Deeds of Darkness

Home Front Detective #4

by Edward Marston

In June 1916, a young woman is found murdered in a cinema. Harvey Marmion and Joe Keedy set out to find the killer who so elusively fled in the dark. Before long, two more victims, of striking similarity but differing backgrounds, are found dead around the city.Meanwhile, miles from home, Marmion s son Paul prepares for life on the front line as he marches towards the Battle of the Somme. Suffering a vicious blow in No Man s Land, Paul is left blinded for the rest of his life. Marmion must come to terms with the permanent darkness of his son s life, while continuing to search for the brutal killer who only strikes in the dark."

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Historical Mystery, Historical, British Literature

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 23, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

A pseudonym used by Keith Miles
AKA A.E. Marston

Keith Miles (born 1940) is an English author, who writes under his own name and also historical fiction and mystery novels under the pseudonym Edward Marston. He is known for his mysteries set in the world of Elizabethan theatre. He has also written a series of novels based on events in the Domesday Book, a series of The Railway Detective and a series of The Home Front Detective.


Series contributed to:
. Malice Domestic
. Crime Through Time
. Perfectly Criminal

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edward Marston has once again come up with a winner with his fourth in the Home Front Detective series; Inspector Harvey Marmion and his partner Sergeant Joe Keedy investigate a murder that takes place in an unlikely setting - the back row of a cinema while a Charlie Chaplin film is showing.

There are no clues at all so Marmion and Keedy are at a big disadvantage and their boss Superintendent Claude Chatfield gives them a hard time as they seem to make no progress. In the meantime World War I rages across the channel and one of Ellen Marmion's neighbours, who has lost two of her three sons, continually causes trouble for the Marmions and secretly hopes that their son, Paul, who has just gone out to the front line will suffer injury, or even worse, death. This sub-plot continues while the Inspector continues his investigations. There are also two other sub-plots in that Marmion's daughter, Alice, a woman police officer, is dating Joe Keedy, much to her father's disapproval and the neighbour tries to protect her third son from being called up in the most unusual way.

The case takes a turn for the worse when another murder victim is discovered in a public park and the modus operandi is the same as the cinema killing and there are similarities between the two victims. At least Marmion and Keedy are given other avenues to explore. And explore them they do in a tale that keeps the interest from first page to last, with characters that are all totally believable.

Finally everything comes together; there is bad news for Paul Marmion who is injured at the Battle of the Somme, good news for an intended third victim because a most unlikely tip-off leads to the killer being apprehended just before he can commit his third murder and good news for the romance between Alice and Joe for her father eventually comes round to the idea that it is perhaps not too bad a thing after all.

A great setting, blackout London, and a most satisfying read, as all the Home Front series have been so far.

[Catherine Pinkett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best so far in this series. As well as an exciting plot to solve, the accuracy and emotions around the battle of the Somme were so well written. A great mix of plot and personal life of both Inspector Marmion and Sargeant Keedy and their loved ones. Good end to a very good book

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was returning my past two books to the local library and had told me daughter, accompanied me on this trip, that I was going to take a break and not get any library books for a bit and instead concentrate on the books in my personal library. I gave the librarian the two books and headed back outside, and all of a sudden I am confronted by a display of books and smack dab on the middle was Deeds of Darkness. From a distance I thought it might have been a non-fiction book, but as I glanced a bit longer I realized this was a fiction book about home front detectives during WW1. So, I stopped and took a gander at the full cover and inside flap and discovered that this was the 4th book in a series by a writer I had never heard of previously. But the topic sounded interesting and despite my aversion to starting detective novels in mid-series instead of from book 1, I decided to give it a try.
Well, little did I know how prolific a writer Edward Marston has been, nor how entertaining this book would become for me. A fast reading, page-turner that deals with a serial killer on the loose in London at the same time as the Battle of the Somme rages on France.
This is a book filled with loads of excitement and suspense and does not have graphic and gratuitous violence. It centers on Scotland Yard detectives, and also includes a very interesting anti-war character, along with a top notch plot in which we only find out the identity of the killer a few pages from the end of the book. Very good characters and if you are fan of Murdoch Mysteries up in Canada there are some really similar characters in this book. You can tell that there will be more books to come in this series as there are some domestic issues that have not yet book finished with regards to the detectives, and that a sub-plot with a neighbor and her son are never finished in this book. So, the author has left a lot of the table or the next book of the series. But for now I will begin one of his earlier series about Railway Detectives - I highly recommend this book and this author!

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edward Marston’s books act for me a kind of comfort zone, enjoyable, not especially taxing, diversions – at times to the point of procrastination – with a sense of the era, and just a little bit awe inspiring. He keeps several series running at once, and produces several full length novels a year.

In this fourth outing DI Marmion and DS Keedy, World War One is now into its dragging on with mass casualties phase – it’s 1916 – and Marmion’s son is in the trenches on The Somme, while his daughter has given up her teaching post to become one of London’s first women constables. With Keedy he’s investigating the case of a woman found murdered at a Charlie Chaplin film screening. It’s perplexing, with no real leads – a dark noisy cinema covers up death well – but plenty of diversions and distractions. One of the things I quite enjoy about this series is that they often rely on the dull plod of evidence sorting and sifting; Marmion’s a solid copper, but Marston doesn’t rely on the mystical insight we often see in police procedurals – although there is a bit of th deus ex machina about this one, perhaps intended by Marston to be luck.

He’s also good at keeping the family context story going: Keedy’s relationship with Marmion’s daughter; his wife’s social and domestic world; the son’s military experience. There’s some refreshing, if slightly anachronistic, social context here, although for the most part, this is a believable 1916.

A pleasantly diverting long weekend distraction, and all the better for it.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is really unusual that I do not start to read a series with the first book. But happened with The Home Front Detective Series.

There has been an extraordinary good offer for a digital copy of Deeds of Darkness (digital, 23rd October 2014) Kindle Edition ASIN: B00N01TI36] by Edward Marston which is the fourth book in the series. I paid 1,89 EUR for my copy. Today (2015-01-07) I would have to pay 12,67 EUR for a copy!!!!

The Delivery

The 268 pages are divided into 20 consecutively numbered chapters.

War, the war we know as World War I, covers the whole country of England, it inhabitants from the new born child to the old people on their deathbed, from the banker to the priest, from the policeman to the murderer. From the doctor to the soldier.

It is the war which has an impact on every aspect of daily life.

It is the war which dominates the story in a way which creeps slowly but surely under your skin.

It makes the whole story and especially the action and thoughts of several characters understandable and comprehensible.

The whole story would not work without the impact of World War I.

To explain it to the very detail on a microscopical level would lenghten this review to a short story.

On the surface we have the Marmion family. Harvey and his daughter Alice workfor the police. Son Paul is a soldier located near the rive Somme in France. Harvey's wife Ellen stays at home.

Inspector Harvey build team with Sergeant Joe Keedy who is the fiancé of Alice. They both have to cope with their boss Claude Chatfield who is a more stereotype character.

People want to escape the stranglehold of war and cinema with the amazing films starring the unforgettable Charlie Chaplin are perfect for this purpose.

As a consequence of war women get more liberty. It is nearly unbearable for Reverends that women go to cinema unchaperoned.

And it is in a cinema where the murder of a young women took place.

It is up to Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy to hiunt the murderer. It is a depressening task and it needs the strong characters of Marmion and Keedy to follow all the leads pressurised by Claude Chatfield, annoyed by partly agressive or snooty or craving for attention witness and suppressive news from the front in France. Furthermore not to forget the impact of the Zeppelin bombings, angered neighbours and provocative women.

The twisted story keeps you guessing until near the end of the story. The depiction of a country and its inhabitants under the pressrie of war is remarkable. The characters except the a bit stereotype Claude Chatfield are well described and show development within the story.

This case keeps you captivated until the end and makes it not easy to stop for some hours of sleep.

The Inevitable

For me this is definitely one of the best detective stories set in the time of World War I which I read so far.It is a great mix of war impact and crime mystery which are completely interwoven.

Deeds of Darkness is top notch World War I crime mystery!


This review is also available on my blog Edi's Book Lighthouse
and over at Amazon under the nickname brienneselwyn.

[Bob Dyson · Rating 2 out of 5]

England, 1916; World War One is in full spate; cinema is a new phenomenon (viewed with distaste by some); Charlie Chaplin is all the rage, and a young woman is strangled in a darkened cinema during a showing of The Floorwalker. After a weary trudge and some more deeds of darkness the murderer is unmasked and arrested. The End.

That's it, really. I see that this book has been well received by reviewers so far, and this surprises me. The idea of setting a series of detective stories in England during the Great War is a good one (though the author could have made more of it); but I thought the plot of Deeds of Darkness stolid and uninteresting, the characters stereotypes with little imagination given to their development, and the dialogue wooden and unconvincing. The police officers have a ropey grasp of police procedure (they leak information right left and centre, interview witnesses without recording their names and addresses, take no steps to preserve a crime scene ...). The denouement, not led up to by any of the usual red herrings and tricks of suspense, feels contrived and anticlimactic when it arrives. Overall, my impression is of a book that has been poorly researched and hurriedly written, with little attention paid to the creation of life and authenticity. I don't want to give it only one star (I can't say that I positively disliked it); so, to be charitable, I'll say that it's all right if your taste runs to easy-to-read whodunnits. To my mind, though, it reads like a potboiler. There are many, many better examples of the genre out there.

[Mystereity Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series. Set in London in WW I, this installment follows Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy as they solve the murders of 2 women, one in a cinema and one in a park.

There was a lot going on in this one; Marmion's son in France for the Battle of Somme, his wife battling an embittered neighbor, and the romance between Keedy and Marmion's daugther, there was a lot happening. Still, it didn't get too bogged down and moved pretty well. I think this is more of a bridge book (one that is less than spectacular but introduces story lines that will be built in the next books) but it was still damn good. I liked that there wasn't a lot of Alice in this one, she's really a whinging bore, even in this book, but there's mercifully not much of it. I liked that there was more of Keedy, rounding him out as more than just a flat character for Marmion to bounce theories off of while driving from place to place.

The only real criticism I have is that the ending was too rushed. Here's this great big long book that you spend hours reading and the killer is apprehended in a page and a half at the very end of the book. Not altogether unsatisfying, but it was anticlimactic.

Overall, not a bad read, but would've been 5 stars if the ending wasn't so abrupt.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This episode of detecting by Detectives Marmion and Keedy is not as sharp as the previous books in the series but was engrossing enough for a 2 day read. I have always enjoyed this author's style and his characters, and altho this particular episode was a bit light, I will continue to follow the series. This one involves a serial killer and one never really gets into his head for motivation, but the story is a good premise and the clues are there for the astute reader.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyed the latest in the home front detective series the only slight thing I felt was the ending was slightly rushed but on the whole the characters are further developed as the series has come along.

[Gayle Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is so engaging.

[Kimberley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll preface this with saying that I’ve devised my own marking system for the stars, as I found myself giving too many books four and five stars, which led to little differentiation between them. For two stars, Deeds of Darkness comes out as a book that was enjoyable to read, but one that doesn’t really linger after the last page.

There are some good aspects to the novel. It has a good understanding of the injuries - mental and physical - that WWI soldiers suffered, but is by no means on a level with Pat Barker (though nor should it be). It also has some nice, if not overly developed, characters - Keedy is perhaps the best of these with his womanising past and now monogamous relationship with the daughter of Marmion, the main protagonist.

The historical accuracy is better than some I’ve read, and if you’re looking for a light bit of escapism, then this is just the ticket. It’s an easy read, the crimes are tasteful and not provocative, and the denouement swift. It’s this that lets down the rest of the book, in my opinion, as the end of the murderer is dealt with in little more than two pages out of 381. I had a sense of disappointment in that, and I think it’s for that reason that I gave it two stars, as it’s unlikely I’ll read this book again.

[KARISHMA · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was the first detective book that I had read in a long time and it was - PERFECT!
The book allows a lot of room for you to develop your own perspective on what is happening while also enjoying stories outside of the investigation.
The thing I liked the most about this book is that you found of the information the same time as the detectives, there fore you didn't feel like you were in a pantomime shouting 'there behind you'.
It gave the reader time to understand the situation, rather than feeding the reader so much information that in the end your left with the pile of possibilities and evidence that when it came to the crucial chapters it overwhelmed the reader.
I however did not know that this was the 4th Series of Home Front Detective - as I just picked it up randomly in Waterstones but it didn't even matter as the book opens with lots of description, you would never tell its series.

Would i read this again?
Yes I would, maybe in a couple of years but I've just started his first book of the series ' A Bespoke Murder'

[Cliff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book from the busy pen of Edward Marston who seems to specialise in detectives in different times and working in unusual circumstances. Inspector Marmion works from Scotland Yard in the middle of World War I. This is set in the time shortly before and soon after the start of the Battle of the Somme. A young married woman whose husband is at the front is murdered by an apparent stranger in the dark of a cinema showing a Charlie Chaplin film. There is some background colour about the dislike of the new fangled invention of the cinema from the clergy and Marmion's superiors. The book plods through the search for the perpetrator. A couple of points. Did the police in 1916 hold press conferences- did anybody? The other slightly strange thing is that Marmion's side kick, DS Keedy has nor been conscripted. Why? We learn the force is short of men because of those away serving which would imply the police were not a reserved occupation. The book is ok, like others by the author that I have read, but not earth shattering. 3* is fair.

[Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another story in the Home Front Detective series which takes place at England’s Scotland Yard during the First World War. Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Keedy are the main characters. In this mystery, a serial strangler of young women gets started. These are primarily police procedural mysteries. And, being that they take place in the second decade of the 20th Century, about the only forensic evidence gathering is fingerprints and blood samples to determine blood type. However, the database of fingerprints at this point in time is rather small and not very useful in identifying criminals yet. So, good old-fashioned police work of interviewing witnesses, family and friends of the victim in an effort to establish relationships and behavior patterns that may have brought the victim into contact with the killer is the primary investigative tool. It is a well written plot and the historical events relating to the war that are in the background of this mystery are interesting. The characters are multidimensional with personal lives beyond their police duties.

[Philip Maughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am aware the author's name is a pseudonym.
I come to this series of books at number 4. I was not aware of any spoilers to the previous books.
However, I also conclude that this is the ongoing story of Inspector Marmion, his work colleagues, and his family, with murder as the main plot.
Set during the summer of 1916, a vicious murder of a young woman takes place in the darkness of a cinema showing a Charlie Chaplin film. Scotland Yard's DI Marmion and DS Keedy investigate alongside the backdrop of London and the war in France, with the Battle of the Somme on the horizon.
We also see it through the eye of the murderer, unaware of his identity.
It is well-paced as the police assemble the evidence, and as London life continues, family life continues on the home front, and on the battlefront of DI Marmion's son, Paul.

[Soozee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is set in the First World War, on the Home Front. A young woman is murdered in a cinema, during a Charlie Chaplin film, inciting cries that frivolity like cinema-going should not be happening during a war.
Inspector Marmion and his trusty sergeant Keedy face the wrath of the newspapers as they try to solve this murder, but before long another happens in similar circumstances, albeit a different location.
Whilst struggling with this, Marmion also worries about his son who is serving on the Somme. The book also touches on the effects war had on others not serving, like the woman determined to preserve the life of her final surviving son at all cost.
The book is well written, pacy and enjoyable.

[John Boardman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughly enjoyed this book, found time flying by whilst reading it. Really interesting main plot and sub plot with the events of WW1 affecting the main characters. Some good character development particularly with Keedy, his relationship with the Marmion family, his past and encounters during the investigation. Only negatives as others have said, the ending felt a bit rushed, the investigation went from being a bit stuck to concluded in just a few pages. The other thing as someone else mentioned, the dialogue in places is a bit wooden, but wasnt sure if this was actually on purpose to reflect the era. Will definitely read more in the series.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 2014, 'Deeds of Darkness' is the 4th on the 'Home Detective' series of mysteries set in London during the Great War. This time, the main plot concerns a serial killer. This is a minor problem, as this sub-genre has been done to death even more than the fictional victims, and usually makes for a predictable tale. As is the case here. However, as is usual with Marston mysteries, this is compensated for by the interaction of the stock characters, and their ongoing development through the series. Enjoyable.

[Steven Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

In June 1916, a young woman named Charlotte Reid is found murdered in a cinema. Harvery Marmion and Joe Keedy are assigned the task of finding the killer who so elusively fled in the dark. Before long, two more victims, of striking similarity but differing backgrounds, are found dead around the city. Meanwhile, miles from home, Marmion's son Paul prepares for life on the front line as he marches towards the Battle of the Somme.
Read preview >

[Tim Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best one of the series so-far. DI Marmion and Sgt Keedy catch a dastardly killer (of course), red herrings galore, Keedy gets distracted, cinemas when they were considered by some to be the work of the devil, women still before they got the vote, and against the backdrop of the Battle of the Somme.

[tracy smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

The book was good. I enjoyed it very much, but I felt it was a quick ending which left a few unanswered question, but I would still recommend the book to anyone who likes a mystery.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining historical mystery

Takes you into the world on England during the First World War. Marston has the gift of writing period mysteries. This series is highly entertaining.

[heather beale · Rating 5 out of 5]

really enjoyed the development of the main characters but also the very clever unravelling of the truth, this is all on the base of life in the war and what it meant for families/people home and at the front

[Lillian Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid addition to this series but possibly the weakest so far in terms of the actual investigation.
I was disappointed about the method used to catch the killer. It felt ex deus machina to me.

[Annette O'grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

a very enjoyable read by this great author

[Pete Harmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This represents Edward Marston at his very best. The final few chapters had me on the edge of my seat. For me, it was matchless...... so far anyway.

[Phillip Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusually hard hitting

This book, unlike some by Marston pulls no punches. Set with the Battle of the Somme backdrop, it keeps you reading, with an unexpected ending.

[ANDREW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book highly recommend reading the series.

[Abi Yates · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Home Front Detective series is like catnip to me.