The Death of Kings
A John Madden Mystery
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4.2 • 55 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
"Rennie Airth is one of the best detective writers around. And The Death of Kings is his best book yet."—Philip Kerr, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Side of Silence
In the fifth novel in the critically acclaimed John Madden series, the former Scotland Yard detective returns in a gripping post-World War II mystery that will delight fans of Philip Kerr
On a hot summer day in 1938, a beautiful actress is murdered on the grand Kent estate of Sir Jack Jessup, close friend of the Prince of Wales. The arrest of an ex-convict and his subsequent confession swiftly bring the case to a close, but in 1949, the reappearance of a jade necklace raises questions about the murder. Was the man convicted and executed the decade before truly guilty?
Though happily retired from the police force, John Madden is persuaded to investigate the case afresh. In a story of honor and justice that takes Madden through the idyllic English countryside, post-war streets of London, and into the criminal underworld of the Chinese Triads, The Death of Kings is an atmospheric and captivating police procedural.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The strangulation murder of actress Portia Blake in Kent, in 1938, propels Edgar-finalist Airth's excellent fifth John Madden mystery (after 2014's The Reckoning). In 1949, Angus Sinclair, formerly a chief inspector, now retired, asks Madden, who has left London's Metropolitan Police, to reinvestigate the crime. Although Owen Norris, an itinerant farmworker with a history of violence against women, confessed to Blake's murder and was executed, Sinclair is unsettled to receive an anonymous letter suggesting that Norris was innocent. The letter includes a jade pendant purporting to be the one that disappeared from the corpse. Despite his lack of any official status, Madden agrees to poke around quietly into the old case, in the hopes of finding sufficient evidence to warrant the police reopening it. The passage of time and the intervening deaths of people who could have shed light on what happened make this a daunting task. Golden age fans looking to pit their wits against a savvy sleuth will be more than satisfied.
