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The Man on the Moor by John Van der Kiste (view source)
Revision as of 17:33, 20 November 2009
, 17:33, 20 November 2009no edit summary
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In the summer of 1913 relations with Germany were deteriorating steadily, but there didn't seem to be any connection with the international situation when a London clerk, George Stephens, was found dead in a country lane on the edge of Dartmoor. The moor had been his passion and he'd always been keen to escape London and return to Devon. It was an odd death but in all probability it would have been put down as an accident if George's mother had not announced that George was the son of the Kaiser. Despite her fondness for gin the story she told was oddly compelling and when it was linked up with the fact that two German officers had been staying at a nearby farm George's death seemed lass less and less like an accident.
I did enjoy this book. What began as a simple situation – a weary traveller sits down for a moment as he walks the final part of his journey and is found dead the following day – rapidly escalates into a mystery with tentacles which spread far and wide. An MP wonders how the fact that his wife is the sister of the dead man will affect his career. The wife of another MP has been seeking her pleasures in dangerous places and might well have bitten off more than she can chew. George's work colleagues might have known little about him when he was alive, but it doesn't stop them wanting the mystery of his death solved.