Summer 1938, the Henley Regatta, and the circumstances leading up to both Lord Edward Corinth and his lady love, Verity Browne, being in attendance are unpleasant, to say the least. Verity has returned from an assignment for the Communist Party in Prague suffering from TB, and Edward has been plunged into a murder mystery due to a connection with a dead dentist and a cryptic message left at the scene containing the Corinth coat of arms.
As luck, or fate, would have it, a former acquaintance of Edward's, now a Lord himself, has a house near Henley, where Verity is sent to recuperate from her illness, and it's also the place where three murders - classed as accident or suicide - have occurred. So off he goes to investigate...
Though I do agree with a couple of the other reviews that parts of the plot are a little contrived, it's still a good read. The reader is plunged into the action right from the off, and the pace is pretty much maintained all the way through, apart from a few instances at the clinic where Verity is recuperating. Intertwined with the investigation into the murders is the ever-present threat of war from Nazi Germany, and a former nasty customer involved in the Reich who's decided that Edward and Verity have got in his way one too many times.
I found there was a nostalgic air to this story, not only in the understanding and comparison of class in 1930's England, but also in the realisation that for a lot of the men rowing with such pride for club or country, this would be the last time they would ever be at such leisure. There is also the changes to Verity caused by her illness and the gentle theme of realising your mortality has its effects on her, too, which was interesting to read.
Even if you do guess the murderer, it's still well worth reading, just for Roberts' addictive way of drawing you into a story, and a time of the past forever lost.
