It Begins In Betrayal
A Lane Winslow Mystery
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- €5.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for a 2019 Lefty Award
The fourth book in what the Globe and Mail has proclaimed “a terrific series” by “a writer to watch.”
Summer descends over the picturesque King’s Cove as Darling and Lane’s mutual affection blossoms. But their respite from solving crime is cut short when a British government official arrives in Nelson to compel Darling to return to England for questioning about the death of a rear gunner under his command in 1943.
In Darling’s absence, Ames oversees the investigation into the suspicious death of a local elderly woman and uncovers a painful betrayal inflicted forty years earlier. Meanwhile, Lane follows Darling to London, where he is charged with murder and faces hanging. While desperately seeking answers, Lane is presented with a proposal that could save the man she loves, but only if she returns to the very life she sought to leave behind.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Whishaw's fourth post-WWII Lane Winslow mystery (following An Old, Cold Grave) is flawed, but will nonetheless delight fans of the author's prior work. This installment sees Winslow following the man she loves, Inspector Darling of the Nelson Police, back to London after he's charged with the murder of a gunner under his command during the war. Lane must clear his name through her wartime spy connections a world she worked desperately to leave behind. Though the plot and a second murder case in Nelson, B.C., prove overly simplistic, Winslow herself, modeled on the author's own wartime spy mother, is (as always) the best thing about the series. Her portrayal somewhat mitigates the book's flat characterizations, wooden dialogue, stereotypical queer characterizations and interactions, poor pacing, and a lack of racial diversity. The absence of any people of color in both British Columbia and the U.K. is noticeable, especially given the way racial diversity is at least present (if even it ranged from poorly handled to grossly stereotyped) in the mid-20th-century British works Whishaw's novels emulate. As such, this is definitely a mixed bag, but one with an excellently crafted series protagonist.
