132,952
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchFrank Merlin: Princes Gate by Mark Ellis (view source)
Revision as of 11:11, 25 July 2011
, 11:11, 25 July 2011no edit summary
In the early part of the Second World War there was a lull, when hostilities didn't really seem to get going – the so-called Phoney War. Some Londoners, who'd left the capital in the expectation of early bombing raids, began drifting back and there were still those who thought that peace could be negotiated – that we could stay out of the fight. Chief amongst those outside of the political classes who supported this view was the American Ambassador, Joseph Kennedy. Kennedy was, perhaps fortunately but not unusually, out of the country when one of the staff at the residence was murdered and her body fished out of the Thames.
DCI Frank Merlin was the investigating officer and he and his team were in search of the murderer as well as the driver of a car involved in a hit-and-run accident which resulted in the death of a prominent scientist. In both cases they're surrounded by secrecy and people who would prefer to hide their lives behind a cloak of diplomatic immunity and . Merlin has to tread a delicate path – no mean feat for a man whose even temper is not his strongest attribute. It gets tougher when another member of staff at the residence is murdered.
I liked Merlin – a widower who would really like to join up but who can't be released from the police force. He doesn't have a drink problem. He gets on ''reasonably'' well with his superior officers and he's not a womaniser. Yes – he's an original and someone you could relate to. I believed in his team too – decent coppers trying to do a job rather than a set of ‘'characters''.
