Review: A Moment's Shadow

A Moment's Shadow by Anna Lee Huber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Verity and Sidney are still pursuing the stolen phosgene cylinders that Lord Ardmore had stolen three years ago. They are also still in Dublin as hostilities between the Black and Tans and the IRA continue to escalate with murders, beatings, and retaliations.

Verity and Sidney are in a precarious situation, she is working unofficially for the secret service, whilst concealing the fact that their friend Alec Xavier has gone to work for Michael Collins. Ardmore and his minions are everywhere and could easily spot them together and have her arrested (or worse).

At one of the parties they attend they discover that there has been a series of jewellery robberies, which the victims are refusing to report to the police because their insurance companies believe they have a chance of recovering the jewellery themselves. The establishment ask Verity and Sidney to investigate the robberies. convinced the IRA are using the jewellery to fund their rebellion, although Verity isn't so sure.

Whilst I didn't feel like this was a a lot of historical research being regurgitated (as I complained about for the last book) this did feel very history-heavy, totally overshadowing the jewellery thefts

TBH Lord Ardmore has been Verity's sworn adversary for so long I've totally forgotten why he stole the phosgene in the first place and what is motivation is.

I know I say this every time I review one of these books, but I think this may be the last for me - what I loved was the little historical details not the big picture political stuff and that seems to have been overwhelmed in the most recent books. However, if you are looking for an easy-to-read explanation of the events as they unfolded then this could be a good place to start.

Also, I was surprised (because her use of British English is usually very good) to see Verity frequently referring to 'circling the block', or being a 'few blocks' away from something.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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