I liked the first book in this series. However, the mystery did not really appeal to me. It was very predictable. I also thought that there was not much happening in this novel, and I liked it less than the first book. Nevertheless I recommend this for fans of Elizabeth Peters!

M.J. Trow involves Dr. Margaret Murray, archaeologist and university lecturer, in murder and fake mediums in London 1905 in Breaking the Circle. The London police ask her to infiltrate a medium circle to trace the murderer of one, two or more mediums. At the same time she is publishing her scholarly work on the ancient Egyptians and pursuing her relationship with Flinders Petrie, the greatest Egyptian archaeologist. Great read.

The second book in the Margaret Murray series sees our diminutive Egyptologist try to uncover an 'habitual killer'. This time the killer focuses on mediums and Margaret,, Edmund Reid and the lovely DS Andrew go about solving the Murders of these women. If you haven't come across the first of this series namely Four Thousand Days, I cannot recommend both highly enough. The writing is a joy, the language and style wonderful. I am grateful to Netgalley, the publishers and, of course, M J Trow for a great set of characters and I cannot wait for the next adventure.

Thank you to netgalley for the arc!

I give this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars)
I felt like there were too many characters in this book. I felt it hard to keep up with them and found myself getting a little lost however, I thought it was still kind of a fun and unique mystery that kept me guessing. Interesting story to follow with a twist. If you like a whodunit mystery check this one out!

Found face down in her bowl of mulligatawny soup, Muriel Fazakerley is the first medium to meet an untimely death in this second in series, set in 1905, featuring Margaret Murray, famed archaeologist, classical scholar and occasional sleuth. When Evadne Principal is murdered, Margaret decides it’s time to go undercover, taking her pet stuffed owl’s alias as Mrs. Henrietta Plinlimmon, and joining the Bermondsey Spiritualist Circle for a peek inside the early 20th-century world of mediums, seances and “obnoxious bastard” occult investigators. She passes along the information she uncovers to her friend and one-time student, D.S. Andrew Crawford at Scotland Yard. When a third medium is bludgeoned to death, it’s time to bring in the big guns, and retired inspector Edmund Reid (of Ripper fame) is cajoled into playing the renowned medium, Eusapia Palladino, for an invitees-only séance at a society soiree devoted to the supernatural. Lady Sylvia plans to invite 150 guests, and Margaret knows this is “too many [for a séance] by approximately a hundred and forty-one.”

This is a delightful tongue-in-cheek tale and a lot of fun to bury yourself in, with its look-alikes, misdirection, mistaken identities, and the author’s ironic and singular turns of phrase― “Margaret made a note to herself… not to catch this woman’s habit of speaking in Capitals”; “he was hopelessly mired in what had once been a sentence”; “Fry kept his waistcoat fitting to within an inch of its life”. The novel is full of quirky folk with equally quirky names, such as some of the above mentioned, plus Lucinda Twelvetrees, Christina Plunkett, and Daisy Lorne (or is it Lawn). I look forward to the next in series.

I'm loving this series featuring Margaret Murray and a group of her students. I like how Ms Murray is written as she's a no nonsense character, very far from the image I got from her most famous books.
This is a well plotted and entertaining historical mystery. There's a solid mystery that kept me guessing, vivid and well researched historical background.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Enjoyed the characters and the puzzle very much — who doesn’t want to skulk around Edwardian London and infiltrate spiritualist circles? However, I knocked off a star due to a couple throwaway lines with racial slurs. Yeah, those terms were in circulation at the time, but they served no purpose in the story except to leave a bad taste in my mouth. As clues to the mystery or as insight into a character/suspect, I might have been willing to overlook them. But as offhand remarks? Nope.

While the victims of this particular murder spree may be a bit more “out there” in terms of their belief in spiritualism, Margaret Murray’s participation in the investigation isn’t quite as far-fetched here as it was in her first outing, Four Thousand Days.

In that first book it seemed like Murray and her colleagues came together to solve the mystery by a combination of friendship, happenstance and curiosity. This time, while it’s the same band of amateur and professional detectives, the investigation begins deliberately – if still a bit haphazardly. (How the band first got together may be a bit haphazard but their investigation is NOT.)

A woman is dead, having drowned in her mulligatawny soup. It could have been natural causes, but that doesn’t explain what an entire blackbird’s feather was doing in her mouth when she was found. Chicken may be a source of protein for the dish, but blackbird most definitely is not. Nor would it place a whole feather in the mouth AFTER the victim’s death.

But that victim was no one important, and the police seem to have wanted an easy solution. That she was a practicing – if quite possibly fraudulent – spirit medium made the whole thing just that much more distasteful. The inquest ruled the death as natural causes and closed the door on it.

At least until a second spirit medium turned up dead, this time poisoned with cyanide, with the Tarot card of The Hanged Man crushed in the victim’s hand.

That reopens the official case, and brings Detective Sergeant Andrew Crawford and retired Inspector Edmund Reid back to Professor Margaret Murray’s door – which has moved to the Flinders Petrie Museum at University College (now the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology) in the five years since their previous case. (That gap in time means that you don’t REALLY need to read the first book first, but if this one sounds like your jam it’s every bit as good!)

It’s looking like a serial killer is stalking psychics in London. And yes, someone does make the obvious joke that they should have seen it coming. Setting that witticism aside, Crawford has a bit of a problem. He needs an insider to learn if there were tensions among the various sensitive circles that might have led to murder. But that community skews overwhelmingly female, especially among the active participants. He needs a woman to infiltrate that community, but there were, as yet, no women in the police. (WPCs didn’t begin serving until after WW1)

And that’s where Margaret comes directly into his case, literally, posing as a psychic and getting an inside look at the circle where the first victim was a member. The police are still searching for a motive for the killings when the killer turns from poison to blunt force trauma, killing one woman by beating her to death with her own crystal ball.

Now Margaret is in the thick of it. All she’ll need to do is hatch an out-of-the-box scheme to catch the killer without putting herself into a box – or a coffin.

Escape Rating A-: What makes this series work, at least for this reader, is the voice of its protagonist Dr. Margaret Murray. Not just because she was a real person – as were both Flinders Petrie and Edmund Reid, but because she led the kind of life, had the type of career, and left behind the writing to make the adventures that her fictional avatar gets herself into seem not just plausible but even possible.

On the page she may seem like a voice from the 21st century, but there is more than enough evidence that she was a woman of her own time with the kind of history and personality that makes her easy to identify with now. She was a feminist before it was ‘cool’, and then not so cool, and then cool again, and not again and left behind the body of work to prove it.

Which makes her dry wit and trenchant observations on being a professional woman in a man’s world all that much more fascinating as well as both rueful and even funny although they all too frequently still ring true.

The mystery that Murray is in the middle of is more than a bit ‘out there’ and not just because the victims are into looking ‘behind the veil’ and other euphemisms for attempting to speak to the dead. Even if the professionals among them are mostly fleecing people by attempting to speak to the dead. Some of the practitioners and their adherents really do believe – whether we do or not.

The whole case is a fascinating puzzle, all the more so because it takes place at the dawn of modern forensics. Fingerprints are just being accepted as valid evidence, and photography of crime scenes is just beginning to come into its own.

Most of the investigation of this crime involves human factors rather than early 20th century technology, but we also see a bit of the human factors from the police perspective as well. The initial reluctance to take up the case because of the victim’s profession being a case in point.

Howsomever, it’s Margaret Murray that we follow, and she’s just fascinating in an understated and dry-witted way. She’s looking into the people, both the spiritualists and the victims, to see where there might be means, motive and opportunity for murder. That she discovers she’s been barking up the wrong tree but still manages to right herself in the end gives the mystery the twist that it needs to ramp the tension up and to bring it back down to its justified conclusion.

She’s also creating a rather eclectic group of colleagues around herself. Not just Crawford and Reid, both policemen by trade and training, but also Thomas the proprietor of the local cafe – and reformed thief, and Dr. William Flinders Petrie himself, who was her real-life mentor but is also her lover. (Whether that last bit is also history or just fictional we may never know).

But I’m reading this series for Dr. Margaret Murray. I had a fantastic time with her in Breaking the Circle – every bit as much as I did in the first book in her series, and hope that she has as long a career as an amateur detective as she did in real life!

1905 London. Mural Fazakerley, medium, has been found dead. Ruled an accidental death until another medium is discovered dead. But what could be the possible motive. D.S. Andrew Crawford with the help of ex D.I. Edmund Reid and Doctor Margaret Murray investigate.
An entertaining well-plotted and well-written Edwardian mystery. A good addition to this series with its interesting and likeable main characters.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was okay, but it would have been much better if the author hadn’t tried so hard. The striving for dry, mordant wit and oh-so-clever dialogue was palpable, and somewhat pathetic in its transparency. This is not to say that the all too clear aim was not achieved, just that the effort was so obvious. However, this is par for the course with M J Trow.

As aforesaid, the book was actually okay. A touch too much of the obligatory ‘strong female main protagonist’ for this reader’s tastes, but one cannot seem to avoid this nowadays, so hey-ho. Margaret Murray was likeable enough – as were all the other characters – as to make the book a pleasant enough read, and the faint air of ridiculousness that pervaded the plot kept things light, as did the mildly tongue-in-cheek flavour of the story.
Trow chooses a period setting but then makes no effort to keep neither the language nor behaviour of his characters in-period, and once again one gets the impression that this is done in a bid for humour. Furthermore, there was so much colloquial slang used – some of it anachronistically modern - that it was often hard to ascertain what was being said. This slang was also mis-used in places, again emphasising the efforts of the author in his strive for humour. Also, ‘leaves on the line’ as an excuse for trains not running in the final years of the 19th Century? Wasn’t funny at all.

The plot was a little silly, as was the whole premise, so this was well in keeping. However, the denouement felt rushed, and seemed to come from nowhere. On the face of it, there seemed to be no clues provided – so much so that Ms Murray felt the need to spell them all out to us, so subtle were they. Admittedly, the twist at the end was a surprise, but this didn’t mitigate the sense of haste conveyed by the final few pages. All-in-all, I would say read the book by all means, especially if you are a Trow fan. Quite clearly this is the first in a series, and I would certainly read the next, but I won’t be staking out the bookshops to grab a copy on publication.

MJ Trow introduced us to the principle characters in this novel in the autumn of 2022 in Four Thousand Days That was set in 1900, and had real-life archaeologist Margaret Murray solving a series of murders, helped by a young London copper, Constable Andrew Crawford. Now, it is May 1905, Andrew Crawford is now a Sergeant, has married into a rich family, and Margaret Murray is still lecturing at University College.

When a spiritualist medium is found dead at her dinner table, slumped face down in a bowl of mulligatawny soup, the police can find nothing to suggest criminality. It is only later, when a black feather appears, having been lodged in the woman’s throat, that Andrew Crawford suspects foul play. His boss, however is having none of it.

Two more mediums go to join the actual dead whose presence they ingeniously try to recreate for their clients, and the hunt is on for a serial killer. Crawford enlists the help of Margaret Murray, and under a pseudonym, she joins the spiritualist group to which the first murder victim has belonged. After an intervention by former Detective Inspector Edmund Reid who, amazingly, manages to convince people attending a seance that he is one of Europe’s most renowned spiritualists, we have a breathtaking finale in Margaret Murray’s dusty little office in University College.

Without giving too much away, I will tease you a little, and say that the killer is trying to find something, but isn’t sure who has it. There is a pleasing circularity here, by way of Jack the Ripper. Edmund Reid was one of the senior coppers who tried to bring the Whitechapel killer to justice, and MJ Trow has written one of the better studies of that case. One of the (many) theories about the motivation of JTR was that he was seeking revenge on the woman who gave him – or someone close to him – a fatal dose of syphilis, and he was simply working his way down a list.

Trow was for many, many years a senior history teacher at a school on the Isle of Wight, and he appeared as his thinly disguised ‘self’ in the long running series of books featuring Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell. I can’t think of another writer whose encyclopaedic knowledge of the past has been the steel backbone of his books. Don’t, however, make the mistake of thinking there is an overload of fact to the detriment of entertainment. Trow is a brilliantly gifted storyteller and, as far as I am concerned, Victorian and Edwardian London belong to him. Breaking The Circle is published by Severn House, and is out now

The second book in the series takes place in 1905, five years after the first. Dr Margaret Murray hears from police detective & part-time archaeology student, DS Andrew Crawford, regarding a case where a spirit medium or 'sensitive' has been found dead, drowned in her soup. The police initially think it is a robbery gone wrong, but Crawford & Murray are not convinced. The subsequent deaths of others in the same line of work suggests that either a fanatic intent on unmasking fraudulent mediums or a serial killer may be involved. Dr Murray decides to infiltrate a local spiritualist circle as Henrietta Plinlimmon & finds herself agreeing to organise & hold a séance at the family home of one of her postgraduate students. Hoping that the séance could be just the ticket to get the killer to make a mistake, Dr Murray prevails on retired Inspector Reid to help.

This book was a marked improvement on the first. Margaret Murray continues to be a most appealing main character, with DS Crawford, Reid, & Thomas (owner of the local eating establishment) making up the core of the supporting cast. The pacing is fairly gentle up until the fake séance when it turns into something reminiscent of an Ealing comedy or perhaps 'Arsenic & Old Lace'. It was highly entertaining, if fairly predictable, so if you like undemanding historical mysteries, you may enjoy this one.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Severn House, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

My thanks to Severn House for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Breaking the Circle’ by M.J. Trow.

This is Book 2 in Trow’s series of historical mysteries featuring archaeologist and amateur sleuth, Dr. Margaret Murray.

What fun this was! Margaret Murray joins the ranks of historical figures engaging in fictional sleuthing. I hadn’t read Book 1 though Trow provides background to allow this to be read as a stand-alone mystery.

May, 1905 and a headline appears in the London press: ‘Famous Sensitive Found Dead. Police Baffled.’ Well of course they are baffled, it’s necessary in such mysteries so that clever amateur sleuths can solve the case.

Here the police are actually well represented by Murray’s close friend, DS Andrew Crawford of Scotland Yard. He is excited about how fingerprints being accepted as evidence is transforming police investigations. Meanwhile, Dr Murray wonders if the ancient dead can be fingerprinted.

The police assume that the first death was a robbery gone wrong, apart from the presence of a black feather in the victim’s mouth. When another medium is found obviously murdered, it’s clear that there’s a killer targeting mediums.

Dr Margaret Murray is intrigued by the case and offers her services to Crawford, suggesting that she infiltrate one of London’s prominent spiritualist circles in order to assist them in identifying likely suspects. Will her ruse work in the insular world of the spiritualists? Will she place herself in danger?

I admired how well Trow crafted this mystery. It had a great cast of supporting characters, especially Crawford and ex-inspector turned private detective, Edmund Reid. There is plenty of humorous dialogue, some quite cheeky though it retains a degree of Edwardian decorum. Oh and I must give Mrs Plinlimmon, Dr. Murray’s delightful stuffed owl, a mention.

Trow completes the novel with some details of the extraordinary life of the real Margaret Murray.

I found this an engaging mystery that kept me guessing throughout as to whodunnit. Despite its short length there is quite a lot going on and it required close attention.

I definitely will be looking forward to future cases for Dr. Murray and friends and also plan to read the first in the series, ‘Four Thousand Days’.

Did not finish as it was not the type of genre I expected and the writing was not something that is easy to read. The language is very complex for such a plot line, it felt as though it had the classic writing feel however wasn’t written to be a classic.

Breaking the Circle is the second Margaret Murray book by MJ Trow. Margaret is a professor and archeologist with expertise in Egyptology. She has traveled extensively on various archaeological treks and has a wealth of experience. She is also an amateur detective. Her skills are put to the test when a murderer is wreaking havoc on the self-proclaimed mediums of the city. The authorities will reach out to Margaret for her help on these cases and she will find herself in a bit of danger.

I found myself invested in ‘whodunnit’ after awhile, but it was slow going. The novel is not very long but it often drags. Much of the flippant humor is filler and it was confusing how it seemed to jump perspectives with no warning.

Breaking the Circle is the second book in the utterly enchanting Margaret Murray series by M. J. Trow. Based on the real life Margaret Murray, a turn of the century Egyptologist, the fictional Murray lectures at University College and investigates cases involving folklore and magic. Her wide ranging friendships include several policemen who act as supporting cast to her investigations, and her colleagues at the college. DS Crawford and Inspector Reid play particularly amusing roles in this case, as Murray embeds herself in a group of students of the occult investigating the murders of mediums.

The fictional Margaret Murray is a great addition to the amateur detective ranks, and I look forward to more of her adventures.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Turn-of-the-century archaeologist-sleuth Margaret Murray returns for the second in her captivating historical mystery series.

'Famous Sensitive Found Dead. Police Baffled.'

May, 1905. When one medium turns up dead, the police assume it is a robbery gone wrong, but when another is found obviously murdered, it's clear there's a killer on the loose.

Dr. Margaret Murray, accomplished archaeologist and occasional sleuth, calls upon her police connections to investigate; who wants to see the mediums of London dead? Known for her sharp mind and quick wit, Margaret decides to infiltrate one of the spiritualist circles to narrow down the list of suspects.

Her tactics seem to be working as she accidentally puts herself in the sights of the murderer. Unperturbed, Margaret sets an elaborate trap to uncover the culprit - but can she untangle the trail of clues before she too, passes beyond the veil?"

I am all about murdered mediums. I'm all about mediums in general. You're probably wondering what I'm not all about, feel free to ask me sometime!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for this Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review “Breaking the Circle.” All opinions and comments are my own.

Dr. Margaret Murray, Egyptologist, university “prof” and someone who is often drafted to help the London police has her hands full in “Breaking the Circle,” the second in the historical mystery series by M.J. Trow. Our book has someone deciding that a series of London mediums and spiritualists have got to die. Unfortunately, neither Margaret nor her police colleagues ex-inspector Reid and current DS Crawford have “the sight,” so it’s going to take old-fashioned detecting to figure this one out, it appears.

The detecting is mixed in with a lot of archeological tidbits and humor. No fusty academics here; we’re supposed to assume they’re all jolly good fellows with a terrific sense of fun. Well, it does make for a change.

Margaret’s in the thick of it, of course, ferreting out secrets from the members of the “circle” that our first deceased belonged to. And dealing with an artist that’s working on her latest archeology book. Readers also get a lot of “ghostly” stories about the spirit world, which you may or may not enjoy.

But, we do get characters! Doctors, policemen, family members, suspects, of course; folks that flit in and out. Some very unpleasant types, actually. But each clearly defined with master strokes of character. M.J. Trow makes sure we “know” these people (and in some cases, their multiple viewpoints).

A séance is arranged, at which it is assumed the murderer will reveal themselves. Well, one lives in hope. Our author doesn’t intend for anything to be that easy, for eventually, Margaret finds herself in a bit of a pickle. With a murderer. But our girl is resourceful, as always.

An author’s tale reminds readers about the real Margaret Murray, a truly fascinating individual, a strong woman in a man’s world. The fictional Margaret follows in her footsteps, and “Breaking the Circle” entertains and enlightens at the same time.

This second book in the series takes place in London, 1905, with archaeologist and lecturer at University College, Dr. Margaret Murray, helping D.S. Andrew Crawford in the investigation into the murders of "sensitives" (mediums). Several of the characters from the first novel make an appearance, including retired D.I. Edmund Reid. Although (for me, at least) the characters are the highlight of this book, it is also witty, the plot moves at a good pace, and while the outcome wasn't a total surprise there were definitely unexpected twists. Looking forward to book 3!

The violent (albeit original) killings of a few mediums in London are puzzling the authorities and starting (quite understandably) to spread fear among the city's spiritual society.

But for Dr Margaret Murray, the renowned egyptologist and amateur sleuth, the only way to stop the killer to act and carry out once again another gruesome murder would be to simply infiltrate the murky world of spiritual séances, Ouija boards and crystal balls.
But when the situation starts getting a little more dangerous that she may have initially bargained for her life could already have become the killer's next target...

Breaking the circle is a witty and entertaining Edwardian murder mystery, craftily plotted and blessed with a cast of exquisitely drawn characters, sparkling dialogues and marvellous historical details.This series keeps getting better and I simply can't wait for the next installment!

Many thanks to Severn House and Netgalley for this terrific ARC