Blackstone and the Endgame

September 9, 2013
More action than detective story, Spencer’s 10th mystery featuring Insp. Sam Blackstone (after 2012’s Blackstone and the Great War) starts better than it finishes. A prologue dated December 16, 1916, finds the Scotland Yarder on the run and reduced to fighting for survival as a London street person. The main narrative, which opens a week earlier, reveals how Blackstone got into this fix. The new head of Special Branch, Superintendent Brigham, tells Blackstone to deliver £25,000 in cash to a German known only as Max in exchange for information on U-boats. Max has asked for Blackstone by name, and he’s forbidden Blackstone to have any backup. As Blackstone fears, the exchange late one night at a London dockyard doesn’t come off as planned. Now a fugitive, Blackstone embarks on an unlikely journey that reunites him with a Russian spy from a previous outing. The introduction of a notorious historical figure doesn’t increase the plot’s plausibility.

October 1, 2013
International intrigue takes its toll on Inspector Sam Blackstone (Blackstone and the Great War, 2012, etc.). The Special Branch doesn't often take much interest in the affairs of Scotland Yard. So Blackstone is astonished and not a little apprehensive when Branch Superintendent Brigham selects him to meet a shadowy informant called Max and exchange an attache case full of currency for the German Navy's secret submarine plans. Naturally, it's a trap. Max disappears with the cash, leaving Blackstone holding the proverbial bag. His pudgy sergeant, Archie Patterson, springs the inspector from jail but lands in the hoosegow himself. Next thing he knows, Blackstone's spirited away to St. Petersburg by Vladimir, an old comrade at arms, to spend his days near Nevsky Prospekt playing with model trains and waiting for his friend to reveal what nefarious plot he's hatching. They go club-hopping with members of the royal family and cross paths with a mystic named Rasputin. Blackstone also infiltrates a strike planned by factory workers while he's serving as bodyguard to Vladimir's beautiful young agent, Tanya. Meanwhile, Archie, out on six days' remand, scours London looking for the elusive Max with no official standing and only the help of Ellie Carr, a forensic pathologist and Blackstone's sometime lover. Packed with portents, Blackstone's ninth takes a nicely shaped puzzle and inflates it until it's as gassy as one of the Kaiser's zeppelins.

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Starred review from September 15, 2013
When Inspector Sam Blackstone is ordered by his boss to deliver secretly a briefcase full of cash to a German spy who is passing military secrets to the British, Sam is immediately suspicious. His instincts tell him something's wrong, and when he's arrested, stripped of his badge, and sentenced to prison, his worst fears are realized. Furious, he can't think of a way out until his loyal sergeant, Archie Patterson, attacks the van in which Blackstone is being taken to prison and frees his boss. Unfortunately, this means Blackstone has to go on the run. A broken man, he's living rough when an old acquaintance from his past, the mysterious Vladimir, comes to his rescue, offering to take Blackstone to Russia until things cool down. Blackstone is sure there's a catch, especially since Russia is on the brink of revolution, with Czar Nicholas losing his power. But even Blackstone's vivid imagination cannot predict the horrifying and incredible things that will happen while he's in St. Petersburgthings that will ultimately lead to an astonishing discovery. Spencer has outdone herself in this latest Blackstone adventure. With its vivid characters, far-fetched but compelling plot, and fanciful twists, it's a gripping page-turner that will appeal to a wide range of fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)