It is October 1936. Lord Edward Corinth is invited by his friend Joe Weaver, the press lord and close friend of the British Royal Family, to recover certain letters stolen from the king’s intimate friend Wallis Simpson. There is no mystery about who has taken these letters — a woman called Mrs Raymond Harkness, a former mistress of the king and a close friend of Edward’s. So Edward sets off for Haling, the country house of conservative MP Leo Scannon, where Mrs Harkness is also a guest. He cannot guess that retrieving stolen goods would be complicated by murder.

Edward’s friend and fellow sleuth, the journalist Verity Browne, returned from the savagery of the Spanish Civil War, welcomes the distraction of helping Edward investigate what suddenly becomes a double murder. Both Edward and Verity are soon involved with political protest and the fight against Fascism — the Cable Street riots and the Jarrow March — and both battle to find the truth behind the hollow crown in what the poet W. H. Auden called 'a low, dishonest decade'.

An interesting murder mystery set at the time of Edward VIII's abdication, Franco, Black Shirts & the rise of Hitler. Edward is a likeable character, Verity a pain in the neck.

Companion to another travelling book.

Thanks cats, looks interesting.

Edited March 2022: Pam was pretty meh about this one.
I don’t think I’ll go there . . .

Enjoy!


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