Review: The Cold Light of Day

The Cold Light of Day by Anna Lee Huber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

June 1920, Verity and Sidney are in Ireland at C's request, searching for Verity's friend and fellow wartime spy Captain Alec Xavier who has disappeared while trying to infiltrate the IRA. Tensions are mounting in Dublin as much of the populace sympathises with Sinn Fein and is actively resisting the English rule. Everyone suspects wartime hero Sidney is there in some military capacity and Verity hopes her presence will be overlooked as she frequents (in disguise) the various bars and hotels that Alec told his handler were frequented by the enigmatic Michael Collins.

Luckily, the Kents have the perfect smoke-screen for their investigations, the Viceroy has asked them to investigate the assault and subsequent suicide of the daughter of a prominent barrister, Miss Kavanagh. And of course, they are still hunting for those blasted missing gas canisters.

Verity and Sidney might love King and country, but they are not blind to the criminal mismanagement during the Great War which resulted in many more dead., and their eyes are opened wider during their stay in Dublin where English troops are practically being allowed carte blanche to terrorise the population in retaliation for the IRA's murder squads killing policemen. Walking about Dublin the Kents see the harassment and brutality first hand, so when they discover that Alec is not a spy, but now has become a member of the IRA they are shocked but not surprised.

I appear to be in the minority on NetGalley, I found this book difficult to get through. Anna Lee Huber has clearly done a lot of detailed historical research on the fight for independence in Ireland. Unfortunately, for me this research was regurgitated as a history lesson which overshadowed the story. I learned a lot about what happened, but the story got lost in translation so to speak. I've seen this before, in the previous book A Certain Darkness and I fear Verity is turning into another Maisie Dobbs who eventually became involved in what seemed like every historical incident after WW1. Do you know what, I actually welcomed the appearance of the dastardly Lord Ardmore!!

Also, Verity is very self-satisfied, accepting everyone will look at her because she's so beautiful, bleurgh.

This sort of ends on a cliffhanger, with Verity and Sidney solving the mystery of what happened to Miss Kavanagh but resolving to stay in Ireland. I do wonder whether Alec will eventually turn out to be a double agent.

Overall, a fascinating glimpse into a tumultuous time where people did unspeakable things but it needed to be a more subtle backdrop to the plot for me.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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