Frank Merlin: Princes Gate by Mark Ellis
| Frank Merlin: Princes Gate by Mark Ellis | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A skillful blending of the factual with a neat mystery. An engaging protagonist in Frank Merlin will be worth looking out for in the future. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 328 | Date: June 2011 |
| Publisher: Matador | |
| ISBN: 978-1848766570 | |
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In the early part of the Second World War there was a lull, when hostilities didn't really seem to get going – the so-called Phoney War. Some Londoners, who'd left the capital in the expectation of early bombing raids, began drifting back and there were still those who thought that peace could be negotiated – that we could stay out of the fight. Chief amongst those outside of the political classes who supported this view was the American Ambassador, Joseph Kennedy. Kennedy was, perhaps fortunately but not unusually, out of the country when one of the staff at the residence was murdered and her body fished out of the Thames.
DCI Frank Merlin was the investigating officer and he and his team were in search of the murderer as well as the driver of a car involved in a hit-and-run accident which resulted in the death of a prominent scientist. In both cases they're surrounded by secrecy and people who would prefer to hide their lives behind a cloak of diplomatic immunity and Merlin has to tread a delicate path – no mean feat for a man whose even temper is not his strongest attribute. It gets tougher when another member of staff at the residence is murdered.
I liked Merlin – a widower who would really like to join up but who can't be released from the police force. He doesn't have a drink problem. He gets on ‘'reasonably well with his superior officers and he's not a womaniser. Yes – he's an original and someone you could relate to. I believed in his team too – decent coppers trying to do a job rather than a set of ‘'characters.
The story seamlessly blends fact and fiction. Joe Kennedy was Ambassador and his views on appeasement and on Britain's likely chances were only too well-known. His other, less-endearing (if that's possible) characteristics have been caught too – and used to good effect to build the story. As for the fictional characters, they're an engaging mix of the young, the naïve and the louche. It's an engaging story which sits well in the murk (sometimes quite literally so) that was London at the time. I enjoyed he book and I'd like to hear more from DCI Frank Merlin.
I'd like to thank Midas PR for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
The phoney war didn't last for long – for a look at what happened when the blitz devastated London we can recommend Ashes to Ashes by Barbara Nadel.
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