Review: Death of an Earl

Death of an Earl by G.G. Vandagriff
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the fourth book in a series. I haven't read any of the others but it is easy to pick up the story so far.

It's 1935, the Earl of Severn holds some pretty unappealing views about Hitler and Jewish people which he freely spreads far and wide. Perhaps unsurprising then that someone murders him. Catherine Tregowyn, an amateur detective, poet, and English lecturer at Oxford University is asked to take the case by her fiancé, Harry Bascombe, when his hitherto unheard of sister-in-law Anne is accused of the murder. Anne, and Harry's brother, have been living in Germany where Harry's brother works for Bayer. Recently returned to the UK, Anne has been a vocal critic of the Earl's views and has created a small group of like-minded individuals.

When he is around Anne, Catherine sees a different, more passionate man, and begins to reconsider their engagement, she's already been misled by a man once and doesn't want it to happen again.

Throw in a second murder, blackmail, secrets going back to WW1 and there is a lot to keep the plot moving forward. Unfortunately, for me the plot was spoiled by the obsessive listing of everything everyone wore (for no reason relevant to the plot), the ghastly attempts at 1930s language ('jolly spiffing' type of thing) and then Harry's use of 'gotten' which I think would probably have got him drummed out of Oxford back in the 1930s. Also, and this could just be me, but I'm sure one of the witnesses said he knew one of the other witnesses on one occasion and then said he didn't on another.

Overall, I would read another book in the series if it was also free on Kindle but I don't think I would pay list price.

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