Dangerous Sea

Lord Edward Corinth & Verity Browne #4

by David Roberts

Optioned by Columbia for a major motion picture, this new who-dunit continues the popular series. It features one of the most perfectly mismatched pairs of sleuths in British mystery the aristocratic Lord Edward Corinth and left-wing journalist Verity Browne. In a lively new adventure, Verity finds herself, despite her communist sympathies, traveling in a first-class cabin of the elegant, luxuriously appointed RMS Queen Mary. And not Edward Corinth but the handsome and charismatic Sam Forrest, an American labor-union organizer, occupies the quarters next door. However, Corinth is on board—at the behest of the eminent British economist Lord Benyon, who has scheduled a top-secret meeting regarding his country’s rearmament with President Roosevelt in the United States. Only the secret is out, and someone wants Lord Benyon out of the way. But it’s U.S. Senator George Earle Day who turns up dead. An inflammatory right-wing racist, Day has managed to make many enemies among the ship’s passengers, most notably the politically controversial black American singer and actor Warren Fairley, his Hollywood starlet wife, a leading German-Jewish aeronautical engineer, a charming American socialite of dubious pedigree, and an effete English art dealer whose curiosity is outstripped by his deceit.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Mystery, Crime, Historical, Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
David Roberts is an English editor and novelist.
Roberts worked for several years as a book editor at Chatto and Windus, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, and Michael O'Mara Books. Since 2000 he has been a full-time writer, best known for a series of crime novels set during the late 1930s, and featuring the joint adventures of Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne. The novels use actual historical events as a backdrop and there is an Author's Note at the back of the books briefly outlining what happened to the historical characters subsequently.
Publishers Weekly has described his novels as "well-researched" and "first-rate fun".

Reviews

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars.

Lord Benyon is travelling to the USA on one of the first of the Queen Mary's voyages on a secret mission to persuade President Roosevelt to support the UK against Germany. There have been rumours of attempts to prevent the meeting so Lord Edward Corinth has been asked to act as companion, he wouldn't be out of place in the First Class cabins and his previous attempts to retrieve politically sensitive letters have shown he can be trusted. A secret service agent will act as Lord Benyon's valet and Edward's nephew will act as Lord Benyon's bag carrier after he had to be rescued from Spain after running off to fight for the communists.

Meanwhile, Verity Browne, communist party member and journalist has been asked to accompany American union representative Sam Forrest back to America to understand how the workers are protesting and uniting against their overlords.

Also onboard are a motley crew of guests. There's a black American singer/actor and his white wife. A racist American senator and his put-upon wife. A widow and her twins, distant cousins to the President, Lord Benyon's assistant, an art critic who commissioned several of the artworks on the Queen Mary, and one of the artists themselves.

But as they undertake the five day journey the bodies start mounting up - can Edward and Verity sort the wheat from the chaff and identify the murderer(s)?

I did enjoy this. However, there were so many suspects/false confessions that TBH I am still a bit confused about who killed whom and why. Well I'm not, what I'm trying to articulate (badly) is that everyone had a motive, means, and opportunity so it feels like any one of them could plausibly have been the guilty party, there was no 'it can only be X because Y' explanation. Otherwise, I'm enjoying the historical political detail just as much as the mystery.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good mystery and an unusual pair of amateur sleuths. There are plenty of mystery series that take place in the 1920s and 30s. And many of these have titled lords or ladies acting as amateur sleuths and glamor and glitz. Well, this has that but the other part of this equation is a woman international reporter who also happens to be a member of the Communist party and often goes on missions for them (not usually undercover). So this has some of the glamor you might be expecting, after all, it does take place in first class on the Queen Mary but it also deals with nasty politics, racism and lots of the less sparkly parts of life.

A good mystery and good characters. I really should read more of this series.

[Laura]

Abandoned — think I’m going to give this series a pass. I realized that what I find intriguing about it is the history, not the characters or plotting. I should just read actual nonfiction about the period.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should really have started with the first book in the series, but I couldn't find it at the library and this looked interesting. I mostly liked this book, but I found the writing of the main female character to be annoyingly capricious. Also, the mystery was a bit too loosely plotted. Not sure if I will read more of this series.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roberts is trying to create a detective pair like Sayers' Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, but fails. The book is too novelish to be a good mystery. There is also random premarital sex and the whole book is seeped in pseudo-historical social commentary.

[Janet]

Set in 1937 and featuring Lord Edward Corinth & Verity Brown. Appears to be an attempt at re-creating Lord Peter Wimsey. Predictable. Not a success.

[Mary G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good ready that reminds the reader of the Golden Age of mysteries.

[Mary Newcomb]

A relaxing sea voyage on the Queen Mary? Hardly! Lord Edward and Verity get tangled up in two murders and several other types of intrigue (as well as each other).

[Kathleen Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed this book, it was a quick easy read.

[Cori North · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to like the characters more, but most of them pretty flat...

[Paul Gatehouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Roberts has a pleasing style and these period murder mysteries rattle along nicely.

[Ann Taylor]

Another great read from David. Verity and Lord Edward go across the pond in a big boat and solve a murder on the way. More fascinating insights to world politics in the 1930's.