Last Rites

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 5 DÉC. 2016

British journalist Jack Flynt, an International News Service employee and the hero of Humphries's arresting first novel, keeps a collection of antique telephones in his Paris apartment. When one of them rings, a "heavy, black Bakelite rotary-dial," he picks up the receiver and hears a woman's voice say, "Help! He's trying to kill me." This is even more unsettling because the phone is disconnected. Flynt eventually travels to London, where he tries to determine if coma patient Helen Brenton, the victim of a car accident, is the mysterious voice pleading for help. Meanwhile, Flynt chases a story in Brittany about the last Nazi U-boat and the uncertain fate of its commander, Karl Scheer. While in Brittany, he also looks into French efforts to erase the Breton language and pursues rumors about Werewolf, the Nazi plan for a resistance movement after Germany's defeat. Flynt is an engaging character, the plight of the Bretons is forcefully presented, and the puzzle of the Bakelite phone will keep readers guessing to the end.