Customer Reviews

The London Blitz Murders

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Collin's character is Agatha Christie who, while helping the war effort by working by day in a hospital, links up with renowned pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury in his investigation into a series of Ripper-style murders committed under the cover of London's numerous blackouts. London's women, already strained and anxious because of the wartime inconveniences, are terrified. With every blackout, a murderer might be lurking in the darkened alleys or shelters to claim another victim.

Collins is careful to let us know where the lines between his fiction and Christie's factual life intersect, and points out that many of the characters in this novel were, in fact, real people. Information about wartime hazards and the ways Londoners adjusted to them is artfully described, giving readers a sense of life in England's "homefront" during these devastating years.

It is another great historical mystery by Collins.It's for Fans of Christie and Mystery story Fan! Recommend!

This is a kind of fun little murder mystery (only 260 pages), set in London in February 1942, and featuring Agatha Christie Mallowan, doyen of mystery novel writers. But actually, the most interesting material is the setting and the recounting of day-to-day life on the British home front during the blackout -- though not actually during the "Blitz," the title notwithstanding. However, the mystery itself, as Collins narrates it -- it's based closely on a true series of sex murders -- is actually rather lightweight and completely twistless. The author, in fact, introduces the killer early on and makes the case against him halfway through. Like any good mystery reader, I immediately began watching for red herrings -- but there were none. And the identified character did, in fact, turn out to be the killer. There was almost no puzzle, either for the police or the reader. Collins seems also not to have given much thought to the quality of his writing this time out; as a longtime professional editor, I longed to take a blue pencil to his not infrequent awkwardnesses of expression, his frequent overuse of pet phrases (often in the same paragraph), and the jerky pacing of the background story. With a little work, this could have been a much more entertaining story.

The book is based on real murders done by a new Jack the Ripper during WWII, in London. Agatha Christie appears in a book, helping police inspector and pathologist solve the crimes. The author did thorough research and mentioned a lot of Agatha's novels (no spoilers included!). There are also many details about her life.

The book is an interesting read for Agatha Christie fans, and it plots a nice picture of London in the days of the war, but if you expect a whodunit novel, you will be disappointed. I recognized the killer the moment he was introduced, the police suspected him from the beginning and, finally, he was the guilty one. No twist in the plot, and even the murderer's motive is not revealed (mass murderers don't have a motive?)

If you compare The London Blitz Murders with A.B.C. Murders (Agatha's novel about the mass murderer), you can see why Ms. Christie was one and only...