A Few Right Thinking Men
Fans of Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher series, rejoice: here comes another Depression-era Australian sleuth! Painter Rowland Sinclair comes from money, and in 1931 Sydney, where jobs are hard to come by, he has opened his ancestral home to fellow artists, creating bohemian bonhomie among his friends and consternation among his family members and household staff. Politics are inextricable from economics, and there’s no shortage of factions here; the unemployed are tending toward Communism, while there’s a distinct leaning towards Fascism among the upper classes, including those like Sinclair’s brother, Wilfred, who will do anything to preserve the status quo. Whether the Old Guard, such as Wilfred, will resort to the violence and ham-handed tactics of the overtly-Fascist New Guard, led by Eric Campbell, makes for some worthy narrative complexity.
When Rowly Sinclair, Rowland’s uncle, is found beaten to death, everyone’s motives—personal, political, and economic—come into question. Thus Rowland and his housemates, including sculptress Edna, poet Milt, and painter Clyde, find themselves investigating who would want to murder an aging dandy, mixing with crowds from the questionable to the elite. Along the way there is plenty of solid discussion of politics and social status, with enough context to both draw in those new to the era and keep those more well-versed in their history interested.
Characters are well-drawn, too, from Rowland’s artist friends to the historic figures such as Campbell. Gentill’s inclusion of newspaper blurbs from the time, recounting social and cultural events as well as criminal and political activities, add yet more depth to captivate readers in this terrific debut.
