A Bespoke Murder (The Home Front Detective Series) - Historical Mystery Novel for Crime Fiction Lovers | Perfect for Book Clubs & WWII Era Enthusiasts

Writing certainly occupies much time and energy for Edward Marston, the prolific author from South Wales--and each time I pick up one of his books I always feel that not only will I be entertained, but that I will also learn something. Marston writes children's books, literary criticism, and plays in addition to his more popular historical crime novels. Now, in "A Bespoke Murder," Mr. Marston takes us to a World War I setting, or rather to events that are quickly making this "War to End all Wars" a global undertaking and tragedy. He opens with scenes from the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, wherein we meet Irene Bayard and Ernie Gill, two employees of the luxury ship, who, through skill, good luck, and Providence, survive. They are to play a further role in the plot's development. Marston then takes us to England where news of the sinking (and the general political climate on the Continent) has kindled much furor, anxiety, and demonstrations against Germans in particular. So much so that in this anarchy and "mob behavior," Jacob Stein's tailor shop in Jermyn Street is torched and the tailor is found dead inside. His daughter Ruth escaped but not before being brutalized and raped by demonstrators. When police investigate the fire, they discover that Jacob was murdered before the shop was set ablaze. Jacob is Jewish and his name, for the demonstrators, is "too German" and he deserved what he got. Here we now meet the two central characters of this police procedural:Inspector Harvey Marmion and Joe Keedy, his sergeant, two more-than-capable police officers: Marmion, older and wiser and definitely a family man, and Keedy, younger, brash, handsome, and NOT a family man. "A Bespoke Murder" is in good hands with Marston, who knows a thing or two about crime fiction (he's a former chairman of the Crime Writers Association). Marston is adept at handling a not-too-complicated plot line, fleshing out the story with the requisite side-bars, one of which, naturally, is the romantic interests of Keedy and Marmion's daughter (which no doubt will be a continued "cause" in later books of this series). In addition, Marston makes a good attempt at giving the reader a substantial "view" of the overall picture of this War, although he clearly lets us know that this is a "home front" view, and not meant to be a "war novel." It reads fast, is not complicated, and holds the readers' interests. This is the first in his Home Front Detective series and we wish him well for a continued success.