The Book Plank

Death Descends on Saturn Villa by MRC Kasasian, The Gower Street Detective #3 London: 1883  125 Gower Street was once a house of justice, truth and perspicacity. Now madness, murder and scandal lurk in its empty halls. It is rumoured that its owner Sidney Grice - London's foremost personal detective - has been driven to the brink of despair.  But, as will all good stories, we must begin at the beginning. With Sidney Grice journeying to Yorkshire to solve a mysterious death. And with March Middleton, his ward, left to her own devices in a London swarming with danger and vice.  Curiosity, as we know, has a dark edge. So when an intriguing letter leads March to the gates of the palatial Saturn Villa, and into the nightmarish world of her long-lost uncle, it could be the beginning of an end, for all...  If you haven't heard about the enigmatic, quirky and rather peculiar detective duo Grice and Middleton you must have been living under a rock. Just a...

Author interview with Martin Kasasian  Author bio: Martin Kasasian was raised in Lancashire. He has had careers as varied as factory hand, wine waiter, veterinary assistant, fairground worker and dentist. He lives with his wife in Suffolk.  ------------------------------------------------------- Hi Martin, welcome over at The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these few questions for us. BP: First off, could you give us a short introduction as to who Martin Kasasian is? What are your hobbies, likes and dislikes? MK: I worked for 30 years as an NHS dentist. Then my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. The shock of it made me reassess my life and so I quit to do what I always wanted to do – be with her and write. Ten years on she’s alive and well and so is my writing. I don’t really have any hobbies but I do have obsessions. When I’m not writing I’m reading – mainly history and biographies; or painting – mainly portraits of me or my ...

The Curse of the House of Foskett by MRC Kasasian, The Grower Street Detective #2 25 Gower Street, 1882:   Sidney Grice once had a reputation as London's most perspicacious personal detective. But since his last case led an innocent men to the gallows, business has been light. Listless and depressed, Grice has taken to lying in the bath for hours, emerging in the evenings for a little dry toast and a lot of tea. Usually a voracious reader, he will pick up neither book nor newspaper. He has not even gathered the strength to re-insert his glass eye. His ward, March Middleton, has been left to dine alone. Then an eccentric member of a Final Death Society has the temerity to die on his study floor. Finaly Sidney and March have an investigation to mount – an investigation that will draw them to an eerie house in Kew, and the mysterious Baroness Foskett... Last year I read MRC Kasasian’s first book in in The Gower Street Detective The Mangle Street ...

The Mangle Street Murders by MRC Kasasian, The Gower St. Detective #1 Gower Street, London, 1882: Sidney Grice, London's most famous personal detective, is expecting a visitor. He drains his fifth pot of morning tea, and glances outside, where a young, plain woman picks her way between the piles of horse-dung towards his front door. Sidney Grice shudders. For heaven's sake - she is wearing brown shoes.  March Middleton is Sidney Grice's ward, and she is determined to help him on his next case. Her guardian thinks women are too feeble for detective work, but when a grisly murder in the slums proves too puzzling for even Sidney Grice's encyclopaedic brain, March Middleton turns out to be rather useful after all... I have been trying to read other genres besides the standard science fiction and fantasy genre. One that I was and still am eager to explore is crime. Fictional crime offers a lot of possibilities from the current day and age to the past. And one ...