Mark Ellis (3) (1953–)

Set in London during World War 2, the author brings the blitz to life and within that setting chronicles the investigations of DCI Frank Merlin as he attempts to solve the death of a young woman at the hands of an illegal abortionist.

At the same time his friend has returned from the war in Crete with a letter from his deceased commanding officer which may or may not contain vitally important information which will put his life in grave danger.

Great Characters, an intriguing plot and a book that you won't want to put down once you start.… (mehr)

This isn't really the type of book I usually go after. I prefer more adventure, racing across the globe, finding lost treasure. In this book they are trying to find some lost gold, just not some ancient treasure, well it is from the beginning ancient, but that’s beside the point. Right now it’s Stalin’s gold that someone has managed to take and Stalin wants it back and when he want something…he really does everything to get it back. Throw in the British police force and some bad Russian villains and, of course, the people that have the gold then you have the book Stalin’s Gold.

Stalin’s Gold is Mark Ellis second book and the sequel to Princes Gate which I haven’t read and sometimes you feel like you missing something when you jump in and read a book in a series, but I had no problem getting into the story. There were some hints about the first book, but it didn’t bother me at all. Frank Merlin is the main character in this book and I got Foyle's War (tv-show) vibes about him. For just like Foyles he is a police that is denied to serve in the war because they need him in the force which didn’t make him happy. He’s an ordinary man, widower, that is dating a Polish girl and because of that, he gets involved in the case when a friend to her brother disappear.

It’s very well written, the only problem I had from time to time was keeping track of all the characters which got a little tougher because of all the Russian and Polish name. It’s a bit hard to read a book when you suddenly see a name you can’t place. But in the end, it got clearer and the book wrapped up nicely and I will probably in the future both read more books by Mark Ellis and read the first one about Frank Merlin.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!… (mehr)