My Review today is for The Contraband Killings by Lucienne Boyce on behalf of Rachel’s Random Resources. Thanks to both Rachel’s Random Resources and Lucienne Boyce for my copy of the book.
Principal Officer Dan Foster of the Bow Street Runners is sent to collect smuggler Watcyn Jones from Beaumaris Gaol on Anglesey, and bring him back to London for trial at the Old Bailey. As if having to travel to the wilds of North Wales isn’t bad enough, Dan is saddled with an inexperienced constable as his interpreter and assistant. At least it’s a routine assignment and shouldn’t take more than a few days.
But when the prison escort is ambushed and Watcyn Jones escapes, a straightforward transfer turns into a desperate manhunt. And as Jones’s enemies start to die, the chase becomes more urgent than ever. Dan’s search for the killer brings him up against a ruthless smuggling gang – and his chances of getting off the island alive begin to look far from promising.
My first Lucienne Boyce book and the fourth book in the Dan Foster mysteries. I wondered if I would be able to jump in and fully enjoy the story without the knowledge of the previous books. The Contraband Killings exceeded my expectations totally.
Set in the time of the Bow Street Runners during the 1790s. Principle Officer Dan Foster of the Bow Street Runners is sent to Angelesy to pick up a smuggler and bring him back to the Old Bailey for trial. What would be a simple thing now, is a gargantuan task in the 1790s. North Wales alone might as well be a foreign country, with its own language! Dan Foster also has to contend with a new assistant on top of everything else.
This is a historical crime mystery on another level. Every time I review any book that has historical fiction incorporated into it I always tend to become fully immersed in it. The Contraband Killings, well, this story has so many rich historical details and so much atmosphere I felt I could be really living it alongside Dan Foster. As the story unfolded, it gave me an authentic sense of place alongside a well plotted and exciting adventure.
Lucienne Boyce certainly surprised me with the quality of her writing. Her characters are interesting and I found myself rooting for Dan quicker than I thought I would. This is due to the skill of the author. She writes about history without making it heavy and a hard slog. I personally was in my absolute element from beginning to end.
A historical mystery novel that makes me want to go back and read from the beginning.
Purchase Links
US https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BFRRSD72
UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BFRRSD72
Author Bio
Lucienne Boyce writes historical fiction, non-fiction and biography. After gaining an MA in English Literature, specialising in eighteenth-century fiction, she published her first historical novel, To The Fair Land (2012, reissued 2021), an eighteenth-century thriller set in Bristol and the South Seas.
Her second historical novel, Bloodie Bones: A Dan Foster Mystery (2015, reissued 2022) is the first of the Dan Foster Mysteries and follows the fortunes of a Bow Street Runner who is also an amateur pugilist. Bloodie Bones was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016, and was also a semi-finalist for the M M Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction 2016. The second Dan Foster Mystery, The Butcher’s Block (2017, reissued 2022), was awarded an IndieBrag Medallion in 2018. The third in the series, Death Makes No Distinction (2019, reissued 2022), is also an IndieBrag Medallion honoree, recipient of Chill With a Book Premium Readers’ Award, and a joint Discovering Diamonds book of the month. In 2017 an e-book Dan Foster novella, The Fatal Coin, was published by S-Books. The Fatal Coin is now available in paperback.
The Bristol Suffragettes, a history of the suffragette campaign in Bristol and the South West of England, was published in 2013. In 2017 Lucienne published a collection of short essays, The Road to Representation: Essays on the Women’s Suffrage Campaign.
Other Publications
‘Not So Militant Browne’ in Suffrage Stories: Tales from Knebworth, Stevenage, Hitchin and Letchworth (Stevenage Museum, 2019)
‘Victoria Lidiard’ in The Women Who Built Bristol, Jane Duffus (Tangent Books, 2018)
‘Tramgirls, Tommies and the Vote’ in Bristol and the First World War: The Great Reading Adventure 2014 (Bristol Cultural Development Partnership/Bristol Festival of Ideas, 2014)
Social Media
Website: www.lucienneboyce.com
Blog: https://francesca-scriblerus.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @LucienneWrite
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/LucienneBoyceWriter/Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6437832.Lucienne_Boyce
sharonbeyondthebooks.uk 
Thank you for the review and for being part of the blog tour!
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