Bargains! PROMOTIONS
This is the third Edward Corinth/Verity Browne murder mystery from David Roberts. The two previous novels, Sweet Poison and The Bones Are Buried, have already established a fan base for this Christie-like series, and this latest title follows hard on their heels. Lord Edward Corinth is invited to a country-house weekend in the attempt to retrieve some of King Edward VIII's indiscreet letters to Wallis Simpson, stolen by one of the King's spurned lovers. This already delicate task is complicated by two murders in quick succession. Corinth teams up with his partner-in-detection Verity Browne to untangle a deepening mystery and find the culprit(s) from amongst the guests and staff. Motives are in abundance, proof is scarce. Like its predecessors, Hollow Crown is set in the 1930s, in the golden age before the outbreak of World War II and Roberts conveys the period very believably. His depiction of class and conflict, the political turmoil and the threat of war in Europe is excellent: it's all bubbling away there just below, and sometimes above, the surface. Roberts intermingles fact and fiction cleverly, inserting his fictional characters in real events and scandals. But the main attraction of the novel is the appealing pair of amateur sleuths themselves. Their tentative, off-and-on romance is genuinely touching and there is some real humour arising from their perhaps unlikely pairing. Lord Edward comes across as something of a dilettante aristocrat, a young man lacking the definition war gave his elders. Verity on the other hand is a thoroughly modern girl, a Communist, a journalist and an activist in the Spanish Civil War. Their views couldn't be further apart, but they make a perfect duo. Even those unfamiliar with the previous two books in the series will find this a highly entertaining and nostalgic murder mystery. (Kirkus UK)
