Plain Clothes & Sleuths


Book Description

The detective is a familiar figure in British history. This work looks at famous cases such as the Ripper murders and the beginnings of the Special Branch and Detective Branch of Scotland Yard. This history covers various aspects of crime history, including the career of Jim 'the Penman' Saward, a notorious forger, and more.




The Ocean Sleuth


Book Description




The Victorian Detective


Book Description

At the dawn of the Victorian age there was effectively no police detective force in Britain and detecting methods were rudimentary; by the end of Victoria's reign the Criminal Investigation Department had been established and basic forensic tests were in use. This book explores the development of the professional detective during the nineteenth century, giving examples of the methods he used to track down criminals and to convict them of offences ranging from petty theft to brutal murder. It also explains the development of forensics, from fingerprinting to tests that could identify whether or not blood was human. Mysteries such as the Jack the Ripper murders are examined, as well as the work of famous sleuths like the 'Prince of Detectives' Jonathan Whicher – the real-life counterpart of the legendary Sherlock Holmes.




The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth


Book Description

When her elderly mother suffers a stroke, Ivy Lutz leaves her life as a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka and returns home to northern California. Her sheltered life is blasted apart by a series of murders, which she attempts to solve with the help of a smitten detective. She understands why someone might want to kill her stepfather, who it turns out is a smuggler on the run, but what about her mother? Was she was murdered, too? As Ivy struggles to live by her Buddhist principles and employ her mindfulness skills, she discovers they both hinder and help in her search for the truth.







Food, Drink, and the Female Sleuth


Book Description

From the author of books about women police officers and a retired editor who’s now a volunteer cop in small town America, Food, Drink, and the Female Sleuth gathers together the best food scenes in mainstream detective fiction. Over 140 flavorful contributors, over 250 slurpy excerpts, 23 rich chapters with titles like “Undercover Grub and Stakeout Takeout,” “Junk Food on the Run,” “A Dozen Ways to Feed Your Lover,” “Bribing with Food,” and “The Last Bite.” Like us, PIs, cops, and amateur sleuths ARE what they eat. Also they are known by how they eat, where they eat, why they eat, and by who does the cooking. What better way to flesh out a sleuth’s work partner than “Let’s Have A Drink,” or spell out social class with humor in “Upper and Lower Crusts”? What better way to get a plot underway than breakfast? Or stir in suspense and foreshadow events in “Let’s Do Lunch”? This book is for anyone whose shelves are stacked with really good detective novels and really good food. Face it, if you like to eat, put Food, Drink on your table.




Zhivago's Children


Book Description

The story of the Russian intelligentsia after Stalin is poorly chronicled. Zubok turns a compelling subject into a portrait as intimate as it is provocative. Zhivago’s children, the spiritual heirs of Pasternak’s noble doctor, were the last of their kind—an intellectual and artistic community committed to a civic, cultural, and moral mission.




Alley Life in Washington


Book Description

Forgotten today, established Black communities once existed in the alleyways of Washington, D.C., even in neighborhoods as familiar as Capitol Hill and Foggy Bottom. James Borchert's study delves into the lives and folkways of the largely alley dwellers and how their communities changed from before the Civil War, to the late 1890s era when almost 20,000 people lived in alley houses, to the effects of reform and gentrification in the mid-twentieth century.




South Coast Shenanigans


Book Description

When the somewhat disreputable Martin Beckwith builds a midget submarine that uses a novel form of propulsion, he has little idea that an unlikely gang of buccaneers plans to commandeer his vessel for their own nefarious purposes. The daring heist is masterminded by a crafty naval officer called the ‘Admiral’ from his garden in a leafy Hampshire village and draws together a disparate band of crewmates which includes a feisty female naval officer, a young executive, an attractive pub landlady. In this light-hearted tale, the Admiral and his unlikely buccaneers are pitched against the inventor, who will stop at nothing to get his submarine back in some South Coast Shenanigans.




Tracing Your Police Ancestors


Book Description

Tracing Your Police Ancestors will help you locate and research officers who served in any of the police forces of England and Wales from the creation of the Metropolitan Police by Sir Robert Peel in 1829. Assuming that the reader has no prior knowledge of how or where to look for such information, Stephen Wade explains and describes the various archives and records and provides a discussion of other sources. Case studies are used to show how an individual officers career may be traced and understood from this research. He also explains the range of secondary sources open to the family or local historian, many of which offer a broader account of the social and cultural history of the British police forces.