Iddo the Samaritan finds a severed head in a barrel of fish. A stammerer tries to save the life of the Emperor Charlemagne. William the Conqueror stares death in the face. Gerald of Wales solves a crime with the help of a shoulder blade of a ram. Nicholas Bracewell encounters murder on the high seas. A deadly assassin stalks a Victorian politician. A mild-mannered author is driven to an act of slaughter. Someone steals the statue of Nelson from the top of his column in Trafalgar Square. A violinist plots the death of a female musician. Friends fall out on a boat trip to France and one of them disappears overboard. Edward Marston's mystery stories cover two thousand years of history yet they all have an eerie topicality. What does vary is the mode of detection. While a Samaritan in the Holy Land has to rely on instinct to catch a villain, the Scotland Yard detectives who hunt for the missing Lord Nelson can call on all the resources of modern technology. Horror and humor walk hand in hand in these yarns. Crimes of all kinds are woven into them but the abiding theme is murder - of a person, of a hope, of a reputation.
The Guardian wrote: Consummate storytelling, a love of period and astute characterisation and plotting are the hallmarks of all Marston's books.
Keith Miles (born 1940) is an English author, who writes under his own name and also historical fiction and mystery novels under the pseudonym Edward Marston. He is known for his mysteries set in the world of Elizabethan theatre. He has also written a series of novels based on events in the Domesday Book, a series of The Railway Detective and a series of The Home Front Detective.
*Murder and miracles -- The hunchback and the stammerer--3 War hath made all friends--1 Domesday deferred -- The shoulder-blade of a ram -- Perfect shadows -- A black death -- A gift from God --2 Squinting at death -- Murder at anchor -- Comical revenge --3 Radical dandy -- Slaughter in the strand --2 The sea horse -- Blind eyes --3 Second fiddle -- Sea voices -- Psalm for a dead disciple -- *** Here, there and everywhere Hogmanay homicide The madwoman of Usk Safe and sound The St. Valentine's Day massacre The Shakespeare express Tom of ten thousand