NO MORE DYING
by David Roberts
A soignée Communist and her upper-crust fiancé scheme to thwart the assassination of Winston Churchill in their ninth adventure (Something Wicked, 2007, etc.).
On the eve of World War II, intrepid reporter Verity Browne is losing her faith in Communism. Even so, she accepts one last assignment from the Party: to investigate Joseph Kennedy, the American ambassador to Britain. Meanwhile, MI5 calls on her betrothed, Lord Edward Corinth, to track down “Der Adler,” a shadowy Nazi assassin. The lovers’ missions intersect at the country estate of Lady Astor, but the intrigue turns deadly for one of Verity’s old comrades and two more victims. Some clues point to the Irish Republican Army, others to the Kennedy family. Can Verity and Edward solve the case while protecting the vital Anglo-American alliance—all in time for their wedding? Everything will be settled by the obligatory confrontation between sleuth and killer, but the otherwise satisfactory resolution is marred by some surprisingly garbled explanations. Sometimes even the best-planned social events don’t go off the way you expect.
Despite the high-society trimmings, the political context keeps the stakes high enough to satisfy fans of international thrillers and historical romances alike.