THE MORE DECEIVED

Sent to investigate leaks from the Foreign Office that may implicate Winston Churchill, Lord Edward Corinth is won over by Churchill's charms and finds himself investigating the murder of one of his aides.

Those who wish Dorothy L. Sayers had written more Lord Peter stories will embrace British author Roberts's fifth historical (after 2003's< I>Dangerous Sea) to feature Lord Edward Corinth, a wealthy bachelor and unofficial investigator for various government agencies, and Verity Browne, a scrappy war correspondent and ardent Communist. In the spring of 1937, the head of the Foreign Office, Sir Robert Vansittart, asks Lord Edward to find the source of embarrassing leaks about deficiencies in Britain's rearmament program to Winston Churchill, who's using the information to attack the government. Lord Edward reluctantly agrees to look into the possibly related matter of a minor Foreign Office employee's disappearance—which becomes personal when the man turns up savagely murdered. The killer's trail leads Lord Edward to Spain, where Verity is covering the civil war, just in time for a day-trip to a town called Guernica. Roberts adroitly combines engaging lessons on the politics of the day with a compelling, well-paced story.
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Sophisticated man-about-town Lord Edward Corinth and card-carrying Communist journalist Verity Browne return in an all new suspenseful thriller set in England and Spain on the brink of World War II. Worried about unflattering leaks in the Foreign Office concerning Britain's lackluster rearmament efforts, Lord Edward is commissioned to investigate a variety of sources who may be providing political gadfly Winston Churchill with increasingly incendiary--but unfortunately accurate--information about England's lack of preparedness for another global conflict. Charmed by the charismatic Churchill, Edward soon turns his attention to two inexplicable murders within the Foreign Office itself. Rushing off to Spain to solve the mystery and to check up on the intrepid Verity Browne, he once again finds the odds stacked against him and his somewhat reluctant ladylove. Featuring two charming romantic foils in the vein of Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, this cleverly plotted whodunit will appeal to discriminating fans of urbane historical mysteries. Margaret Flanagan
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