Hingston: Smoke and Mispers

As the first door on the Advent calendar is opened, DS Hingston attempts to save the life of a teenager in a crowded London cafe, but ultimately fails. Seventeen-year-old Leanna Snow chokes to death. Days later, a girl from Leanna Snow's school is missing and another misper is found dead: his body hanging within the iconic Egyptian Avenue at Highgate Cemetery. Working under the bombastic DCI Smythe and alongside Remi, his ex-girlfriend whom he still holds a torch for, Hingston discovers the magic of London this December is dark, deceptive and murderous. Hingston and the Murder Squad are put to the test with this complex investigation that proves to be as mystifying as being asked by a magician to pick a card, any card, not knowing where you will be taken.

Review :
Gordon Mcghie - "I had lots of fun reading Smoke and Mispers. It's nice to find something which felt a bit different and left me ready for more." // Emily Shrimpton - "I cannot wait to read Blake's next book; I'm so invested in this story and will be keeping my eyes peeled." // Seven Horned Seshat - "I found myself quickly turning the pages." // Whispering Stories - "Hingston: Smoke and Mispers is a good read that anyone who likes this genre should enjoy. I can enthusiastically recommend it." // Rosie Amber - "...there is plenty of visual detail to keep the reader interested and the sub-themes add extra appeal." // travelsalongmybookshelf's - "Wow! This grabbed me from the very first chapter." // Steven Gregory - "Bringing together murder, magic, and the mystique of ancient Egypt, the second tale of Detective Sergeant Hingston does not disappoint." // Anh - "This was an entertaining crime thriller that kept me hooked." // Alex Loktionov -"As a professional Egyptologist, I am extremely enthusiastic about any book which can help educate a broad audience about Ancient Egyptian culture in an absorbing way, but without making factual blunders. Doing so successfully is a rare feat – all too often, books seeking to harness Egyptian motifs to generate popularity end up perpetuating false stereotypes about the civilisation, being replete with cursed mummies, zombies or worse. To an Egyptologist this is deeply depressing. However, when Egyptologists themselves write their meticulously researched books, their technical nature usually means that they end up being read by their own colleagues and few others. Hingston: Smoke and Mispers is remarkable in that it manages to occupy the middle ground: it delivers an exciting detective story which is a good read in itself, while providing sophisticated insights into Ancient Egyptian civilisation which are actually backed up by current papyrological scholarship. Given that the focus of the novel is on Egyptian magical practice, where modern misconceptions are particularly frequent, I was inevitably waiting for some glaring error to come along – but it never came! Decima Blake has clearly done a vast amount of research to get the facts right and should be congratulated for doing so. The storyline features a London detective, DS Jason Hingston, who becomes embroiled in an increasingly troubling investigation into multiple murders, all of which can be linked to some aspect of either authentic Ancient Egyptian culture or to contemporary British Egyptomania. While the practitioners of modern-day quasi-Egyptian magic in this novel are, thankfully, entirely fictional – the scenario is believable, and the novel does an excellent job of illustrating how the beliefs and texts of an ancient society can be modified to suit modern criminal environments. Behind a veneer of Ancient Egyptian thought traceable to 1200BCE lies a network of offenders preying on vulnerable young people to satisfy their own desire for power – and the way in which DS Hingston uses scholarly knowledge as part of his toolkit to bring them to justice is extremely satisfying. Particularly impressive are the descriptions of various Egyptian-inspired or Egyptologically significant venues in London, ranging from the British and Petrie Museums to the Egyptian Avenue at Highgate Cemetery and many more. Indeed, DS Hingston even interviews a professional Egyptologist as part of his work, in an encounter which comes across as entirely credible. The conversation that follows is essentially a mini-lecture on Egyptian magical practice, but whereas this content is normally only learned by undergrads facing an exam, here it is presented as part of a genuinely engaging story. Overall, I cannot recommend the book highly enough – here’s a real chance to learn something new and different!"