would be basically binned. Which brings me to the essence of the Mandy Wilde novels.

In the Mandy Wilde novels the writing conveys throughout a sense of reverence for justice, and not just black and white legal justice. They revere the full rainbow spectrum of all encompassing social justice. When we get to a denouement in a Mandy Wilde novel we don't just get to find the perpetrator and the reason why they did it but more than that again we get the heritage of that person, the difficult decisions in terrible circumstances, that eventually led to that fateful decision to commit a crime. Situations that could have been vastly different if only someone or society as a whole cared. Often in Mandy's world, and i should think in real life too, the perpetrator is actually the biggest victim. If we all lived in a world with the pervading feel of the justice in  Mandy Wilde novels the world would be a much better, more caring place. 

I must say it took me a while to get into the groove of a Mandy Wilde novel. I was used to more dramatic novels, with big explosions, car chases and gruesome murders but as I read more I found myself settling into and enjoying Mandy's world. If you drew a Venn diagram with Columbo, and Cathy Come Home, then Mandy Wilde is the sweet spot in the middle. On first impression a Mandy Wilde novel is like a placid pond but once you go under the surface you see the fight for life in society in all it's glory and all it's heartache. 

Looking forward to Mandy 5

• Selected Quotes...

Barbara Vixen was dead long before the fireworks announcing the New Year exploded across the Cardiff sky. It was the second of January

You can’t charge someone for not caring enough. It’s not like a neglected child.

Damn. A boa constrictor couldn’t feel more controlling than Lucas hanging closer to her than spandex.

You try to poach my best detective, make him think you’re the best thing since bloody chocolate massage cream,

Hi, I’m Michael. I’ve done some bad things in my life, and I’ve been punished for them. Men punished me but God saved me. He made me see the error of my ways. Through the love of God and his son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, I have seen there is a different path. A path where I can do some good in the world and help others

 

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

The List by Graham H Miller

Crimson Snow by Jason Vowles 

The Couple at No9 by Claire Douglas

• About The Author...

Jacqueline Harrett was born and brought up in a small village in Northern Ireland. After living in various places in South Wales she settled in Cardiff with her husband of many years, Lola the mad cat and Speedy, an ancient and territorial tortoise. Her two grown-up children – critical reader and technical advisor – live nearby.

As an only child she was a voracious reader and loved stories. Her father was a wonderful storyteller, encouraging her to tell her own stories and developing her love of oral stories. This was the inspiration behind her mini-book, Tell Me Another… Speaking and Listening Through Storytelling and her PhD on the effects of oral stories on young children’s language and imagination.

Jacqui has always been a writer but it wasn’t until 1997 that she started publishing her work with articles in English in Wales and then in the TES. A book for teachers, Exciting Writing, won the UKLA author award. As a former teacher and academic, she published and gave presentations on the value of story for children’s development.

After retiring from academia, Jacqui concentrated on more creative writing, attending classes and developing the craft. She had stories published in anthologies (Honno, MTP) and flash fiction online, and hidden in the depths of her computer are many other stories, a novel, novella and books for children. Like reading, writing is an obsession.

With her friend and colleague, Janet Laugharne, she has written a novel, What Lies Between Them, to be published in February 2022 under the pseudonym J. L. Harland.

Jacqui’s debut, The Nesting Place, was started in lockdown and the culmination of several different elements. It started with Katherine Stansfield’s excellent Crime Writing courses at Cardiff University, pre-pandemic. Then, during lockdown, a further course with Writing Magazine’s James McCreet, when the ideas began to take shape and the feedback from James helped with the process of producing the novel.

Flames of Anarchy by Leslie Scase

 

Rating...4⭐s

288 pages

You can buy Flames of Anarchy...here

You can find Leslie's face book page...here

You can find out about Crime Cymru...here

• The blurb...

After a plot to assassinate the Czar of Russia is foiled by government agents, Inspector Thomas Chard is tasked with finding a lone assassin who may be being protected by a gang of anarchists somewhere in Glamorganshire. Having just returned to Pontypridd from Shrewsbury, where he was fighting to clear his own name, Chard is more concerned with rebuilding his career. But events soon overtake this aim and Chard’s efforts to find the assassin are frustrated by a series of apparently random murders. As the anarchists plot to promote unrest, the body count begins to grow. Soon a local politician is amongst the dead. Tensions rise as the anarchists fight amongst themselves, with one group’s actions becoming increasingly more extreme. Still the killer's true objective remains a mystery... one that Chard must solve, and quickly.

• Our review...

This is the fourth outing for our flawed, Victorian police offer Inspector Chard. This is the third one I've read and as I sat down to begin reading I realised it felt like I was looking forward to settling down to and old friend and an entertaining evening. A bit like when Bake Off comes back on the telly in the autumn. 

We find Chard a free man  and back in Ponty after his experiences in Shrewsbury in Sabrina's Teardrop. He may be free and back but he is still in the doghouse both with his boss and his colleagues. Luckily for Chard before he returns home a home-office fixer taps him up to do some "special branch" type work in South Wales where the is a suspected terror cell being formed. Chard is charged with locating a former college friend who may or may not be involved. As always with Leslie's writing the past reflects the present and with current spate of rioting with a religious/ethnic background his finger is again bang on the pulse. Just swap islam/asian/MDL or christain/white/EDL for catholic/Irish/Fenian and you've gone from 1895 to 2024 by the end of the page. Thus proving the old adage "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes."

Chard must keep his MI5 secret while he goes about his day job. His current task being to develop a report into the feasibility of a plain clothes CID force in Glamorganshire. Thus he is able to travel throughout the county with impunity. As he draws closer to the quite frankly embarrassing attempts at revolution by the hapless band of Glamorgan anarchists (for those of  a certain age think Citizen Smith and you get the picture) as series of seemingly unconnected, grisly murders take place that are loosely linked to the crew. Is there an assassin hidden their ranks.

As Chard uncovers clue after clue pressure mounts from the Home Office and the pace increases to a frenetic chase. The authors two main attributes are research and plot and he displays both to the maximum in this novel. The Victorian method of CPR is an eye opener! Another enjoyable romp from the Welsh Arthur Conan Doyle.

• Selected Quotes...

And there's the problem. People like that in charge, firing whoever they want.It's the same everywhere.Those who have no common sense lording it over us. Poverty and destitution for all working men. That's what they want.

As  you are aware the participants are allocated an argument to defend, and they do so regardless of  their own personal beliefs. the object is to win the debate. That's all that matters. They carry that principle on to the House of Commons. Whether an issue is right or wrong is of no concern..

• 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

The Look by Lee Coates

 

270 pages

Rating... 3⭐

You can buy The Look...Here

You can find out more about Lee Coates...Here

• The Blurb...

Jim is a self-employed web developer living in Cardiff. Successful professionally, the future also looks rosy for his personal life, having recently proposed to his girlfriend, Ffion. However, when the couple decide to celebrate their engagement with his much-loved dad, Callum, Jim’s world is tilted on its axis.

Jim is convinced he spotted his dad staring at him – just for a split second – with a look of pure hatred. Did he imagine it? However, when a series of bizarre and catastrophic events strike Jim’s life in quick succession, he starts to wonder if the look he received from his father could mean something.

Eventually, Callum makes a confession that will lead to the total collapse of Jim’s life as he knows it…

• Our Review...

I read this novel as part of the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. For more info click here. This weeks prompt was a novel whose blurb you hadn't read prior to reading. 

The Look is an intriguing and attention holding first novel by Lee Coates, which augers well for future projects. The story is a cross between The Wicker Man and The Omen but set in the very middle class and pretentious Cardiff Bay.  It leaves you with an itch you want to scratch.. Partly because of the ending and partly due to the structure. 

The first half of the book is Jim and Callum's back story. However the main driver for the plot isn't introduced until 70% of the way into the book.. This leaves little time then for the second and third acts. The narrative felt a little front end heavy. A few potential plot strands are laid down but not followed. e.g. the mysterious potential employers, the missing mother, even The Look of the title.  If they are false trails they should still be followed and answered in the climax of the book. As I was hungrily devouring the final chapters I distinctly recall thinking There's only a few pages left, he has got a lot of strands to pull together to get a satisfactory end. 

This is a dark horror/supernatural story that somehow doesn't feel too dark despite some really horrific scenes. I've been wracking my brains as to why it feels 99% but not quite 100%, because as I've said the scenes which are intended to be horrific are indeed very horrific (gonna cancel my opticians appointment! 😟). So not the scenes then. I sort of came gradually to the idea (and this is difficult to articulate for me.) that it feels to me (with the usual caveat, that my opinion is irrelevant) that the authors writing style is slightly out of sync with what he is trying to achieve. I wrote in my notes. " Authors style is light and bouncy, with a use of vocabulary that is varied. It is engaging and just on the right side of the entertaining/verbose border."(see first selected quote for an example.) When reading the narrative it felt sort of...perky. Unlike when I read Cormac McCarthy which makes me feel dread and despair. However I don't know if this perky/bouncy fits with theme of the book.. Like using a precision scalpel, when the job needs a lump hammer.

By the by, one thing that did make the hairs on the back of my old swede jump up. The neighbour in the book is called Steven Staite. Very unusual name. However it was also the name of my neighbour for the first 22years of my life! arrggghhh!!!

There is a lot to admire in this debut novel.

One point which I did think worked out well was that it was written in the !st person from Jim's point of view. Given the (possible) revealing ending, this was a well placed strategy. In addition the author does have a well developed turn of phrase and some of his descriptive lines are very juicy indeed, see selected quotes. With just a few well turned words he can make pictures in your mind.

All in all, I found the novel entertaining and an excellent first step on what will hopefully be a long writing career. It's a good start. He has all the ducks, in this first attempt, next one to line em all up, and knock em dead.

• Selected Quotes...

I can't imagine there was any grisly facet of the atrocities that wasn't overseen by an impromptu documentarian. Anyone with a ghoulish curiosity could easily find out what was happening at any point in the continuum and at most locations within the marquee.

The bruised and pendulous clouds above had descended further,

...the sky was a watercolour artist's paradise, pregnant with varicose-veined purples.

I struggled to comprehend how every single car on display had at least one occupant with their own life and innumerable worries. Some concerns would be major. Others less so. But each and every individual was expected to cope with the constant state of flux inflicted on them from an exponential number of outside influences. Billions of particles inexorably linked by gossamer thin threads. The world was such a complex place. Chaotic.

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

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

The Omen by David Seltzer

Audrey Rose by Frank D Fellita

• About The Author..

After having two kids, Lee Coates had almost given up on ever fulfilling his dream of writing a novel, spare time being so precious. However, a light-bulb moment occurred during one of his sons’ extracurricular activities. These interminable minutes needn’t be dead time. Lee can be regularly found writing at the side of football pitches, swimming pools and tennis courts in his hometown of Cardiff.