Hardcastle Series by Graham Ison
Hardcastle #8
Hardcastle's Soldiers
Graham Ison
July, 1917. DI Ernest Hardcastle and his assistant, DS Charles Marriott, investigate the murder of a cashier operating in London's Victoria Station. An army officer claims to have seen the murderer running away, and an army cap left behind appears to identify the criminal. Hardcastle believes that it will be a simple matter to go to Aldershot and arrest him, but things are never as easy as they seem. Soon Hardcastle and Marriott find themselves investigating a frustrating and seemingly unsolvable case. Has Hardcastle finally met his match? . . .From BooklistIt’s 1914, and the Great War is up and running. Food rationing, blackouts, air raids, and the deaths of thousands of soldiers are hitting the usually stiff-upper-lipped British particularly hard. But crime doesn’t stop, even with a war on, and DDI Ernest Hardcastle and his long-suffering sidekick, DS Charles Marriott, must solve the murder of a cashier at Victoria railway station. Left at the crime scene are an army-issue revolver and cap, but the owner of the cap claims it was stolen and the revoler isn’t his, leaving Hardcastle and Marriott faced with doing the slogging police work they’d hoped to avoid. The Hardcastle novels are consistently well constructed, thoroughly researched, and historically accurate, and this one is no exception. But readers beware: the period idiom and rhyming cockney slang are a struggle to interpret, even with the aid of the glossary at the end of the book. --Emily Melton ReviewIt's 1914, and the Great War is up and running. Food rationing, blackouts, air raids, and the deaths of thousands of soldiers are hitting the usually stiff-upper-lipped British particularly hard. But crime doesn't stop, even with a war on, and DDI Ernest Hardcastle and his long-suffering sidekick, DS Charles Marriott, must solve the murder of a cashier at Victoria railway station. Left at the crime scene are an army-issue revolver and cap, but the owner of the cap claims it was stolen and the revoler isn't his, leaving Hardcastle and Marriott faced with doing the slogging police work they'd hoped to avoid. The Hardcastle novels are consistently well constructed, thoroughly researched, and historically accurate, and this one is no exception. But readers beware: the period idiom and rhyming cockney slang are a struggle to interpret, even with the aid of the glossary at the end of the book. --Booklist, 15th February 2010
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Hardcastle #10
Hardcastle's Frustration
Graham Ison
As the Great War grinds to its bloody finale, DI Hardcastle is encumbered with a frustrating and complicated investigation . . . -March, 1918. The Great War is grinding slowly to its bloody finale. Divisional Detective Inspector Ernest Hardcastle, head of the Whitehall Division of the Metropolitan Police, is called to a body is recovered from the Thames. Mavis Parker, the victim’s attractive widow, proves to be a good-time girl, and to complicate matters, all the suspects seem to be known to each other, including a South African who purports to be an actor. But it is when Special Branch intervene that things really get complicated . . .Review"Meticulously researched historical details, period ambience, authentic British working-class dialogue, a splendid plot, gentle humor, and two clever detectives add up to an outstanding historical procedural."Booklist on Hardsastle's FrustrationAbout the AuthorDuring Graham Ison's thirty year career in Scotland Yard's Special Branch he was involved in several espionage cases and the investigation into the escape of the spy George Blake. He spent four years at 10 Downing Street as Protection Officer to two Prime Ministers and also served as second-in-command of the Diplomatic Protection Group.
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Hardcastle #11
Hardcastle's Traitors
Graham Ison
It is New Year’s Eve 1915 and the Hardcastle family are welcoming 1916 at their home in Kennington, London. But an hour into the New Year, Hardcastle is called to a murder in a jeweller’s shop in Vauxhall. In a first for the A Division senior detective, the killers apparently made their escape in a motor car. As Hardcastle’s enquiry progresses, what he believed to be a fairly straightforward investigation turns into one with ramifications extending from Chelsea via Sussex and Surrey to France, close to the fighting on the Western Front. And as is so often the case in wartime, the army becomes involved and so, to Hardcastle’s dismay, does Scotland Yard’s Special Branch . . .From Publishers WeeklyIson throws his readers more than a few curveballs in the 11th mystery featuring irascible Divisional Det. Insp. Ernest Hardcastle, of the Metropolitan Police (after 2012's Hardcastle's Frustration). On New Year's Eve 1915, the DDI's plans for celebrating are disrupted by the murder of jeweler and pawnbroker Reuben Gosling. A witness reports seeing two men speed off in a motorcar, but when the police locate the vehicle's owner, wealthy Sinclair Villiers, he plausibly denies any involvement. Routine police work leads to the discovery that Sinclair's army captain son, Haydn, who often borrows the car, spent the night of the crime with his colonel's wife. Hardcastle, theorizing that an enemy of Haydn's was trying to frame him, looks into an espionage angle, only to find British intelligence intervening in the case. Ison does little to distinguish Hardcastle from countless other gruff series leads, but he does offer readers a genuinely unusual secret at the heart of the mystery. (Nov.) From BooklistAnother top-notch entry in this well-regarded British police-procedural series set during WWI, this latest adventure has the irascible DDI Hardcastle faced with two murders. Jeweler Reuben Gosling has been beaten to death, with robbery appearing to be the motive, but something doesn’t smell right to Hardcastle. He’s hardly begun the investigation when another murder takes place: this time, a man named Peter Stein is shot to death in his flat. Are the cases related? The most promising clue is the car Gosling’s killer used to flee the scene. The car’s owner is the extremely wealthy Sinclair Villiers, whose son, Haydn, is an officer serving in France. As Hardcastle investigates, he soon has a wealth of clues—a Morse code machine, an illicit love affair, a group of Jewish activists, a deserting officer, and a bizarre rendezvous with a Swedish ship. But when Special Branch and MI5 get involved, Hardcastle knows this is no ordinary case. As usual, Ison offers full-bodied characters, entertaining badinage between Hardcastle and his long-suffering sergeant, a byzantine plot to keep readers off balance, and plenty of authentic period ambience. --Emily Melton
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