A Grave Man: A Murder Mystery Featuring Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne - Hardcover

Roberts, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786715960 ISBN 13: 9780786715961

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 2005

Synopsis

Verity Browne and Lord Edward Corinth are attending a memorial service in Westminster Abbey for Lord Benyon, killed a few months before when the Hindenburg airship burst into flames as it docked in New Jersey. Also present are the distinguished archaeologist Professor Pitt-Messanger and his daughter Maud. As the congregation disperses after the service, Edward hears Miss Pitt-Messanger cry for help. Her father is slumped in his seat, stabbed to death with an ancient Assyrian dagger.

Soon afterwards Verity is invited to Swifts Hill, the house in Kent belonging to millionaire Sir Simon Castlewood. He and his wife are looking after Maud Pitt-Messanger while she recovers from her father's death. But it transpires that the old man was a selfish bully who made Maud's life miserable and prevented her from marrying the man she loved.

By coincidence, Winston Churchill has asked Edward to look into the Castlewood Foundation, set up by Sir Simon Castlewood to further medical research. There is a suspicion that Sir Simon's protege, the eminent surgeon Dominic Montillo, is using the Foundation to fund research into the so-called science of eugenics. So when Maud Pitt-Messanger is also stabbed, Edward and Verity join forces to find her killer.

About this title

About the Author

David Roberts worked in publishing for over thirty years, most recently as a publishing director, before devoting his energies to writing full time. He is married and divides his time between London and Wiltshire. Visit www.lordedwardcorinth.co.uk to find out more about David and the series.

From Publishers Weekly

Roberts's convoluted 1930s historical lacks the amusing spark of earlier entries in the series (The More Deceived, etc.). Lord Edward Corinth, unofficial troubleshooter for the British Foreign Office, and Verity Browne, foreign correspondent for the New Gazette, are attending a memorial service at Westminster Abbey, when an eminent archeologist is stabbed to death. After the police fail to make a speedy arrest, the pair agree to investigate quietly on their own. Unfortunately, this is about the last thing they agree on. Mr. Churchill, "a fat, over-the-hill politician," according to Verity, asks Edward to look into a foundation funded by Sir Simon Castlewood, who may be a Nazi sympathizer underwriting projects related to "racial hygiene." Lady Castlewood is a school chum of Verity's, so Verity goes to their home at Swifts Hill, where even a second murder can't make the protagonists see eye-to-eye. As usual, Roberts does a fine job of elucidating the politics of the period, but the cooling of relations between Lord Edward and Verity puts a definite damper on the crime solving. (Jan.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0786715960
• ISBN 13: 9780786715961
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288