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Princess Gate
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Stalin's Gold
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And because you are at the center, don’t get caught with just cocktails in your hands. Reading “Princess Gate” and “Stalin’s Gold” by Mark Ellis will up your cool factor several degrees. After all, bookworms are now in!
If you like mysteries and thrillers, then these pair of books should be in your reading list this summer!
Princes Gate
General Fiction (Adult) , Mystery & Thrillers
Description
Princes Gate is the first in an exciting new series of crime novels by author Mark Ellis, whose books are set in London during the Second World War and feature a charismatic half-Spanish detective, Frank Merlin.
‘The book starts during the ‘phoney war’ in early 1940 when, although war rages on the continent, life continues relatively peacefully in Britain,’ says Mark. ‘I am especially interested in the Second World War – my parents lived through the war, my father serving in the Navy, and my mother has told me many stories of wartime London. Using material like this and extensive research, I hope I have been able to recreate accurately the atmosphere of London at that momentous time.’
Synopsis:
When a brilliant emigré scientist is killed by a hit and run driver and a young woman’s body is washed up in the Thames, Merlin and his team must investigate. The woman is an employee of the American Embassy, whose Ambassador at this time is Joseph Kennedy. DCI Merlin’s investigation of diplomats at the Embassy ruffles feathers at the Foreign Office – the American Ambassador is a well-known supporter of appeasement and many powerful and influential Britons favour the pursuit of a negotiated peace settlement with Hitler. Merlin has to pursue his detective work under the interfering supervision of an Assistant Metropolitan Commissioner who is fearful of the impact of Merlin’s investigations on Anglo-American relations at a time when America represents to many Britain’s only hope of salvation.
Buy: Amazon.com
Stalin’s Gold: A DCI Frank Merlin novel
by Mark Ellis
General Fiction (Adult) , Mystery & Thrillers
Description
December 1938. Moscow. Josef Stalin has lost some gold. He is not a happy man. He asks his henchman Beria to track it down.
September 1940 London. Above the city the Battle of Britain rages and the bombs rain down. On the streets below, DCI Frank Merlin and his officers investigate the sudden disappearance of Polish RAF pilot Ziggy Kilinski while also battling an epidemic of looting unleashed by the chaos and destruction of the Blitz.
Kilinski’s fellow pilots, a disgraced Cambridge don, Stalin’s spies in London, members of the Polish government in exile and a ruthless Russian gangster are amongst those caught up in Merlin’s enquiries. Sweeping from Stalin’s Russia to Civil War Spain, from Aztec Mexico to pre-war Poland, and from Hitler’s Berlin to Churchill’s London a compelling story of treasure, grand larceny, treachery, torture and murder unfolds. Eventually as Hitler reluctantly accepts that the defiance of the RAF has destroyed his chances of invasion for the moment, a violent shoot-out in Hampstead leads Merlin to the final truth….and Stalin to his gold.
Stalin’s Gold is the latest in the Frank Merlin Series, and follows on from Princes Gate (Matador 2011).
Buy: Amazon.com
About the Author:
Former barrister, Mark, lives in West London and his first crime thriller Princes Gate (2011) was widely praised by crime fiction reviewers. ‘Ellis does a wonderful job of creating an atmosphere as thick as any 1940s London pea souper […] and I have to admit once I’d read the opening chapters, I was well and truly hooked,’ said Milo’s Rambles. ‘We are quickly propelled into the atmosphere and feel of desperation […] we can even share the fear as a plane passes high over the darkened streets and the instinct is to duck into an air-raid shelter…an interesting character and era, and I’d like to read more,’ commented Adrian Magson, writing for Shots Magazine.
