Review: A Certain Darkness

A Certain Darkness by Anna Lee Huber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book 6, as this continues many themes which have developed over several books it may not be an easy read for someone new to the series.

It might be March 1920, but the Great War is still very much in the forefront of everyone's thoughts. While Verity and her husband Sidney Kent are trying to gather evidence against Lord Ardmore (boo hiss, how I wish he would just disappear in a puff of smoke), Sidney's assistance is requested by the French government, they have arrested a former acquaintance of Sidney's who was involved in trafficking British secrets to the Germans and claims to have proof of treason. The woman refuses to speak to anyone other than Sidney. After a short interview with the woman, in which she rambled nonsensically for parts, they leave to regroup, only to discover that she has allegedly committed suicide, with a women's scarf which the police believe was brought to the prison by Verity.

Meanwhile, Verity has been contacted by her Secret Service boss C to help with locating some very incriminating documents which a British informant was carrying. He has been found dead on a train (very Agatha Christie) but the papers are missing. Apparently they relate to the sinking of a Dutch ship which is claimed to have been carrying German gold to the US - if the papers aren't recovered there could be thousands of people treasure-seeking.

Together Verity and Sidney travel through the Netherlands, France and Belgium trying to identify the murderer(s), locate the missing papers, and find the 'evidence' which the French prisoner claimed to possess. All the while, Verity and Sidney are besieged by Ardmore's sidekicks Willoughby and Smith, and a Belgian intelligence officer. All three claim to be helping the Kents, but someone has made several attempts on their lives and the race is on to find the information first.

Do you remember the days when I used to moan about the on-again-off-again relationship between Verity and Sidney? Oh how I wish we could go back to those days. Now we have far to much smoochy-smoochy and mildly nauseating arch comments between them and we are beleaguered by the omnipotent and ever-present Ardmore and his henchmen - just like some cartoon Bond villain. I am heartily sick of Ardmore.

This seems to be a very well-researched novel which considers the plight of the Belgians and the Dutch in more detail than I (as a Brit) was previously aware, but it did feel a bit fact-heavy at times, as if the author wanted to ensure the reader knew how much research she had done.

Overall, the plot was good but the plethora of suspects, spies, factions, and subterfuge made it hard going and I don't honestly think I could explain it coherently to someone.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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