The Threefold Death was an horrific way to die – a sacrifice dating to the times of the Roman occupation of Britain involve death by drowning, stabbing and hanging. But thankfully, this stopped almost two millennia ago – didn’t it?

Fresh from the events of Death In The Aviary, Charlotte Blood and her friend/landlady/something else Mrs C, are invited, as investigative journalists, to the archaeological find of the 1930s – the tomb of Boudica herself. She has the opportunity to be there when the door to the tomb is broken open – and when that does happen, the tomb contains a victim of the threefold death…

The only problem is that the tomb has been sealed for two thousand years… and the woman who has been killed is a local woman from the village who was very much alive two days previously…

As you will recall, Victoria Dowd, the double-Grand Puzzly-winning author of the Smart Woman series, and now the Charlotte Blood series, was kind enough to be the first participant of my new “Five Books” series, where she wrote a little about this book. Of course, what you’ve been waiting for is the no-holds-barred actual review of it.

And first of all, I want to make it absolutely clear that this review is in no way biased by Victoria agreeing to do the interview. Because I’m going to be gushing a tad about this one, and I want you to be assured, said gushing is absolutely deserved.

Charlotte is a wonderful lead, still haunted by the death of her husband, but in a really moving way. She is starting her quest to find a new life for herself, but, as you would expect in reality, solving one murder has not suddenly turned her into a go-getting sleuthing flapper (unlike some Golden Age “homages”). She is a really positive character, haunted, but not in such a way that holds her back (or makes it a slog for the reader). She may have a bit of a blindspot for whatever it is that Mrs C is up to…

Victoria knows what makes a Golden Age-style mystery work – a relatively small number of distinct characters, all with different motivations for being at the dig, a mysterious death or three (there’s a second impossible death that is beautifully simple) and my favouritest thing in the whole wide world – clues! Clues that I completely missed, as I missed the murderer, so that’s a bonus too.

Add in the Gothic atmosphere, which does a beautiful job of building the tension, and the ticking clock as the rain falls in the fens and the water rises, cutting off our cast from the outside world – reminding me a little of the fire in Ellery Queen’s The Siamese Twin Mystery – and what you end up with an absolutely stunning book. A step-up from the already excellent Death In The Aviary, Threefold Death, which is out today! Well, it is if you’re reading this on September 8th. If not, then quick! You’re late! Get to the bookshop now!

Many thanks to Victoria and Datura Books for the review copy.