This is a fun book, full of quirky British characters who don't take themselves too seriously. When I started reading, I didn't realize this is number six in the Silas Quinn series. Even so, I didn't have any trouble keeping track of characters and the action was steady enough to keep me turning pages.

Thought that I discovered another author to follow when I first started reading this book. The characters were engaging and very much alive with all their emotions, eccentricities, and fallacies. After establishing the main theme of everyone having contempt for the main character, the plot becomes fuddled and the ending was implausible.

It seems like many readers like this book. I don’t know if this is his normal style of writing, but I like a definitive ending.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House for an ARC of this book.

This is the sixth Silas Quinn mystery, which is a series that I really love. The Special Crimes Department has not only been reinstated, but has two members of the team. Alongside Macadam and Inchball, we now have D.I. Leversedge and D.C. Willoughby. Of course, this does change the group dynamics and we have the young Willoughby taking control of Macadam’s beloved car, while Inchball and Leversedge have clashed. However, the team has a new mystery to investigate and that always puts a spring in the team’s step.

Choirmaster, Sir Aiden Fonthill is killed just before the 1914 Hampstead Voices Christmas Concert, in aid of Belgium Refugees. The novel begins with the discovery of his murder and then gradually the cast of characters and motives – of which there are many – are revealed.

This is a good addition to a series which deserves to be better known. The first book featuring Silas Quinn is, “Summon Up the Blood.” If you like intelligent, historical mysteries, with quirky characters and unusual plots, you will enjoy these books. I received a copy of this novel from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

19th December 1914. Sir Aidan Fonthill is discovered dead by his wife Lady Emma. The cause of death is stabbing by a tuning fork into his ear. Then the story go back two days where we learn more about Fonthill and his activities. Also previously a parcel was left on the doorstep of their home. Inside is a wooden musical box, with the inscription in German. Is it his series of indiscretions that is the cause of his death or something else.
A well-written, and plotted, historical mystery with some likeable characters.

Hope of Glory

This was my first Silas Quinn mystery. It did not disappoint.

It is 1914. The First World War has yet to degenerate into mass slaughter. In leafy Hampstead preparations are in train for a Christmas concert in aid of the war effort. It just may be that some famous figures will attend the concert. Such, at least, is the hope of its conductor, Sir Aidan Fonthill, an arrogant, opinionated serial seducer of the lady members of his choir – a wonderfully monstrous figure. By the time of his murder at the end of the first third of the novel, it was possible to identify a sizeable group of potential killers.

At which point enters Silas Quinn and his team of investigators. Quinn is an interesting detective, all the more so when one of his young officers is himself killed. His investigation proceeds apace, features wit and humour, pathos and drama, and not least the guest appearances of Sir Edward Elgar as a reserve constable and Sir Winston Churchill as himself. Despite a slightly perfunctory ending, this is an entertaining and amusing read.

A glorious enigma variation
R. N. Morris’s “Music Box Enigma” is an entertaining tale, immaculately planned and brilliantly executed. Dark and dangerous in places, witty and wonderfully inventive throughout, this mystery goes beyond anything we have come to expect from DCI Silas Quinn and the Special Crimes Department as England moves forward into the First World war in 1914. Our hero appears unusually late on the scene (a nice play on the detective novel convention here), aided by a most unexpected policeman, a specialist in musical riddles (indeed, he is known to have posed them in real life), as Quinn strives to solve a tricky ‘locked room’ case involving seduction, murder, and abduction. The best in an excellent ongoing series of seven mysteries set at the end of the Edwardian era, I enjoyed it enormously.

Fans of period police procedurals are in for a treat at the end of the month when RN Morris’s distinctive London copper, Chief Superintendent Silas Quinn makes a welcome return. It’s December 1914, and the war that was meant to be over by Christmas is showing only signs of intensifying. DORA – the Defence of The Realm Act - has been enforced, and among the many strictures it imposes on the populace are imprisonment without trial, a ban on publishing any description of war or any news that is likely to cause any conflict between the public and military authorities and, bizarrely, an interdiction on buying rounds in pubs.

But Christmas is coming, and a rather upper-crust choir, The Hampstead Voices, is rehearsing for its seasonal concert, with all proceeds going to Belgian refugees, forced from their homes by the brutal Hun invaders. Directed by Sir Adrian Fonthill, the concert will include not only much-loved carols such as O Little Town of Bethlehem and Adeste Fideles, but choral works by Bizet and Handel. Special guest artistes will include dancers from Ballets Modernes and the distinguished violinist Emile Boland, but the evening will conclude with a performance of Sir Edward Elgar’s A Christmas Greeting, in the presence of the composer himself. It is also believed that Winston Churchill, First Lord of The Admiralty, will be in the audience at University College School on the evening of 24th December.

Silas Quinn may have many qualities, but a musical ear is not one of them, so how does he come to be involved in the doings of The Hampstead Voices? Rehearsals for the concert may not be going too well, perhaps due to the many tenors and basses who have answered the call to arms, but preparations take a distinct downturn when the Director of Music is found dead, slumped at his grand piano, with the sharpened handle of a tuning fork stuck into his ear. As boss of Scotland Yard’s Special Crimes Unit, Quinn is summoned to the scene of this musical murder.
It seems that the late Sir Adrian, despite his musical sensitivities, was not a paragon of virtue. He has a roving eye – and hands – for young sopranos and altos, and has a weakness for gambling which has left him in debt to some very dangerous people. But who stands to benefit from his death? Not those to whom he owes money,surely? A resentful husband, perhaps, who has been cuckolded?

As Quinn tries to penetrate the wall of silence thrown up by Fonthill’s widow, his attention is drawn to a mysterious music box sent to Sir Adrian just before his death. When it is wound up and played, however, the resulting tune simply seems – even to Quinn’s tin ear – a haphazard sequence of random notes. But help is at hand. One of the Special Constables from Hampstead Police Station could be said to have an ear for music. He is none other than Sir Edward Elgar, celebrated composer of Salut d’Amour, Variations on an Original Theme and The Dream of Gerontius. Elgar takes the discordant melody and uncovers a message which rveals that Sir Adrian’s death is not to be the last associated with the ill-fated Christmas concert.

RN Morris gives us an inventive and delightfully improbable conclusion to this very readable novel. If you want something to lose yourself in for a few hours and a diversion to push to one side the misery and discomfort of the lock-down, then you will find nothing better than The Music Box Enigma. It is published by Severn House and will be out in hardback on 30th April.

Love R.N. Morris' Silas Quinn books. The perfect historical mystery.. This is book 7 in the series, but you can read in any order, but you'll want to read them all.

224 pages

5 stars

This book takes place at the end of 1914.

Choirmaster Sir Aidan Fonthill is found murdered at his piano. (Wife is Lady Emma)

The book then goes back to two days prior to the murder to give the reader the full list – and motives - of those who would gladly want to see Fonthill dead.

DCI Silas Quinn and his team of New Scotland Yard are in charge of the case. Quinn immediately learns that there were numerous people who had reason to intensely dislike Fonthill.

There is much going on in this novel. The witnesses are lying, avoiding the truth, evasive and seemingly hallucinatory – at times. When Quinn and his officers interview them, they can't seem to get a straight story. They actually haven't met anyone who has anything food to say about Fonthill. Needless to say, there are plenty of suspects.

Tragedy strikes the team. There is a huge surprise at the end of the book and some fascinating reveals.

This book is extremely well written and plotted. It is an interesting read. We learn more about Quinn and his detectives in this book. I like learning more about the individuals who “star” in the book. There was also information given about the suspects as well. Although I wasn't sure I liked Quinn and his team's method of extracting information, I had to remind myself that this was 1914 and that is the way the police operated at that time in history.

I want to thank NetGalley and Severn House for forwarding to me a copy of this very good book for me to read, enjoy and review.

Having read, and thoroughly enjoyed, The White Feather Killer, bu this author, I was keen to read this latest book. R.N. Morris is fast becoming my favourite author and Silas Quinn my favourite detective. The victim is a thoroughly loathsome character and if someone hadn’t bumped him off, I might have been tempted myself. Quite frankly I’m not sure why anyone would want to investigate the murder but justice has to be done. Silas Quinn is a brilliant character - dogged, determined and clever. The cast of characters who surround him are bumbling and brilliant in turn. The addition of Edward Elgar as both a composer and a special Constable is a stroke of genius. The story is part gritty crime, part P.G. Wodehouse and it works. It trots along at a fair pace keeping the reader interested.. To borrow an overused phrase, there’s a twist you will never see coming. In this case it is seriously true. The ending was extraordinary and I was stunned. The historical aspect is well researched, well written and interesting, giving a sound basis for the setting and context. A superbly written book which I would highly recommend.