A Dangerous Language (Rowland Sinclair Mysteries)
A young woman has been beaten, her body torched and left in a culvert near Albury, Australia. Days later, a card-carrying Communist is slain on the steps of the Canberra Parliament House, the razor used as a murder weapon sent to the Prime Minister’s office. Thus begins the eighth in the Rowland Sinclair series, which brings together wealthy artist Rowly, his model and sculptress Edna Higgins, poet Milton Isaacs, and artist Clyde Watson Jones, in 1930s Australia where political tempers are high and political leaders and followers sometimes resort to violence.
The Rowland Sinclair series has been widely recognized. The novel A Few Right-Thinking Men was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. The second, A Decline in Prophets, won the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction. Releases in 2012 and 2015 were also shortlisted for the Davitt Prize and the Ned Kelly Award.
A Dangerous Language is atmospheric, insouciant, witty, and action-packed. Some of the storylines turn out to be sidelines that distract rather than move the plot along. Some also are stillborn, raising interest at the outset but failing full resolution at the end. A Dangerous Language, nonetheless, is a rousing, madcap adventure with a delightful cadre of characters.
