Due to a passing in the family a few years ago and my subsequent health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for years after the bereavement. Thank you for the opportunity.

I loved this. Very atmospheric, with a big sense of place. Beautifully written, with characters you want to get to know. More please!

Brilliant read, right from the start. I loved Cordy, she was constantly getting into one scrape or another. And Flick as the sensible one trying to take things steadily made the pair adorable. It was a just perfectly written to give you shocks and surprises all the way through. Only shame for me was that there won’t be any more books with these two characters in.

How's this for an opening line? "I was lying in a grave the first time I met Felicity."

This is not the first book I've read by this author and I'm reminded now why I picked this novel. His writing style is one which I enjoy. He makes the characters come to life and weaves a story that makes you invested in the outcome. Also, he sets the scene in colourful prose which entertains and makes you SEE the landscapes of his imagination.

"The sky looked like a coalman's bathwater."

The unlikely friendship between the headstrong, educated Cordelia Hemlock and the meek, uneducated Felicity Goose was created masterfully and added greatly to my enjoyment of the novel.

Told in part via witness transcripts, the story set in 2010 relates events that occurred back in 1967. It was a clever way to deliver a dual timeline and it worked well here.

The story related how the French Resistance were overcome by evil in the form of the Milice. It spoke of war crimes, heroes, survivors, loss, betrayals, duplicity, and the part the intelligence service played in the aftermath of WWII.

"There's no time limit on accountability."

Not for the faint of heart, this story described unthinkable wartime atrocities. At the same time it was a village murder mystery. One which I recommend.

I have read all David Mark detective series books but this was completely different! A spooky start with the discovery of a body (or parts thereof) which turned into a twisty whodunnit which was very enjoyable.

I'm a big fan of David Mark's detective books and I was eager to read this one to see if it lived up to his usual standard - it did, though it is a very different type of read.
This thriller takes the reader back to World War II, the 1960's and the 2000's and the events are skillfully interwoven through the findings of Cordelia and Felicity (two women who over the course of the novel become friends) who uncover the mystery after first finding a body in a graveyard in 1967. Cordelia and Felicity are characters that become real to the reader, Cordelia is suffering after the death of her only son and is something of an outsider and enigma, while Felicity is a local wife and mother.
I enjoyed this book and would thoroughly recommend it.

A departure from David Mark's successful Aetor McAvoy series, this an historical mystery set in the late 1960s.


In a small village in the Scottish borders two women are thrown together when a storm of epic proportions forces them to flee the weather. As they dash from the graveyard they were in  lightning strikes and a tree splits open an old tomb, revealing a body, a body which is dressed in a suit and isn't the dusty bones they would have expected. They make it to the house of one of the women, Felicity, and at the height of the storm her neighbour, Fairfax, stops by. When they tell him about the incident he rushes off to look but never returns. When the storm passes, the body has vanished and the authorities refuse to believe their claims.

The women strike up an unlikely friendship, one that both of them need. Cordelia has a murky past with many secrets but the recent loss of her small son has plunged her into a dark grief that has shut her off from everyone and everything.  She is much more a modern woman than Felicity, one who is more likely to embrace the freedoms that the 1960s will offer her. Felicity is a woman who is stoical, doesn't shed a tear and just gets on with things, not that that's how she really feels. As the two women both make a tentative start on their own investigations into what they saw they are drawn together to forge a friendship - particulalry under the pressure of those who would rather they stopped asking questions.

The book owes something to 'scandi noir' - a remote location, a main character (Cordelia) who is an outsider, repercussions from a war that people are trying to put behind them and unrelenting bad weather. In fact the hottest day of the year was the perfect time to read this, so permanently sodden were all the characters.
In common with Mark's other books he shows a deft touch in making his characters realistic and Cordelia and Felicity are well drawn, two completely different characters who complement each other in their friendship. The tentative way that their friendship starts also feels very realistic. He also has a real feel for the period and it was easy to picture him talking about the homes of my grandmothers.

This was an excellent mystery, an insight into the friendship of the two women and a reminder of the social norms of the period (and how things have changed). If I were to draw any parralllels I'd say a cross between Exposure by Helen Dunmore and the TV series The Bletchley Circle.

I was expecting a horror story and got something completely different. This is a murder mystery set in Scotland that has it's origins in WWII. Those looking for something scary might be disappointed.

This is the second historical novel by David Mark that I have read and I chose to read it because the first, The Zealot’s Bones, was one of my top reads a couple of years ago.

The Mausoleum is predominantly set in the 1960’s but the events that it recounts relate to an earlier period, during the Second World War.

Felicity Goose is on her way to visit her mother’s grave when she finds Cordelia Hemlock lying on a grave in the cemetery. Gilsland is a small village just south of the Scottish Border with a local history is traceable to Hadrian’s Wall . Felicity knows who Cordelia is, though the women have never spoken. Cordelia is the woman who came to live in the big house with her young son, Stefan and stayed to mourn his death, just months old. Her husband is a senior civil servant in London who provides well enough for her, though he is never seen in the village.

Cordelia has never looked to get to know her neighbours and since Stefan’s death has roamed the countryside with no purpose other than to be alone with her grief.

As Felicity begins to talk to Cordelia she warns Cordelia that a storm is coming, almost as the heavens open. As they prepare to leave the graveyard, lightning strikes a tree which falls and cleaves a nearby mausoleum, wide open. Both women are horrified to see the body of a man in a blue suit with a satchel lying in the depths of the mausoleum. They run to Felicity’s nearby farmhouse in the downpour and when the local oral historian, Fairfax comes by, they relate what they have seen. Fairfax rushes off to find out what he can and alert the authorities but is killed in a car accident, presumed on his way to the police.

The situation is mysterious, but as if that were not on its own sufficiently dramatic, the body disappears. The local police, investigating Fairfax’s death are not terribly interested in what the women claim to have seen in the graveyard, and indeed Felicity is much more tentative than Cordelia in relating what they might have seen.

Nonetheless, this is the start of a bond forged between Cordelia and Felicity (who, aptly named, would not say boo to another Goose).

Cordelia can’t stop thinking about the body though and the more Felicity learns about Fairfax, the more it seems that his death could be suspicious, too.

Mark’s story immerses us in rural life in the quiet far North of England where manual work is what keeps the land alive and where outsiders are looked upon with suspicion and friendships are hard won. Gilsland is a village full of secrets; from those of Cordelia to the other inhabitants. The village is near a former POW camp and there are many tales from that time that villagers will talk among themselves about, but would not dream of broadcasting further afield.

Still grieving, Cordelia finds that she is drawn to Felicity’s no nonsense approach; though her superstitions make her seem sometimes a little uneasy and prone to taking a back seat in their enquiries. Nevertheless, she gains strength from Cordelia’s convictions and soon the two women are developing a bond.

Secrets, lies and abominations dominate this book, which is just perfect in a place where everyone is practically taciturn or speaks with an opacity that would grace the Secret Service.

Mark cleverly builds on his burgeoning female friendships to lay down a trail to some of the darkest, most heinous secrets that history has to divulge – going back to the Second World War and specifically the French Resistance.

The shadows of the past are reaching out to the claustrophobically small village of Gilsland and the tragedies that those long, spooky tendrils of smoke point to will devastate more than one family in the village.

I loved his characters; from the villagers who know everything yet say nothing to the acutely drawn sons of Felicity and her husband, through to the neighbours and the civil servants whose nameless shadowy figures are never far from any villager’s door. Mark’s sense of place is superb and his descriptions rich and olfactory.

Verdict: Mark has written a beautifully conceived and well executed historical tale full of exceptionally well-drawn characters, with a tense and claustrophobic setting and a feel for sharp cruelty that pierces the fog and numbs the senses.

A solid read with a good plot but at times it felt really confusing. Could have done with a more relaxing structure.

I have to admit...this book surprised me. I expected a flash-back style crime\murder mystery novel...but got something richer and much more interesting. This is a mystery novel with a touch of espionage, hidden war-time secrets, cover-ups, Nazis, POWs, traitors....and two old women still determined to learn The Truth. Great story!

It all starts when a storm damages a mausoleum in a cemetery in 1967 and Cordelia Hemlock sees a body that shouldn't be there -- the corpse of a man clad in a brown suit still clutching a satchel. The local Scottish police don't believe her story. They think she is just distraught over the recent death of her young son. Her new friend, Felicity Goose, believes her. And the two spend decades trying to find out the truth.

This is the first book by David Marks that I have read. The story caught my attention from the start and kept my attention clear to the end. Well-written and with a nice depth, The Mausoleum was a very enjoyable read. I will definitely be reading more by this author. The story progresses a bit slowly at first, but once the stage is set, the plot builds suspense and moves a bit more quickly. I wasn't quite sure what the women would find out in the end, but I just let the tale carry me along revealing facts in its own time.

The use of Nazis and World War II hidden secrets can be a bit tropey, but David Marks pulls it off with style. Enjoyable, well-written story!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Severn House. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

A well written historical mystery with an engaging plot. The story begins in 2010 at an old man’s deathbed with two elderly ladies sitting vigil and then goes back to 1967 to a graveyard in the Scottish borders when the two ladies meet for the first time. Wartime atrocities and village secrets are revealed as the story develops.
Thank you to netgalley and Severn House for an enjoyable read. I recommend this book.

‘I was lying in a grave the first time I met Felicity.’

The story begins in 2010, with two elderly women – the marvellously named Felicity ‘Flick’ Goose and Cordelia ‘Cordy’ Hemlock – at a bedside vigil with a dying man. They want him to shed light on the events which occurred when the women first met in 1967. Will they be successful?
Cordelia Hemlock has moved to Gilsland, a quiet village in the north of England. Her son Stefan has died, and she finds some comfort amongst the ancient headstones and crypts in the local churchyard. And it is here that Cordelia first meets Flick Goose during a storm. A lightning strike hits a tree which falls and splits the Kinmont Mausoleum. Cordy sees a corpse, the body of a man in a blue suit with a satchel.

‘He was … fresh.’

The women find their way to Flick’s house. They tell Fairfax, Flick’s neighbour of their discovery. He sets out to find out more but is killed in a car accident. And it seems that the authorities are reluctant to believe Cordy’s story: she is an outsider after all.

The friendship between Flick and Cordelia develops, the story unfolds in chapters that alternate between the women and shift between 1967 and 2010. The two women find some clues, and it seems that a former World War II POW Camp in the village may hold some answers. But there are those who think that the past should be left alone.

‘We read, and everything changed.’

I found that I needed to read this story slowly in order to appreciate the development of both characters and story. The history of Gilsland is important as well as several well-developed secondary characters. And the ending? It worked for me.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Cordelia and Felicity's story starts in 1967 located in Gilsland, a village in Northern England full of historical castles, a spa and a wall constructed by the Roman army. 

"Stefan had been dead seven months. I don’t think I’d exchanged more than a handful of words with another soul in that time. I wrote letters to family but couldn’t bring myself to read their replies. I gorged myself on food and drink or starved myself as my mood dictated. My face had begun to look unhealthy, like meat left out in warm weather. When I did take the trouble to brush my hair I would find whole clumps of it wrapped around the brush."

Cordelia's story is tragic and lonely. An intriguing young woman who has lost her son and lives alone in a large house in a small village in a marriage of convenience.

"She was one of them. A local girl. One of the tribe. A girl from the borderlands, the place between pages; tucked into the margins between two northern counties and a stone’s throw from the Scottish border. A Gilsland girl. As much a part of the landscape as the cow shit and tumbledown stone walls."

Felicity is kind and high strung. A housewife with a loving husband and two sons who have strange hobbies. Her days are routine, until the body.

Cordelia and Felicity become unlikely friends uncovering a mystery going back to WWII and an evil man named Jean Favre, known as Le Tanneur due to his ability to skin a man without killing him.

Though the story is slow in the beginning, the closer the women get to the truth, the quicker you want to read to find out what happens. An unusual story with a staggering and unpredictable twist. If you like great character-development with suspense and surprises, this is the book for you.

Thank you to Mr. Mark, Severn House, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book with no expectations of a positive review given.

This is another of those books which flit about in time a bit. Sometimes this confuses me but, here, the author does a good, if not perfect, job keeping me on track. We start in 2010 where two old women are sat by the bedside of a dying man trying to get his deathbed confession. We then go back in time to the 60s and witness the first meeting of these women; Felicity (Flick) and Cordelia (Cordie), at a graveyard of all places. Then there's a heavy deluge and, as they are running for cover, lightning strikes a mausoleum and, as they turn to look, the body of a man is exposed. A body that appears to be too recent for the setting. They return to Flick's home and are visited by her neighbour, Fairfax,to whom they tell their tale of the body. He leaves them to find out more but is sadly killed in a car accident. And so begins a tale of secrets, lies and deception. Flick and Cordie won't let the body go and also start to believe that there could be more to Fairfax's death than just the accident portrayed. But there is someone very keen to keep the secrets they have held on to for so long. Secrets that involve the village and the POW camp that was sited there in the war. Secrets that must remain hidden at all costs.
I believe from my research that this is a diversion from the author's usual crime fiction. Having never read any of his other books (something I hope to rectify given time) I can't comment on that but, what I can say is that I did enjoy reading this book overall. It held my attention mostly throughout and his characterisation, plotting and delivery was excellent. What didn't quite work for me however was the overall flow of the book. At times simple, others a bit convoluted and a tad confusing as it jumped in time. I am not quite sure that the author got some of the timings of imparting key information quite right for me. It also felt a little slow at times and dragged a bit along the way. And then when we got to the final furlong, I felt that it raced a bit too much and ran away with itself a bit.
All in all, a solid read that did get there in the end for me. It has piqued my interest in the author's crime book so I shall be adding them to my every growing tbr. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This is an unusual mystery that veers between 1967 and the present, with a few detours to WWII. Told in the alternating voices of two friends- Flick and Cordelia- it starts with a body in a graveyard. Or was there? There are lots of secrets in the village of Gilsland and there are lots of people who don't want them to come out. Flick and Cordelia come from very different backgrounds but they are best friends. The rural Scottish setting is wonderfully atmospheric. The WWII history (the POW camp) etc was new to me. One recommendation- you might find yourself sounding out some of the dialogue. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

David Mark’s writing never fails to capture me and keep me tied to the page. His most recent thriller, The Mausoleum, showcases this wonderful writing and his excellent storytelling skills. His characters are so well developed that it was easy to picture their lives, their reactions, and the growing friendship between the two main characters of Flick and Cordy. I highly recommend this read to everyone.

I finished this a while ago & have been mulling over how I felt about it. And I realized the longer I thought, the more I appreciated the story & how it was told. If (like me) you’re a fan of the author’s Aector McAvoy series, the first thing you need to know is this is a huge departure. Don’t go in expecting thrills & chills. This is a dense & detailed historical read that takes its time.

It begins in the present as 2 elderly women sit vigil at the bedside of a dying man. We have no idea who the characters are but it’s obvious they have a long & complex history. We then go back to how it all began.

Cordelia (Cordie) is an educated woman whose husband has sent her to live in the country. She’s a fish out of water & initially dismissive of her rural neighbours. Felicity (Flick) is a wife & mother who has lived in the area all her life. They first meet in a graveyard & when lightening strikes an old mausoleum, they’re horrified to see a body come tumbling out. An ancient skeleton perhaps? Nope. There’s flesh on those bones & the snazzy suit suggests the wearer is of a more recent vintage.

What follows is the story of Cordie & Flick’s great adventure. On one level it’s a murder mystery with disturbing undertones & a slow rising tension. But it’s also the story of these 2 women & how their investigation & relationship permanently alters their lives.

Most of the book is set in a rural Scottish village in the 1960’s but it feels at least a decade earlier. The pace, descriptions of village life & frequent allusions to the war all combine to create a story that’s more in keeping with the era of golden age mysteries.

To be honest, it took me a while to settle in with this one. I think I went in with certain expectations based on Mark’s previous books. Setting the stage takes the first half. Not much happens but you become immersed in the lives of the characters & history of the area. It’s heavy on dialogue which the author delivers using local vernacular to great effect. More than anything else, that’s what helped me find the book’s rhythm & just sit back & let Cordie & Flick tell me their story.

The pace picks up for the last 20% as we begin to glimpse the big picture. War atrocities, secrets & lies with startling local connections are exposed. The village is shaken & for Cordie in particular, it’s the beginning of a new life.

After pondering it a bit, I realized what I enjoyed most was the relationship between the 2 women. It gradually evolves as they rub off on each other, both deeply affected by their shared experience. There’s a subtle power shift as they learn to appreciate their differences & the result is a long friendship based on mutual acceptance, trust & affection.

So from an initial rating of 3.5, I’m bumping it up to 4 stars. There’s a beautiful simplicity to the prose that makes the setting & characters come across as completely authentic. Kudos to the author for branching off in a new direction.

The following appeared this morning on my book review blog:

I was immediately drawn to this book and was really excited when the advanced galley was delivered to my kindle. The novel starts out with an elderly man on his death bed wracked with pain with two women standing over him in 2010. The women, Cordelia Hemlock and Felicity Goose have known each other for many years and have been investigating this unfolding historical mystery since the 1960's when they first met.

A Chance Meeting in a Graveyard
In 1967, Cordelia is a disgraced academic who has recently arrived in a small town in Scotland called Gisland. She is deep in her grief over the loss of her 2-year-old son. She finds solace in the neighboring graveyard and spends her time among the tombstones, perhaps longing to some connection to her deceased son or to death itself. Felicity comes upon her one day, laying among the graves. The two women strike up a conversation just as a storm blows in bringing heavy rain and severe lightning with it. Felicity offers to let Cordelia come back to her cottage with her since it is closer than where Cordelia is staying. Just as the two are leaving, lightning strikes a nearby mausoleum causing it to break open and reveals a body that is only days old. The two women rush to Felicity's home where they tell her neighbor Fairfax about it. He then rushes out to see the body and get the constable. Only, he is killed and it is found that the body is gone from the mausoleum. Thus begins a long friendship between Cordelia and Felicity that spans decades as they try to uncover the mystery of the body that they found all those years ago.

A Nazi Gestapo & the French Milice
The Mausoleum became an engrossing historical investigation that plunges the two women into the world of Nazi's and their supporters. This story takes us back to the horrors of World War II and the pervading evilness that the Gestapo enacted on countless victims that for some, continued on even after the war was over. The French Milice are also part of the torture of this novel. While the Nazis dominated Germany, the Milice were a political group in France during the same time that aided in rounding up and deporting French Jews and their families to the concentration and death camps. Also similar to the Nazis who had Hitler Youths, the French Milice also encouraged youth to participate in their you program known as the Avant-Garde.

The Mysterious Abel
Fairfax, prior to his untimely death, is a writer who records everything that he can get his hands on. One of the things he has recorded is the testimony of a man who describes his life and the torture he endured under the hands of the Nazi Gestapo and the French Milice. The account is horrendous and the abuse and torture seemed to be neverending. The testimony records the Gestapo's name as being Abel. Could this Abel be the man that the two women found in the grave? The mystery only expands from here, sending the women deep into history to uncover the truth in the present. If you're looking for a novel that unravels slowly and plunges you deep into a historical investigation then this is a mystery that you will have to pick up.

Book Information
The Mausoleum by David Mark will be released on June 1, 2019, from Severn House Publishers with ISBN 9780727888723. This review corresponds to an advanced electronic galley that was supplied by the publisher in exchange for this review. To be linked to special pre-order pricing, click the link above!

David Mark shifts direction from his crime series, to what is primarily a historical espionage mystery,set in the 1960s in the North of England and the small villages of Upper Denton and Gilisland with a local history that goes as far back as Hadrian's Wall. Whilst I found this a great read, I have to admit I love Mark's crime fiction more. The narrative begins in 2010, and two elderly women, Felicity 'Flick' Goose and Cordelia Hemlock are sitting at the bedside of a dying man, trying to get him to cough up the truth about events that occurred in 1967 when the women first met. Amidst heavy torrential rain and lightning, the Kinsmont Mausoleum splits, when Cordelia and Flick see the recently deceased body of a man in a blue suit with a satchel. The women return to Flick's home to escape the downpour, when local history man, Fairfax, drops in. They tell him about the body in the graveyard, so Fairfax leaves to find out what he can. Fairfax is never to return, killed in a fatal car accident.

Cordelia is a woman with many secrets, married to a senior civil servant in London, laden with a heavy grief at the recent loss of her young baby son, Stefan. She has set herself apart from the locals, and it takes the loss of Stefan for the barriers to slowly come down between Cordelia and them. The initial chinks begin to appear as the friendship between Flick and Cordelia strengthens, driven by the mystery of the dead man in the church graveyard whose body has since disappeared. With Flick initially refusing to be clear about what she had seen, the police in the form of Sergeant Chivers, show absolutely no interest in the affair. However, Cordelia cannot let it go, and the more Flick learns about Fairfax, the more she thinks his death was murder too, he just knew too much. This is a twisted story that goes back to WW2, and the heinous torture and massacres carried out by the French Nazi sympathising group, the Milice, formed with every intention of obliterating the French Resistance. The two women find not everyone is keen for them to uncover past history. A history that connects with the former local POW camp and the machinations of the security services.

David Mark can certainly spin a good historical story with the most colourful of characters, such as Pike, Brian and Heron. Cordelia is a complicated woman for her time, very independent, and not a woman who takes orders lying down. She is determined to get to the truth, irrespective of the obstacles placed in her path. She is the perfect foil for the more tentative and insecure Flick, a woman that Cordelia initially underestimated, much as she did all the locals. It is that implacable strength of character that has Cordelia taking the life path that she later follows, one that brings her great power. This was an engaging and absorbing novel, but in my humble opinion, I feel the author's true strengths lie in crime fiction. Many thanks to Severn House for an ARC.