Allen, Conrad

Murder on the Lusitania

New York, St. Martin's Minotaur. 266 pp. US $23.95.

"... social etiquette, so inflexible ashore, was sometimes abandoned at sea."

Older readers are bound to remember Liverpool's maritime history, even the fervour with which it sent off every ship, but especially on its maiden voyage.

The book certainly does justice to the launching of the Lusitania on its maiden voyage in 1907, the gasp from the watchers as the ship, longer than the Houses of Parliament glided over the water. And conveys the excitement of shipboard life, the romance, the disappointments, the petty thievery and the major crimes which took place. The entertainments: music and (believe it or not) dog shows. Fancy dress parades (families with barely more than a couple of suitcases to start their new life in America became pirates, princesses, witches, out of deference to their new homeland, even cowboys).

George Porter Dillman is employed as a private detective. He has to pass for just another passenger, and watch out for criminal activities. He gets into stride with uncovering petty crimes, but the crimes become more serious and so does his investigation. Jewellery is stolen. A Stradivarius goes missing and is recovered in a scene worthy of light comedy. Someone is murdered. Dillman makes friends with Genevieve Masefield and the two operate in tandem. There are, believe it or not, spies on board and it is only 1907.

The Lusitania was torpedoed in 1915 and hopefully Conrad Allen is preparing more Dillman and Masefield adventures for us for the years between 1907 and 1915.

Conrad Allen lives in England.

Cornwell, Bernard

Sharpe's Tiger
Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799

London, HarperCollins. 379 pp. £5.99.

Richard Sharpe is a raw young private soldier in India. The army decided when he woke up, when he slept, when he ate, when he marched, and when he was to sit about doing nothing. Hurry up and do nothing, that was the army's way. He was bored and thinking of running away with a widow.

Sergeant Hakeswill adds malevolent injustice to Richard's boredom. Sergeant Hakeswill loves misery (other people's). Sergeant Hakeswill thinks sergeants give orders. Sergeant Hakeswill is what the army is. He wants to sell Richard's intended to a whoremaster.

The rising star of the general staff is Colonel Arthur Wellesley. You and I know him better as Lord Wellington, yes, the very same who assisted Gebhard von Blucher defeat Napoleon at Waterloo Farm.

The British army is facing Tippoo of Mysore with his legendary army known as Tippoo's tigers.

Two things happen. The British chief of intelligence is captured by Tippoo. Richard is court-martialled and sentenced to two thousand lashes (the British army believed in showing discipline). Colonel Wellesley steps in, reluctantly on his own admission. He had intended to send Lieutenant Lawford to rescue the missing intelligence chief, and Lieutenant Lawford won't go without Richard Sharpe. Sharpe thinks it might be easier to hop over to London to steal the crown jewels, but his not to reason why. Dangerous but better than two thousand lashes.

This is an exciting adventure and like all good books it has an extra. Life in the British army. British officers and the acceptance of the class system and how you have to select the right officers when battle looms, knowing the gold lace on the man's coat means a brain long since turned to mush. The treatment of troops recruited locally. The camp followers. The wives. The looting. And most interesting for us here, the power politics. Tippoo Sultan, a Moslem, has decided the French will win (their rising star is Napoleon Bonaparte). He has been supplied with guns and ammunition and a French military adviser who dreams of Provence and cannot get the Sultan to take his advice. The Hindus caught in between, knowing they cannot turn to the French, but as far as the British, "You come as merchants, but you bring guns and use them to make yourselves into taxmen, judges and executioners. Then you bring your churches."

How far from the world of G.A. Henty!

The Sharpe Appreciation Society is at PO Box 14, Lowdham, Notts NG 14 7HU, England.

Knight, Bernard

The Awful Secret
A Crowner John Mystery.

London, Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster) 335 pp. £5.99.

"He could wield a sword, yes, and cut down Saracens, but he could not keep a promise to defy the hypocrisy and deceit that we discovered in the Church that we had served all these years."

The action takes place in the twelfth century. The sleuth, Sir John de Wolf (Crowner John), is Devon's first country coroner. A wreck has been washed ashore in Ilfracombe and there is a corpse aboard.

In the meantime, Crowner John is being stalked by a mysterious stranger. This turns out to be Gilbert de Ridefort and the two have known each other since their crusading days. Gilbert de Ridefort belongs to an illustrious order, being a knight of the Temple of Solomon. But he has discovered a secret which will shake the foundations of Christianity, and is on the run from the secretive warrior monks. Religion and politics were as fiery a combination then as now and Crowner John's life is in danger. He is forced to go to the Island of Lundy, inhabited solely by pirates.

Of course, he uncovers the secret, and lest you think the author made it up, please visit any Internet sites reached through Rennes-le-Chateau or read the books listed in Further reading.

Professor Bernard Knight, CBE, was a home office pathologist. This is the fourth in the Crowner John series.

Perry, Anne

Ashworth Hall
A Victorian Mystery

London, HarperCollins, 373 pp. £16.99.

It is to have every appearance of an ordinary late-autumn country house party. Guests arrive with a phalanx of servants. But behind the mask is another attempt to solve the Irish question. Protestant and Catholic representatives (evenly divided between moderates extremists) are to meet secretly to work out an accommodation under a British chairman, a senior member of the government. The Protestants and Catholics hate each other, frightened to lose what little each has. Every little thing has significance, even the colors of the clothes they were. Each carries the whole weight of their past in every encounter, whether in conference or over meals. Each thinks they stand for faith and honor, and pity for the poor and dispossessed of their side. The hatred between the extremists and moderates on the same side is palpable. Nobody is prepared to give way. "That's what's wrong with Ireland-" says someone, "too many people doing the devil's work in God's name!"

Then the chairman is murdered!

There is an immediate assumption that the murderer is politically motivated, attempting to break up the talks without being blamed. But the conference goes on and the servants continue with their tasks, trying to make sense of what goes on above stairs. Anne Perry is superb on class differences and gender roles. (If you are interested in fashion and how clothes were kept clean in those days, carry a notebook beside you as you read.)

The upstanding British chairman turns out to be the lowest of the low, his sexual adventures make more powerful men appear like teenagers. (The sexual partners are today's headlines). He is careful in politics, but in his private life he does not care who he hurts. The consequences of the murder for home and politics are carefully set out. Not everyone wants peace. The sleuth is the quietly competent Thomas Pitt. The book should be required reading at all "peace" conferences.

A Londoner by birth, Anne Perry has been an airline stewardess, assistant buyer, property underwriter (in Calfornia) and now lives in Scotland.

Peters, Elizabeth

Seeing a Large Cat

New York, Warner Books. 414 pp. US $6.99.

Three cheers on behalf of Egyptologists, archaeologists, and all those who enjoy a good, plain, old-fashioned mystery. Yes, there is a new Amelia Peabody mystery novel out.

Professor Emerson, the distinguished Egyptologist, is about to tackle a dig in the Valley of the Kings. His life (professional and personal) would be complete, if only dead bodies didn't turn up wherever his wife Amelia steps. The century is only three years old. Amelia, although she disparages the rigid code of morality insisted upon by her late Majesty, thinks that some rights should only be pursued in private. Yes, some of the lady guests at Shepheard's are just not behaving in a lady-like manner.

Soon enough a mummy is found, but since it is wearing silk undies, Amelia Peabody is more likely to investigate such a mummy than her husband. Her investigation is complicated by her son Ramses, now a teenager, and her beautiful ward Nefret, both trying to help a pretty American, who thinks she is stalked. They also help mother.

The "mummy" is that of Colonel Bellingham's wife. She was thought to have run off with a lover years ago. The husband of an old friend of the Emerson family has come under the spell of a psychic. (Amelia solves this one by marrying the psychic off to a wealthy American.)

The take-off of Victorian morals is positively delicious. The differences in the behavior of Europeans and locals is spot-on. The end left me dry-mouthed. And all for a mere seven bucks, which rates another cheer.

Come back Amelia Peabody and come back soon.

Elizabeth Peters also writes as Barbara Mertz and Barbara Michaels. She is an ardent feminist, gardener and animal lover. Needless to say she has a doctorate in archaeology.

Robb, Candace

A Gift of Sanctuary
(The Sixth Owen Archer Mystery)

London, Heinemann / New York, St Martin's Press. 304 pp. £10.00.

Will the Welsh turn traitor if the French get as far as the west coast of Wales? The pilgrimage to the Holy City of St. David's is the cover for Owen Archer, a former soldier and spy come to recruit archers for the forthcoming invasion of France by the Duke of Lancaster, and Geoffrey Chaucer (the very same), to check on the defenses. Is the steward at Cydweli loyal? A man is found murdered, and he was clearly on the side of the Duke.

As in any good historical novel private and family tensions mix with the politics and wars of the era. Who is faithful ... to wife as well as ruler? And who is not? Who has been stealing money from the king's exchequer and was it for private reasons or to pay for arms? Can Owen Archer prevent further murders? Running through the book like a golden thread are Owen Archer's own emotions as he returns to the country he came from and whose language was his first language. The locals seem to know him as well as he thinks he knows them. His career as a private eye precede him.

The tumultuous fourteenth century brought to life by way of mystery and adventure and all the emotions that accompany homecoming.

You can visit the Candace Robb website at www.halcyon.com/candacer

Todd, Marilyn

Wolf Whistle

London, Macmillan. 345 pp. £17.99.

Less than a fortnight before, the Empire had been rocked to its core when the Emperor's closest friend, finest general, son-in-law and Regent had returned from campaign and dropped dead at fifty-two. The same age as Augustus. Would fate have the same in store for the man who had dealt with Brutus, Cassius, Mark Antony, brought peace, filled bellies. Five slave girls are brutally murdered (always on Market Day) and Romans no longer feel safe.

It is against this background that Claudia Seferius has to evade a moneylender and his dogs, finds an abandoned little boy, and has to decide on the nature of her relationship with the handsome Marcus Cornelius Orbilio of the security police. (Marcus is a bit of a philosopher and he thinks that the piquancy of life comes from not knowing, from not fully understanding.) Marcus is crazy about Claudia and will do anything, well, nearly anything for her. Claudia thinks she will do anything, well, nearly anything for money.

The criminals in the story are the Midden Hunters, who steal abandoned babies to raise as slaves and consider themselves as public benefactors.

The surprise is the villain. The empire is stablised, thank Jupiter!

Marilyn Todd was born in Harrow, London, and lives with her husband, one hare-brained dog and two cats.