Review: Bones of the Buried

Bones of the Buried by David Roberts
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lord Edward Corinth returns from six months in New York, single once more after his love affair with Lord Weaver's daughter fizzled out. No sooner is he home than Verity Browne comes knocking, she has been in Spain reporting on the fight between the Republic and the fascists with her on-again, off-again boyfriend and Communist Party leader David Griffith-Jones but David has been arrested and convicted of murdering fellow communist Godfrey Tilney, who coincidentally was at Eton with Edward. Verity has come to beg Edward to come to Madrid and help clear David's name. Meanwhile, Basil Thoroughgood from the Foreign Office asks Edward to extend an offer to David, the FO will help him if he agrees to pass on information to them, aka spy.

Soon the body count is mounting, including another fellow Old Etonian, who also happened to be the father of Edward's nephew's best friend. Edward can't help but feel that the deaths of several Old Etonians must have a connection and he is determined to discover the truth.

I think I can only echo others' reviews. I didn't realise that one of the characters was a very thinly veiled Ernest Hemingway (mainly because I have zero interest in him), but it does explain why the character featured so heavily.

I felt that the tension was missing because of the prologue which have the link between the victims and then it was a case of dangling one red herring after another as to the identity of the murderer(s). Also, I feel that the only reason we know the answer is because the murderer(s) confessed, otherwise it could have been another red herring.

Also, both Edward and Verity are becoming unlikeable characters. Apparently he is in love with Verity, despite having lived in New York for six months with another woman, thought he was in love with a second woman, and then had a sexual relationship with a third woman, to pass the time. Indeed, while watching a production of Love's Labour Lost he muses that he could never be celibate for three years in the pursuit of love. Verity on the other hand appears to be easily led and treated as a propaganda and sexual favours machine by David, whilst leaning on Edward and then complaining about him.

I enjoy the historical details about the murky politics on left and right, but I'm not sure how much longer I will continue with the series.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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