A Henry Johnstone 1920's mystery #4 in the series.
An entertaining historical mystery of a young man going by train to see his fiancee . He follows a young lady off the train that is being harassed and is never seen alive again.
Fast paced and a few surprises along the way will be yours as you are engaged in the plot.
Well written, I will now have to find her other books to read.

Published September 1st 2019 by Severn House Publishers.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Henry Johnstone is a Scotland Yard detective. When an acquaintance from a previous investigation contacts them about his missing nephew, he takes a cursory look at the disappearance. But, since the missing person is an adult and there is no evidence of foul play, he is only able to make a few inquiries. As the mystery of his disappearance becomes more complicated, Johnstone and Sgt. Mickey Hitchens try to solve the case, while also investigating a gang-related attack on a young boy.

The Clockmaker is the third book in the series, but the first book I’ve read by this author. And, I’m so glad I did. Jane Adams has written a good book with interesting characters that drive her story. The mystery is well-plotted and has a satisfactory ending. If you’re looking for a fast-paced and action-packed story, then The Clockmaker might be a disappointment. But, if you enjoy a police procedural that is thorough and is well-developed, then this will be a good read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

1929 and Joseph Levey has disappeared. Disappeared when travelling from his fiancée's home in Lincoln to London. It has been several weeks and his uncle Abraham Levey approaches a policeman he knows, Detective Chief Inspector Henry Johnstone. Going over the investigation is all that he and Sergeant Mickey Hitchens can really do until the expected body is discovered. And eventually it is.
But is the investigation as straightforward as he initially thought.
An enjoyable and interesting well-written mystery story, with some really good well-developed characters. Although the fourth in the series it can easily be read as a standalone book. Another good story in this delightful series.

The historical detail and plotting of this book are quite good. Set in 1929 England, Adams evokes the anti-semitism and rise of the working class of the times quite well. The plot is somewhat dry, and I didn’t stay very involved with the characters by the end. This is part of a series, and possibly someone who has read the others in the series would disagree.

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

A young Jewish man gets on a train to come home to London, spies an attractive woman, follows her as she gets off the train, and disappears. That is the beginning of Jane A. Adams’ “The Clockmaker,” the fourth in the Detective Chief Inspector Henry Johnstone mystery series set in and around London.

The year is 1929. The uncle of the young man, the clockmaker of the title, believes Joseph Levy is dead. He turns to the Chief Inspector for help, and sets off an astonishing chain of events.

Of more immediate worry to the Chief Inspector and his men is gang activity. A new gang boss is flexing his muscles, and the author builds up the tension of this page by page, interspersing it with searching for the missing Joseph Levy.

Unfortunately, Joseph’s body is found, and now it’s not a missing person but a murder investigation. The author is adept at planting seeds that this is more than just a young man chasing after a pretty girl. Questions begin to pile up, with not a lot of answers. Each theme is presented in a gripping fashion, guaranteeing that a reader will want to know more very quickly. This is a definite path-turner.

And then we have the twist, and the detectives, Johnstone and his Sergeant Mickey Hitchens, must look at everything in an entirely different fashion. The story turns, because now the crime is known, and soon the culprits are known -- but how is the family involved? For they have secrets. Nothing is simple in a Jane A. Adams novel.

The characters pop, they have lives. There’s Henry’s sister and her husband’s troubles. Mention of and interest in church architecture as the police duo travel from one English town to another. The sergeant’s actress wife, traveling herself. Full and complete people. And the bad un’s are there too, although how they are depicted doesn’t matter to me, because they are just bad people.

There are red herrings galore, tidbits of knowledge eventually, even thoughts and statements from someone who is wounded in body, mind and spirit -- but who will never learn the truth of it all, unfortunately.

The whole tale is eventually revealed “hypothetically.” A young man’s death has set off terrible consequences, as Henry Johnstone relates. Readers will be glad to know the truth of it, as they are saddened by everything that Joseph Levy did and wanted to do, for love. Jane A. Adams reveals that mighty concept in an equally powerful fashion in “The Clockmaker.”

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for a copy of this book in advance of publication, in exchange for this review.

Abraham Levy’s nephew Joseph has disappeared. He caught the train home to London after visiting his fiancee in Lincoln but never arrived. Abraham is concerned that something has happened to Joseph and visits DCI Henry Johnstone to ask him to investigate. What unravels is rather more complicated that it seemed at first sight.

This is the fourth in the Henry Johnstone series. I wasn’t aware of this fact when I started reading – or indeed when it ended. I imagine there are threads running through the series such as Henry’s relationship with his sister, his sidekick’s wife and where they had met Abraham. However I found it worked perfectly well as a stand alone book.

This book had a very slow start & it took me at least a third of the book to stop feeling that I wanted to ditch it. Although the story picked up this is not a fast moving book – more of a snail’s pace. It wasn’t that it was padded out in any particular way it was just that the investigation & the story moved along very slowly. Set between the two wars there is a slower pace of life but I still feel that more could have been added to continue the interest. Am I glad I stuck with it? I suppose so. There is some interesting social history towards the end. Perhaps if this had been introduced earlier I would have found it all more interesting.

The characters aren’t too bad though I felt they needed more depth of cpersonality. However, now I have realised this is part of a series I suspect their characters have been explained better in earlier books. Had I read the rest of the series I would have got to know them a lot better.

This is not a book that grabbed me. I think I would have been more interested with more historical fact throughout and a slightly faster pace.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

After visiting his fiancée, Joseph Levy boarded a train to return to London. When he did not return home the police were contacted but believing that this was a case of cold feet, no investigation was pursued. Now DCI Henry Johnstone and Sgt. Mickey Hitchens of Scotland Yard have been approached by Joseph’s uncle, Abraham Levy. He became acquainted with Johnstone in a previous investigation and he is desperate for news of his nephew.

Johnstone and Hitchens discover that Joseph left the train to follow a woman. His body is soon found by a River not far from the station and their investigation leads them to follow reports of assaults and thefts along the railroad line. Scouring the files of the railway police, they find several assaults that involved a woman and two associates.

The beating of a young boy in the neighborhood of Abraham’s shop raises questions about gang activities controlled by Clem Atkins. It is Atkins who hints that Abraham, the clockmaker, and his brother Benjamin, a jeweler, are involved in activities that may not be legal. As they question the Levy family on their businesses and Joseph’s involvements in them, Abraham becomes less cooperative, even knowing that Johnstone will not let it go.

Jane A. Adams provides a look at the political situation in Europe through letters that Johnstone receives from his sister Cynthia. Traveling through Germany with her husband to review his business interests there, her letters to Johnstone reflect the unrest, the rampant inflation and the political atmosphere. In 1929 Europe was still suffering from the aftermath of WWI. There were immigrants flowing from Russia and Germany seeking sanctuary from persecution. The Levy brothers were in a position to offer some assistance, but at what cost and was Joseph involved..

There are a number of unexpected twists in this story that provide an excellent mystery. This is Adams’ third novel in the series and I look forward to the return of Johnstone and Hitchens in the future. I would like to thank NetGalley and Severn House for providing this book for my review.

The Clockmaker is a good book with a interesting storyline. The characters are interesting and the story is written well.

This is my first leap into the world of DCI Henry Johnstone. He’s a haunted man whose anchor is his older sister and his sergeant, Mickey Hitchens. He is approached by Abraham Levy to locate his missing nephew, but the young man has disappeared outside Johnstone’s jurisdiction. As the story unfolds, so do many the many threads of the case, or should I say cases? Adams’s talent at bringing threads of a story from many different directions and creating a complete tapestry at the end is pure artistry. One of her many threads is taken from the headlines of the present. Those who escape the persecution in their homeland and try to build a new life peacefully in a new land. She gives us complex characters and intricate plot lines delivering a story of some who are doing the wrong things for the right reasons.