Our picks of the Classic Crime novels to bring back for April: Murder in Transit, The
Murder in Transit by Edward Marston (Allison & Busby £9.99, 352pp)
If the railway detectives are anything to go by, Victorian travel was beset with murder and mayhem.
In Murder In Transit, the 22nd outing in this hugely enjoyable series, the indomitable Inspector Colbeck and his trusty side-kick Sergeant Leeming investigate the death of a property dealer who died on his way home to the Isle of Wight.
What looks at first to be straightforward turns out to be more complex as the detectives expose extortion and blackmail.
With Queen Victoria in residence at Osborne, her private home on the island, the involvement of one of her closest companions piles pressure on Colbeck to find a speedy solution.
Words and phrases unknown to Victorian England can be grating, but this is a minor irritation in what is otherwise a cracking good read.
Strangers on a Victorian train…
The Mouthless Dead by Anthony Quinn (Abacus £20, 288pp)
After a murder conviction is overturned, it emerges that a detective close to the case knows more than he let on.
Inspector Key is on a transatlantic cruise when he is persuaded by an aspiring filmmaker to assist in the reconstruction of events in January 1931 when a woman was bludgeoned to death.
Having closed in on the husband as the obvious suspect, the prosecution had relied on weak circumstantial evidence.
But the case might have turned out differently if Key had told of his friendship with the accused and of the revelation that might have triggered an act of savage violence. Fearing exposure as an accessory to the crime, Key must find a way to avoid arrest.
The build-up of tension is palpable as Quinn weaves a powerful spine-tingler that keeps us guessing throughout.
The Case of the Busy Bees by Clifford Witting (Galileo £10.99, 276pp)
The Case of the Busy Bees is available now from the Mail Bookshop
All credit to Galileo, a small publisher tracking the back lists for lost treasures of classic crime. A prime discovery is the work of Clifford Witting whose mystery novels first appeared in the 1950s.
The Case Of The Busy Bees causes headaches for the police who are up against a criminal conspiracy specialising in extortion with kidnapping as a profitable sideline.
The stealing of a tomahawk from a local museum would seem to be incidental to the case, until the antique weapon is used to murder a prominent businessman.
As the complications mount, Witting proves himself to be a master of period detail, leaving us to wonder, for example, at the customary appointment of a retired Army officer with no police experience as chief constable.
If the villain of the piece is easily spotted, this does little to detract from a strong storyline full of surprises.