Customer Reviews

No More Dying

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With every book is this excellent series by David Roberts, the clock ticks down steadily leading its principal characters, Lord Edward Corinth (younger brother of an earl and amateur sleuth) and Verity Browne (Communist journalist and the love of Lord Edward's life), closer to World War II.

When No More Dying opens - the ninth in a very solid series that shows no sign of flagging - it is early 1939 and it's clear that war is close. One sign of that is that Winston Churchill - whose efforts to rouse an apathetic nation to the Nazi threat had previously failed - is now seen by Hitler's regime that they dispatch an assassin to deal with him, permanently. Lord Edward, with each successive novel, has grown closer to the security services, who now call on his assistance to identify the assassin as well as any potential link that individual has to the US Embassy, now headed by an unfriendly Joseph Kennedy. (Yup, JFK makes a special guest appearance here, as a rather amoral and predatory, but charming young man.) Meanwhile, Verity Browne - now engaged to Edward - has her own struggles to deal with. She is on the verge of quitting the Communist Party when she is ordered by her superiors to get close to the famous "Cliveden Set" - Nancy Astor and her friends, many of whom were foremost among Churchill's opponents and rumored to be too close to comfort to Nazi Germany. It's at Cliveden that the young Kennedys find the body of one of Verity's former journalistic colleagues in the grounds - and the action begins.

Roberts is masterful at capturing what it must have been like to be among those in the 1930s who were watching political developments with dread, from the rise of fascism to the evolution of Stalinism and the push to war. Readers will find the pages of his latest book chock full of larger-than-life characters, from the Kennedys and Astors to Churchill and Adam von Trott (later an anti-Hitler conspirator). And the mystery is full of twists and turns as well; yes, it's not hard to figure out who ultimately is behind the chain of murders (and attempted murders), but that remains unclear until late in the book by which time the personalities and the story itself have become so engaging that it feels churlish to gripe too much about that. My only question now is what will happen when, months from the time when this novel concludes, war is ultimately declared?

This isn't great literature, of course. If you want a novel about this time period that does reach that threshold (and deals with a fictionalized Cliveden set), try The Remains of the Day. If you are looking for other World War 2 mysteries, two books I have recently re-read are the very good Jill Paton Walsh books that were created based on Lord Peter Wimsey plots/outlines devised by the late Dorothy Sayers, A Presumption of Death: A New Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery (Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mysteries) and Thrones, Dominations (A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery)- I'd give both 4.5 stars. (If you want detective fiction that transcends the genre, look to the said Dorothy Sayers or P.D. James, among a handful of others.)

I'd recommend this for anyone who enjoys a solid detective series with amateur sleuths, sent against the backdrop of some of the most dramatic events of the 20th century, and it's in that context that I rate it four stars.

The story of Verity and Lord Edward progresses as England moves closer to war. The author provides a perpective into prewar England and how history touches individual lives.

In 1939 England, M15 sends Lord Edward Corinth to Lady Aster's estate of Clivedon in Buckinghamshire to determine the relative strength of the Hitler appeasers headquartered there and to uncover the identity of Nazi super assassin Der Adler. At the same time his fiancée Communist Party sympathizer reporter Verity Brown arrives to ascertain the sympathies of the American Ambassador to England Joseph Kennedy.

However, soon after their arrival, a Communist comrade and two other visitors are murdered. Corinth and Brown team up on the investigation with clues leading to the IRA or the Kennedy clan. Both wonder if Der Adler is behind the homicides with a plot to destroy the growing Anglo-American alliance by taking out the prime English supporter Winston Churchill.

Although the climax seems too typical of the sub-genre for what is a very complicated pre WWII thriller, fans will appreciate the latest Corinth-Brown historical tale. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the engaged couple arrive at the Astor estate and never slows down until the final confrontation with a killer. Corinth is his usual decadent elitist self while Brown has begun doubting the Communists. Fans of the series will enjoy their preparations for their marriage begins with stopping a killer whose goal is to destroy the cross Atlantic alliance.

Harriet Klausner