Give the Devil His Due

November 4, 2019
Set in 1934 Sydney, Australia, Gentill’s appealing seventh Rowland Sinclair mystery (after 2019’s A Murder Unmentioned) opens with artist Rowland showing off his 1927 Mercedes, which he’s going to drive in a charity race in aid of the Red Cross, to reporter Crispin White, who has come to interview him about the event at the Maroubra Speedway. White later turns up dead in Magdalene’s House of the Macabre, a waxworks “specialising in ghouls and whatnot,” which is rumored to host meetings of a witches’ coven. Since Rowland’s friend Milton Isaacs, self-defined poet and proud communist, was among the last to see the victim alive, Milton comes under scrutiny by the police. Occultists, artists, politicians, backstreet doctors, lowlifes, high rollers, and even a dashing young Errol Flynn cross paths in this cleverly plotted mystery, which will keep readers eagerly turning pages to see what happens next. The relationships of Gentill’s well-developed characters continue to evolve as this fine historical series takes a darker tone with the rise of fascism in Europe.