Monthly Archives: November 2020

The seventh novel in the Langham and Dupré series, Murder by Numbers, is out now in the UK. Here’s a very complimentary review by David Pitt writing in the US magazine Booklist.

Murder by Numbers by Eric Brown, Feb. 2021. 208p. Severn House, $28.99, (9780727890771); e-book (9781448304332)

A dying artist invites several people to his stately home. Among them are book editor Maria Dupré and her husband, novelist and PI Donald Langham. The reason for the invitation is a bit foggy, but one thing soon becomes clear: one of the invited guests has a secret worth killing to protect. Can Donald identify the murderer before Maria becomes one of the victims? The Langham and Dupré novels (this is the seventh) feature fine writing and stories that are appropriately mysterious; but what really sells the books are the characters. Not just Donald and Maria, but the whole cast: villains, suspects, bit players, all fully drawn people. Brown, an award-winning sf writer, also has a real knack for historical mystery; his version of Britain in the 1950s, especially the social strata that existed at the time, is vividly re-created and striking in its verisimilitude.

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I raised a glass in celebration of Joe Biden’s victory last night, along no doubt with the seventy-five million Democrats across America who voted for sanity after almost four years of divisive Trump presidency. The bewilderment on this side of the Atlantic is how seventy million Americans could vote for Trump. It will be a relief not to be subjected to his peculiar brand of narcissism and bigotry every time I switch on the news – though I dread to think how Trump might choose to promulgate his hate-filled bile when he leaves office in January.

Well done Mr Biden.

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