Alison Dawson can never cross the Old Kent Road without thinking of Monopoly. The brown quare nobody wants. She used to play it with one of her husbands, she can't remember which, offhand...
The Blurb
Ali Dawson is a police officer working on crimes so old, the joke goes, that they are not only cold but frozen. What most people don't know is that the team travels back in time to complete their research - a process pioneered by the mysterious Italian physicist, Serafina Pelligrini.
So far the team has only ventured a few years back but Ali's boss has a new assignment for her. He wants her to step back to 1850, the heart of the Victorian Age, to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of Tory MP Isaac Templeton.
To prepare for the challenge ahead, Ali researches the Victorian era. She learns that Cain Templeton was part of a sinister group called The Collectors, the rumour being that you had to kill a woman to become a member. Duly prepared, she arrives in London in January 1850, at the peak of the so-called mini ice age, to start her journey in a house used by artists, with a dead woman at her feet.
Soon she finds herself in extreme danger. Even worse - she appears to be stuck, unable to make her way back to the present, to her life and to her son, Finn.
A brand new series from No 1 bestselling author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries. If you're missing Ruth and Nelson, wait till you meet Ali and Cain.
My Review
I adored every one of the Dr Ruth Galloway series of books by this author (links to previous reviews at the end of the post.) When I heard the author, Elly Griffiths had written the first in a new series, I was very keen to read it but with a little trepidation. After all, when you read a series that you love, there is always the possibility that something new might disappoint.
However, my fears came to nought as I enjoyed this book very much. It is very different to the Dr Ruth Galloway series. In fact, I would suggest not going into this thinking it might be similar. This is very different and actually, I enjoyed seeing this talented author turn her hand to something a little different.
The main character, Ali Dawson is a police officer working on a cold case review team. It is a little different to the usual 'cold case' scenario as the officers can actually travel back in time in order to solve the crimes. Thus we see Ali travel back to London in 1850 in order to investigate Cain Templeton, a man associated with a group known as The Collectors. It is said that in order to become a member, one has to murder a woman. What made this even more interesting is that we detect the beginnings of an attraction between Ali and Cain. I can hardly wait for the next book to see whether this relationship develops.
Whilst she is stuck in the past, Ali's son Fin, is arrested for the murder of Cain's descendent. Needless to say, she is keen to get back to the present to clear his name.
It is a refreshing new take on this genre of books - crime and science fiction mixed together, and it worked very well. The edges of the genres blur perfectly. I loved the way both past and present parallel one another and how a resolution is found. Although the book moves between past and present, it did so seamlessly.
Ali is a fabulous character. She is a determined, strong minded woman and I am looking forward to seeing how her character develops in subsequent books in the series.
I highly recommend getting started with this series. I know that I am going to read them all.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1529433371
Publisher: Quercus
Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback
No. of Pages: 368 (paperback)
Series: Book 1 in the Ali Dawes series
Purchase Links
About the Author
Bestselling crime author Elly Griffiths worked in publishing before becoming a full-time writer.
Her series of Dr Ruth Galloway novels, featuring a forensic archaeologist, are set in Norfolk and regularly hit the Sunday Times top ten in hardback and paperback. The series has won the CWA Dagger in the Library and has been shortlisted three times for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year. There are twelve books in the series so far with number thirteen to be published in February 2021.
Her Brighton-based mystery series set in the 1950s and 1960s is inspired partly by her grandfather's life on the stage and the war magician Jasper Maskelyne, who claimed to have spent the war creating large scale illusions to misdirect the enemy. One of the two leading characters in the series, Max Mephisto, is based on Maskelyne.
In 2017 she was Programming Chair of Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Festival in Harrogate, the oldest and best-established crime fiction festival in the UK.
In 2018 Elly wrote her first standalone novel The Stranger Diaries. The novel was a top 10 paperback bestseller, selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club and as a summer 2019 Richard and Judy book.
In 2019 Elly published her first children's book in spring 2019 to great reviews with a second following in 2020.
Elly Griffiths lives near Brighton with her husband, an archaeologist, and their two grown children.
You can also find Elly at:
(all opinions are my own)
(Bookshop.org affiliated)
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