Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "scotland-yard"

Merlin at War (A DCI Frank Merlin Novel)
Mark Ellis
Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: London Wall Publishing (October 12, 2017)
ISBN-10:0995566712
ISBN-13:978-0995566712
https://www.amazon.com/Merlin-War-DCI...

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley britton

Merlin at War is the third novel to feature Anglo-Spanish DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Frank Merlin of Scotland Yard. As with the previous two books (Princes Gate, Stalin’s Gold), Mark Ellis’s new whodoneit is set in England during World War II. To date, the series has been successful overseas, especially in England and Australia; Merlin at War is Ellis’s first attempt to crack into the American market.

But mystery fans, don’t expect Merlin at War to be a detective procedural with Merlin following a series of clues to uncover a murderer. The novel is more layered and complex than any one plotline. In fact, there are long sections where Merlin isn’t onstage at all and a number of events seem unrelated to the death of a botched abortion victim Merlin is investigating. World War II is more than an atmospheric backdrop. In fact, the book opens with a deadly mission by British soldiers in Crete during 1941. One survivor of a six man unit gunned down by Nazi planes is asked by his superior officer to deliver a letter for him, but the officer dies before he can do more than scrawl a single “S” on the envelope. That’s the book’s first mystery—who is the letter’s intended recipient and what is in it? Does it have anything to do with the dead man’s very remunerative business holdings? Does it reverse previous wills giving his son command of the business?

During the many pages of this unfolding storyline, and the three cases Merlin undertakes, we also meet many French characters on both sides of the battle lines, including spies and traitors. They represent those supporting a Free France and those willing to appease the Vichy government. These figures include the historical Charles de Gaulle and a French emigre shot in a seedy Notting Hill flat. Along the way, the deep cast of main characters are shown in Ireland, Buenos Aires, New York, occupied France, and especially London while the city was being bombed during the blitz.

Ellis is extremely good at providing the details and descriptions that give credible verisimilitude to his various overlapping stories. This is most evident in all the conversations that include reactions to the progress, or lack thereof, of the war, the political dynamics between the likes of de Gaulle and Churchill, the domestic relationships of a number of the protagonists, and the interviews Merlin’s team conducts as they investigate a number of seemingly unrelated murders in London. We are also taken to many night spots, hotels, offices, and restaurants, again mostly in London.

Without question, Merlin at War should please fans of espionage thrillers, mysteries, period dramas, and especially buffs of historical fiction set during the Second World War. Through it all, I often thought this novel would make for an excellent PBS mini-series. True, we already got the WW II set Foyle’s War which was primarily set on England’s south coast. Merlin at War has a wider canvas and is centered in the more cosmopolitan London.

Dear publisher: when you work on releasing Princes Gate and Stalin’s Gold in the U.S., please keep me in mind. I’d love to read and review the first adventures of Frank Merlin and his compatriots. Oh, and book four as well, whenever it comes out.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 3, 2017
http://dpli.ir/NM2L02

Princes Gate: A DCI Frank Merlin novel
Mark Ellis
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: London Wall Publishing (November 1, 2016)
ISBN-10: 0992994381
ISBN-13: 978-0992994389
https://www.amazon.com/Princes-Gate-F...

First published on June 1st 2011 by Matador Books, then as a Kindle edition on September 3rd 2015 by London Wall Publishing, then as a paperback in November 2016 by the same publisher, Princes Gate is gaining renewed attention as Merlin at War, the third volume in the Frank Merlin mysteries, is scheduled for publication this October. (The second novel, Stalin’s Gold, was also reissued by London Wall in Nov. 2016.)

Throughout this series, DCI (Detective Chief Investigator) Frank Merlin of Scotland Yard investigates domestic crimes in London during World War II. In Princes Gate, the story is set in the early months of 1940 when Neville Chamberlain was still Prime Minister and the Luftwaffe bombing of Britain had not yet begun.

Political concerns make Merlin’s investigations rather delicate as he’s looking into the murders of two staff members of the U.S. embassy when Joseph P. Kennedy was ambassador. Merlin’s higher-ups don’t want the detective to rock any boats as they’re hopeful the U.S. will come to their aid in the war with Germany. This, despite the fact Kennedy is against any war with the Nazis at all, as he feels Britain has no chance.

This history provides a backdrop to Merlin and his team’s investigations which include many sensitive interviews with diplomatic officials and their contacts, sojourns into seedy London nightclubs, and interviews in London businesses, apartments, and homes. I’ve read one review of the book which called it “atmospheric.” That descriptor is spot on. Clearly, Ellis has immersed himself in the place and time of his Merlin books and takes the reader to that setting with convincing and vivid details from Merlin’s shoes to the music of the era to the geopolitical debates of the times. Unlike the sequels to Princes Gate, there’s no espionage plot this time around. But we do witness hanky panky and dastardly deeds by individuals from both the highest of the higher and the lowest of the lower classes.

This attention to detail also applies to many of the characters, both primary and supporting. We learn much about the Anglo-Spanish Merlin, as with his ongoing grief for his dead wife. I must admit, I never understood the role of Detective Claire Robinson. After she’s assigned to Merlin’s team by her uncle, Merlin’s boss, she contributes very little to anything in the various investigations. On the other hand, we get a very satisfying conclusion, even if some justice comes by way of a much higher authority than Scotland Yard. Me, I’ve read two of the Merlin books so far—Stalin’s Gold is next. For those who are just now being drawn into the Merlin series, my review of Merlin at War first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 3, 2017
http://dpli.ir/NM2L02


This review of Princes Gate first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 14, 2017
http://dpli.ir/5nR2Vw