Give the Devil His Due
-
-
3.5 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
A fascinating historical mystery by Sulari Gentill, author of #1 LibraryReads pick The Woman in the Library
Winner of the 2018 Ned Kelly Award for Best Mystery
For fans of Rhys Bowen, Kerry Greenwood and Jacqueline Winspear comes an adventure-packed romp that threads 1934 Sydney’s upper class and its seedy underworld.
Wealthy Rowland Sinclair, an artist with leftist friends and a free-wheeling lifestyle, reluctantly agrees to a charity race. He’ll drive his beloved yellow Mercedes on the Maroubra Speedway, renamed the Killer Track for the lives it has claimed. His teammates are a young Errol Flynn and the well-known driver Joan Richmond. It’s all good fun. But then people start to die...
The body of a journalist covering the race is found murdered in a House of Horrors. An English blueblood with Blackshirt affiliations dies in a Maroubra crash. Reporters stalk Rowly for dirt while bookmakers are after an edge. When someone takes a shot at him—it could be anyone. Then the police arrest one of Rowly’s housemates for murder.
For fans of Golden Age mysteries—but with a bohemian twist—this historical novel features a riveting crime, a wry, almost British sense of humor, and an amateur sleuth you can’t help but root for.
Other Rowland Sinclair Mysteries:
A Few Right Thinking Men
A Decline in Prophets
Miles off Course
Paving the New Road
A Murder Unmentioned
Gentlemen Formerly Dressed
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1934 Sydney, Australia, Gentill's appealing seventh Rowland Sinclair mystery (after 2019's A Murder Unmentioned) opens with artist Rowland showing off his 1927 Mercedes, which he's going to drive in a charity race in aid of the Red Cross, to reporter Crispin White, who has come to interview him about the event at the Maroubra Speedway. White later turns up dead in Magdalene's House of the Macabre, a waxworks "specialising in ghouls and whatnot," which is rumored to host meetings of a witches' coven. Since Rowland's friend Milton Isaacs, self-defined poet and proud communist, was among the last to see the victim alive, Milton comes under scrutiny by the police. Occultists, artists, politicians, backstreet doctors, lowlifes, high rollers, and even a dashing young Errol Flynn cross paths in this cleverly plotted mystery, which will keep readers eagerly turning pages to see what happens next. The relationships of Gentill's well-developed characters continue to evolve as this fine historical series takes a darker tone with the rise of fascism in Europe.
