“Ruse” by Pete Brassett

I couldn’t stand it. I planned to resist reading the most recently published Munro & West mystery by Pete Brassett, but it’s been sitting there, calling my name. I thought I could hold off until the next one (if there is a next one) is published. But I was wrong. 

Just as a test, I started reading the prologue. That’s all it took. I was hooked.

 

Ruse by Pete Brassett is the 13^th (and most recent) of the Munro & West mysteries featuring Detective Inspector Charlotte West and retired DI James Munro. West’s team is called in to investigate the death of a young woman at a local pub. She was a barmaid, and her body was found in a stall in the women’s bathroom. 

 

The team at first thinks it was robbery gone wrong; the woman’s purse is found closely nearby. But there are too many unanswered questions. It’s only gradually that the team determines that what looked like robbery is actually murder.

 

Complicating the case is a series of what appear to be unrelated robberies. Luxury item shops are being robbed, with the owners waking up on the floor of the shops and only remembering paramedics in the area.  But there are too many new clues, too many dead ends, and too many potential suspects, and what does that have to do with the murder investigation, anyway? And then James Munro does what he does best – he begins to connect the dots.

 

Pete Brassett

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 13 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as several general fiction and mystery titles. His first novel was Clam Chowder at Lafayette and Spring, followed by three independent crime novels – Kiss the Girls, Prayer for the Dying, and The Girl from Kilkenny, in which he dealt with issues like post-traumatic stress disorder, religious scandal, and manic depression. 

 

Ruse is an attractive addition to the collection of its predecessors. It has the same kind of police office banter that are a hallmark of the earlier stories, and the same role of Munro taking on the job of mentor and sometimes active mentor.

 

But this will be one mightily disappointed reader if No. 14 isn’t in the works. Ruse was published in 2022, and Brassett has no author website. I wonder if a petition drive for a new story would help.

 

Related:

She by Pete Brassett.

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

Talion by Peter Brassett.

Perdition by Peter Brassett.

Rancour by Peter Brassett.

Penitent by Pete Brassett.

Hubris by Pete Brassett. 

Turpitude by Peter Brassett.

Penury by Pete Brassett.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

A publishing submission Bill of Rights – Nathan Bransford.

 

How to Heal Our Country? Love Your Enemies – Arthur Brooks at The Free Press.

 

My Senate Testimony on Surveillance and Not Only Tulsi: Three Members of Congress Spied On in Quiet Skies Program– Matt Taibbi at Rack News.

“Penury” by Pete Brassett

The body of a real estate agent is found in the yard of a small hotel property she recently purchased. She’s dressed and mounted like a scarecrow. The person who finds her is the security man she hired to install monitoring devices for public areas. He calls in the grisly discovery, but he does so anonymously. He’ll say later that it was because he didn’t want to get involved; it may more a case of wanting to avoid the police himself. 

But he’s traced using hone records, and he cheerfully enough tells the police what they want to know. He’s willing to help, at least until his body is found. 

 

Retired DCI James Munro, who still manages to get involved in ongoing cases, finds himself helping an investigating officer who has no experience with murder. Then his own former team is assigned the case, and James finds himself right in the thick of things. And thick it is – a past involving real estate dealings, a Lexus that seems abandoned and then disappears, a suspect who doesn’t want to say what she knows, at least all at once, shifting identities, and fast-paced plot developments that you better read closely.

 

Pete Brassett

Penury is the 12^th Munro and West novel by Scottish writer Pete Brassett, and it is as well-plotted, entertaining, and often downright funny as its predecessors. Brassett had a gift for comic dialogue (even with an overtone of Scottish dialect) between the police officers that helps to relieve tension. It’s difficult to think of another mystery writer with this kind of comic talent.

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 13 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as several general fiction and mystery titles. His first novel was Clam Chowder at Lafayette and Spring, followed by three independent crime novels – Kiss the Girls, Prayer for the Dying, and The Girl from Kilkenny, in which he dealt with issues like post-traumatic stress disorder, religious scandal, and manic depression. 

 

With Munro and West, Brassett came into his own, and the series is one of the most enjoyable I’ve read. I have only one more to go, and I hope Mr. Brassett is hard at work on No. 14.  

 

Related:

She by Pete Brassett.

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

Talion by Peter Brassett.

Perdition by Peter Brassett.

Rancour by Peter Brassett.

Penitent by Pete Brassett.

Hubris by Pete Brassett.

 

Turpitude by Peter Brassett.

Some Thursday Readings

 

“In the Mountains on a Summer Day,” Poem by Li Po – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Scattered Thoughts – poem by Seth Lewis.

 

Ansel Adams, AI, and the Essence of Creation – Alan Noble at You Are Not Your Own.

"Hubris" by Pete Brassett

A fishing boat runs aground on the coast; the only person on board is a body in the hold. A young woman goes missing. Witnesses who tend to lie with impunity. Detective Inspector Charlotte (“Charlie”) West and her team have their hands full with identifying a body, chasing down fake alibis, and trying to determine what’s real and what’s a façade. 

Retired DCI James Munro and Charlie’s former boss reappears to help out, now faithfully attended by his dog Murdo. As the team delves further into the case, they find the roots go back decades, and no one involved seems to be what he or she claims to be.

 

The man who rents the fishing boats. The brothers who rented the boat. The dead man in the hold. The missing woman. The parents of the missing woman. They all have a story, and it’s a different one (or two) from what they tell the detectives. 

 

Pete Brassett

Hubris is the eleventh novel in the Inspector Munro detective series by Scottish writer Pete Brassett. Not only is it a good story; it’s worth reading for the repartee between members of the detective team by itself. Brassett has a tremendous gift for comic dialogue, and each member of the team (four, counting Munro) has a personality suited for both light and dark comedy. 

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 13 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as several general fiction and mystery titles. His first novel was Clam Chowder at Lafayette and Spring, followed by three independent crime novels – Kiss the Girls, Prayer for the Dying, and The Girl from Kilkenny, in which he dealt with issues like post-traumatic stress disorder, religious scandal, and manic depression. With Munro and West, Brassett came into his own, and the series is one of the most enjoyable I’ve read (and I still have two or three to go). 

The villains of Hubris will eventually find themselves no match for Munro’s experienced insight, West’s dogged determination, and her team’s gifts for ferreting out information. As Julius Caesar once said, “It’s only hubris if I fail.” With Munro and West on the scene, the bad guys will all soon discover failure.

Related:

She by Pete Brassett.

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

Talion by Peter Brassett.

Perdition by Peter Brassett.

Rancour by Peter Brassett.

Penitent by Pete Brassett.

Some Monday Readings

 

Freedom is a Light for Which Many Men Have Died in Darkness – Mark Maloy at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

‘Do Not Mourn Me Dead’ – Elliot Ackerman at The Free Press.

 

Why Kids Need Fairy Stories in a Modern World – Samantha Roth at Story Warren.

 

Books Before Print, Paper, and Pixel – Joel Miller at Miler’s Book Review.

 

Why the “quiet revival” is missing the Church of England – The Critic Magazine.

"Turpitude" by Pete Brassett

A series of seemingly unconnected crimes are assigned to DCI Charlotte (“Charlie”) West and her team at the Scottish police. Drive-by robberies have been occurring, in which nothing is stolen. A jeweler is based on the head in his shop, but again, nothing is stolen. And workers at a recycling center discover some human fingers in a discarded tin (can) of dog food.  

Retired DCI James Munro (and Charlie’s mentor) is brought in to help. The wheels of police investigation begin to grind, if slowly. The team talks with the recycling center people, the owners of the unrobbed shops, and the spouse of the jeweler, who soon becomes the widow of the jeweler when the victim dies in hospital. The widow is of particular interest, as she takes off for their vacation home on a sunny Spanish island.

 

Pete Brassett

It won’t be long until Munro’s experienced eye and West’s ability to fit pieces together leads to the conclusion that all of these seemingly unconnected crimes may actually be connected.

 

Turpitude is the tenth Munro and West crime novel by Pete Brassett, and it’s a winner of a mystery read. Brassett has an ability to keep you guessing, mixing legitimate clues for the reader with a few red herrings. With the laugh-out-loud banter between the members of the police team, Turpitude is a highly entertaining story.

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 13 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as several general fiction and mystery titles.   

 

Related:

She by Pete Brassett.

 Avarice by Pete Brassett.

 Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

 Terminus by Pete Brassett.

 Talion by Peter Brassett.

 Perdition by Peter Brassett.

 Rancour by Peter Brassett.

Penitent by Pete Brassett.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

“Resentment is anger that has not been resolved.” – Alain de Botton – American Civil War & UK History.

 

Even Me? An encounter with Watership Down – J.E. Kerstner at Story Warren.

 

Hawthorne in Rome – John Miller at National Review.

 

3 Ways to Make New Stuff Happen – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

“Turn, Turn, Turn”: Sometimes a song – Anthomy Esolen at Word & Song.

"Penitent" by Pete Brassett

Retired DCI James Munro is recovering from some hefty heart surgery, and his friend and former subordinate Charlotte West has rented a cottage for him to recuperate. Munro’s definition of “recuperate,” however doesn’t match West’s nor his doctors’. And his old boss has asked him to look into a nearby cold case, the widow of a postmaster who went missing some years back. 

West and her team are investigating the death of a young woman whose body has been found in a swimming pool. She didn’t drown; in fact, she was mercilessly beaten to death. He flat has been ransacked as well; someone has been looking for something and apparently didn’t find it. At the scene, West pulls up a kitchen floorboard and finds a safe; the combination is inside the locket the dead woman was wearing. But then the question becomes, how did a young recreation center worker come to have a huge amount of cash?

 

Pete Brassett

When Munro reappears at the police station, much to West’s consternation, the two cases are discussed – and with a few suspect names in common, it becomes clear that the missing postmaster’s wife and the dead woman in the swimming pool are part of one case.

 

Penitent is the ninth novel in the DCI James Munro series by Pete Brassett, and it is every bit as good as its predecessors. Brassett has an exceptional ear (and hand) for police team banter, jargon and all, and part of the pleasure of reading the DCI Munro stories is the dialogue. The intriguing mystery is almost an add-on to the fascinating conversations between Munro, West, and West’s two assistants.

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 10 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as several general fiction and mystery titles.   

 

Related:

She by Pete Brassett.

 

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

 

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

 

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

 

Talion by Peter Brassett.

 

Perdition by Peter Brassett.

 

Rancour by Peter Brassett.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

Murders for October – Jeremy Back at The Critic Magazine.

 

Nazi-looted Monet returned to heirs after FBI traces it to New Orleans – Catherine Hickley at The Art Newspaper. 

 

Booknotes: Robert E. Lee’s Reluctant Warrior by Sheridan Barringer – Civil War Books and Authors.

"Clear" by Carys Davies

Two significant events of 19^th century Scottish history form the backdrop to Clear, the wonderful and moving novel by British author Carys Davies. The first is the Disruption of 1843, when evangelicals broke with the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland. The second is the second wave of what’s known as the Highland Clearances, when the great landowners of Scotland realized they could make more money from sheep than from tenant farmers – and drove them off the land.  

John Ferguson is a Church of Scotland minister who joins the dissenting and departing ministers. The problem he faces is financial – how to support himself and his wife Mary until the new church is a going concern. Mary’s brother-in-law prevails upon a landowner to give John a position.

 

The job has one duty. John must travel to an island in the North Sea between Shetland and Norway and evict the last remaining tenant, a bear of a man named Ivar who leads something of a hardscrabble life with a few sheep, a blind cow, and an old horse. Ivar doesn’t speak English; his language is something between Gaelic and Norwegian. So Ferguson’s first need is to talk to a teacher in Lerwick who is said to know Ivar’s language.

 

The man doesn’t know the language, but John presses onward, finally reaching the island. His boat transportation will return in a month. He has to somehow explain to Ivar what is happening and convince him to leave.

 

Carys Davies

John sets up in the baillie or old manager;’ house and then finds a spring to take a bath. He accidentally falls down a cliff and loses consciousness. Ivar finds him and carries him back to his own hut. Unconscious for days, John eventually regains consciousness and slowly recovers from his injuries. In the meantime, the two men have to find a way to communicate, and John has to explain what is to happen. 

 

The story centers on the relationship the two men begin to build, and the words they teach each other. Back in Scotland, Mary begins to worry about how ill-prepared her husband was to undertake the assignment, and she decides to join him. 

 

The story of the three is simply and beautifully told. Davies has a gift for placing the reader as a silent observer, experiencing the feelings, emotions, and growing affection the characters have for each other.

 

Davies has previously published the novels West and The Mission House and two short story collections, Some New Ambush and The Redemption of Golden Pike. Her novels and stories have received numerous awards, prizes, and recognitions, and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. A native of Wales, she grew up there and in England, and she now lives in Edinburgh. 

 

And with Clear, she’s written a terrific story.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

Murders for August – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

“One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand,” poem by Edmund Spencer – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Year of the Monarch: Butterfly Kisses – A Romantic Comedy – Dheepa Maturi at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

“Rancour” by Pete Brassett

On an island just off Scotland’s northwestern coast, a young woman leaves her friends and attempts to climb a local mountain. She’s not dressed for it and leaves too late in the day. And, no surprise, her body is found. It looks like a case of accidental death, until traces of a date-rape-like drug is found in her system. Because it’s under her jurisdiction, DCI Charlotte (“Charlie”) West and her team investigate. 

Meanwhile, an old friend asks retired DI James Munro to help find his daughter, who supposedly went to a concert with her best friend. Neither girl has returned home. Munro does find the girl alive; she was found unconscious outside a bar. Thought by police to be drunk, she was locked up. As it turns out, she was drugged. Her friend is eventually found – dead and with a date drug in her system. Both girls had had a tattoo roughly scratched io their backs – a Roman numeral signifying bad luck.

 

Pete Bassett

As Munro, working as an unpaid consultant to the police, and West’s team realize they may be dealing with similar cases, they come across an elderly Italian man known for his seductive charm who seems to have known all of the victims – and left a similar trail of victims in Italy. Maybe.

 

And Munro has discovered he has a heart problem, as in needs-a-triple-bypass heart problem.

 

Rancour (we’d spell it “rancor” in America) is the eighth Munro and West novel in the series by Scottish author Pete Brassett, and it’s as enthralling a story as its seven predecessors. Brassett has a way of putting words in his characters’ mouths that keep you smiling throughout the rather grim stories. And Rancour also shares a series of unexpected twists that keep the reader guessing until the very end.

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 10 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as a number of general fiction and mystery titles.   

 

Related:

She by Pete Brassett.

 

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

 

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

 

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

 

Talion by Peter Brassett.

 

Perdition by Peter Brassett.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

The Tragedy and Triumph of The Killing Fields – Bradley Birzer at Law & Liberty.

 

The War on Genius: Literature and its systems – Ross Barkan at Political Currents.

 

Have We Lost the Essential Practice of Deep Reading? – Michele Morin at Living Our Days.

"Perdition" by Pete Brassett

The big question: is Detective Inspector James Munro really going to retire this time? The superintendent has handed him an official letter and a bottle of champagne, but it’s hard for Charlotte (“Charlie”) West, newly appointed DI, to believe it. 

Don’t believe. It may be the shortest retirement on record.

While the retirement questions are going on, Munro is sent to investigate a dead goat on a local farm. Someone fired a crossbow bolt into the goat and for no apparent reason. The owner is demanding the police do something, even as she seems convinced they won’t. 

 

Meanwhile, a man is found in his car, badly beaten. And a loan shark, one of pair working the local area and taking advantage of all kinds of people, is found dead of an overdose. But the drug is typically used with horses. Then his partner is found dead, with the same durg.

 

Pete Brassett

As West and her team investigate these cases, they find one suspect after another being exonerated. This is West’s first big case as the chief investigating officer, and she’s running against a stone wall everywhere she turns. Until, that is, Jimmy Munro helps her figure it out, just as he’s figure out and prevailed upon the superintendent to let him work as a civilian volunteer.

 

Perdition is the seventh Munro and West crime novel by Scottish author Pete Brassett, and it’s well worth reading for two reasons. First, it’s an interesting story, full of surprises. Second, the jokes between the police officers and even the suspects and witnesses are worth the price of admission. And in this story, nothing will turn out the way you expect it, right up to the end.

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 10 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as a number of general fiction and mystery titles. 

 

Related:

 

She by Pete Brassett.

 

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

 

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

 

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

 

Talion by Peter Brassett.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

John Claridge’s East End Shops – Spitalfields Life.

 

Sounds – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

How will throwing soup at the ‘Mona Lisa’ save the planet? – Tom Slater at The Spectator. 

 

A Pro Who Can Con – poem by Mark Stone at Society of Classical Poets.

"Talion" by Pete Brassett

Detective Sergeant Charlotte (“Charlie”) West and her team have a case. A body’s been found at the bottom of a cliff, with no identification. But West is also almost desperate to find her boss, Detective Inspector James Munro, last seen entering his home, followed by murderer, before an explosion rocked the house. 

Munro is eventually found, and the body is eventually identified as a small-time hood, so small-time that no one should want to kill him. But murdered he was, and Munro and West have some unraveling to do to find the answers they’re looking for.

 

Pete Brassett

Talion is the sixth Munro & West crime novel by Scottish writer Pete Brassett. And it is a crime, heavily leavened by humor. I’d noted the humor Brassett has used before, but it moves front and center in Talion, including a few laugh-out-loud scenes. Most of the humor involves the wit of Munro, but it cuts across the story and the characters. And Munro will eventually identify the killer, with the help of a young boy who loves examining dead things, and he just might commit a crime on his own if is detective superintendent doesn’t process his retirement papers as promised.

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 10 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as a number of general fiction and mystery titles. 

 

The suspects in Talion are as finely drawn as the police team investigating the crime. Throw in a good story seasoned with a heavy dose of humor, and it’s a winning story.

 

Related:

 

She by Pete Brassett.

 

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

 

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

 

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

Writing Will Be There When You Need It – Nathan Bransford.

 

Quietly – poem and artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Year of the Monarch: Harvesting and Planting Milkweed Seeds – Laura Boggess at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

A nice shout-out from a reader about Dancing Priest – Bill Grandi at Living in the Shadow.

"Terminus" by Pete Brassett

Some things were left somewhat hanging in the third Munro and West mystery, Duplicity, by Scottish writer Pete Brassett. Specifically, one of the villains in the story was never caught. But things, including some new things, are coming to a head in Terminus, the fourth in the series. 

It begins with two seemingly unconnected stories. An elderly priest tells a good friend about an old friend of his, a one-time love interest, who’s died and left a surprising will. Surprising, in that he had witnessed her will, in which she’d left everything to various charities. But a week before her death, apparently, she changed attorneys and left her estate to a foundation in the Netherlands. The friend decides to contact the police.

 

At the same time, retired Detective Inspector James Munro is seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident. His former Detective Sergeant Charlotte West, with whom Munro works now on something of a consultant basis, soon realizes that this was no accident; Munro was deliberated targeted, and he made be targeted again. Her fears seem justified when Munro slips out of the hospital to recuperate at home and the doctor is killed in his room.

 

Pete Brassett

Two stories, two investigations – and soon the two begin to converge. And slowly do Munro, West and the other policemen on the team realize that it all seems to tie to the villains who were killed in Duplicity.

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 10 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as a number of general fiction and mystery titles. 

 

The author tells a fine story, but what’s also entertaining is the humor, and it all comes from the mouth of James Munro. The humor adds a lightness to what might have become a very dark story inside.

 

Related:

 

She by Pete Brassett.

 

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

 

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Raymond Chandler: An American Classic – Michael Mandelbaum at American Purpose.

 

Perseverance and Grace: Why I Don’t Deserve a Damn Bit of Credit for My Life – Alex Sosler at Front Porch Republic.

 

Thorn Bush – poem by Seth Lewis.

 

Samuel Pepys’ Cries of London – Spitalfields Life.