Genre: Mystery
Publisher: M J Publishing
Pub date: 25 November 2021

A 1940s mystery

Erdington, September 1944

As events in Europe begin to turn in favour of the Allies, Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is once more prevailed upon to solve a seemingly impossible case.

Called to the local mortuary where a man’s body lies, shockingly bent double and lacking any form of identification, Mason and O’Rourke find themselves at Castle Bromwich aerodrome seeking answers that seem out of reach to them. The men and women of the royal air force stationed there are their prime suspects. Or are they? Was the man a spy, killed on the orders of some higher authority, or is the place his body was found irrelevant? And why do none of the men and women at the aerodrome recognise the dead man?

Mason, fearing a repeat of the cold case that dogged his career for two decades and that he’s only just solved, is determined to do all he can to uncover the identity of the dead man, and to find out why he was killed and abandoned in such a bizarre way, even as Smythe demands he spends his time solving the counterfeiting case that is leaving local shopkeepers out of pocket.

Join Mason and O’Rourke as they once more attempt to solve the impossible in 1940s Erdington.

I’ve been looking forward to this since I read the first in the series The Custard Corpses.

The main characters Mason and O’Rourke again find themselves with a puzzling death. A man is found dead with a strange mark left on him and bent into an awkward position. Who is he? Does he belong to the nearby aerodrome? How did he get there? Why is his body in such a strange position?

I won’t spoil any of those questions but as Mason and O’Rourke delve into the mystery more and more odd things come to light and the case begins to expand in a manner they would never have expected, I certainly wasn’t expecting the ending! This is one of those books where I literally had no idea how it was going to end, the suspense remained all the way through.

This story itself is brilliant but it also gives an idea of life during the war, how people managed with rations, petrol shortages and blackouts.
We get to know a few other characters a bit more as well which I enjoyed. MJ manages to inject some humour into the book making it even more of an enjoyable read.

I’ve really enjoyed this series so far, the characters are developing well and I can’t wait to see what’s next in store for Mason and O’Rourke.

Although I am a huge fan of MJ’s Viking Age Series I can honestly say MJ is also brilliant at this genre too. You can find my reviews of many of MJ’s books in my posts and if you’d like to find out more about MJ you can find out here

Merry Christmas to all!