No. 17

I read — and adored — three stand-alone mysteries by J. Jefferson Farjeon in less than a week’s time: Mystery in White, The Z Murders, and Thirteen Guests. So when I found out that Jefferson Farjeon had a series featuring a down-and-out merchant seamen named Ben, I couldn’t wait to read it. But No. 1......more

This may not be literature, but as rollicking adventures go, it's a great way to start the year! Not a mystery in the traditional sense of whodunit and how and why, but who's who, what's what, and what's going on here, anyway? There are more twists in the tale than a corkscrew, and though the charac......more

Unusual to have the leading character in a detective 🕵️‍♀️ story that makes you laugh but Ben does and I am going to read some more concerning him.......more

A detective who’s a tramp – not a toff slumming it or a Sherlock Holmes in disguise but a real, live tramp! This unusual character features in a series of funny and well-written novels, crammed with international gangs, pickpockets, mysterious strangers, women who aren’t as good as they should be, s......more

This was interesting as a time capsule, particularly in terms of language and manners. For a newly literate population I can understand how this would have been be suspenseful, particularly given TV and Radio were not established or affordable for the general population. It does struggle to stand th......more