No More Dying
February 1939. As Europe teeters on the brink of war Lord Edward Corinth is asked to unmask an enemy agent with possible links with the American embassy who has been sent to assassinate Churchill.
Coincidentally, Edward’s journalist fiancée, Verity Browne has been ordered by her Communist Party superiors to befriend the American ambassador, Joe Kennedy, for reasons she is not told and therefore distrusts. Things get a lot worse when a dead body turns up at Clivedon, the Astors’ country house, where she, Edward and Kennedy’s entourage are staying for the weekend.
Being used to more breakneck thrillers, it took me a while to adjust to Roberts’ relatively sedate pace. I’m also in two minds about his tendency to introduce every character, real or fictitious, with a potted history of their life and political opinions. On the one hand, the background is important, particularly to someone like me who has joined a long-running series so late and has only a cursory knowledge of the period. On the other hand, it slows down the action.
However, it is a pleasant read with nothing too grisly for readers of a sensitive disposition, and if there were any anachronisms I didn’t spot them.
