The Death of Kings

Starred review from October 24, 2016
The strangulation murder of actress Portia Blake in Kent, in 1938, propels Edgar-finalist Airth’s excellent fifth John Madden mystery (after 2014’s The Reckoning). In 1949, Angus Sinclair, formerly a chief inspector, now retired, asks Madden, who has left London’s Metropolitan Police, to reinvestigate the crime. Although Owen Norris, an itinerant farmworker with a history of violence against women, confessed to Blake’s murder and was executed, Sinclair is unsettled to receive an anonymous letter suggesting that Norris was innocent. The letter includes a jade pendant purporting to be the one that disappeared from the corpse. Despite his lack of any official status, Madden agrees to poke around quietly into the old case, in the hopes of finding sufficient evidence to warrant the police reopening it. The passage of time and the intervening deaths of people who could have shed light on what happened make this a daunting task. Golden age fans looking to pit their wits against a savvy sleuth will be more than satisfied. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary Agency.

November 1, 2016
Two ex-detectives' persistence throws new light on an old murder in postwar England.Eleven years after actress Portia Blake was murdered on a country estate, an anonymous letter and a flawed jade pendant make retired Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair wonder if the wrong man was hanged for the crime on his watch. Too laid up with gout to travel, he asks his former subordinate John Madden, also retired, to persuade Scotland Yard to reopen the case. But there's no proof that the jade pendant is the same one Portia was wearing the day she left Sir Jack Jessup's house, climbed up a hill, and was strangled with her own scarf. The ex-con who was arrested for her murder confessed, the police stopped following other leads, and the condemned man, even though he recanted, was executed. But Sinclair is so perturbed that Madden unofficially visits the crime scenes and interviews Portia's fellow houseguests from the day of the murder. Sir Richard Jessup, the son of Portia's original host, helpfully enlightens Madden about Stanley Wing, the Eurasian guest who brought Portia to the house party. Sir Jack had rescued Wing from the streets when he was a boy, raised him at his own expense, and made him his business partner in the Asian trade until Sir Richard had to throw him out for questionable practices. Wing's presence at the party was awkward enough, but Portia's provocative behavior seemed calculated to embarrass the men at dinner the night before her murder. A sensational news headline finally forces Scotland Yard to reopen the case, and a new anonymous letter with a series of photos clearly intended for blackmail moves the dogged investigation in a new direction. The fifth in Airth's series (The Reckoning, 2014, etc.) is an intelligent character study conducted at a crawl. The hero's fans will find him as thoughtful and principled as ever, but lovers of heart-pounding whodunits should look elsewhere.

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November 1, 2016

It's been 17 years since readers were introduced to Insp. John Madden in River of Darkness. At the time Madden was a returning World War I veteran whose experiences in the trenches and collaboration with Dr. Helen Blackwell convinced him to employ the as yet unproven science of psychological profiling to track down a serial killer. By 1949, the time frame for Airth's latest, Madden has happily retired to the life of a farmer, but he's called back into service to investigate a cold case on behalf of two former colleagues. Once again readers are treated to an insider's view of Madden's contemplative approach to his inquiries; this time he's delving into the social world of Britain's aristocracy in search of the true killer of would-be actress Portia Blake, who died on the Kent estate of Sir Jack Jessup 11 years earlier. VERDICT This volume will be warmly welcomed by series followers and can be recommended to fans of British procedurals and golden age mysteries alike.--Nancy McNicol, Hamden P.L., CT

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2016
A jade necklace supposedly recovered from a 1939 murder case raises red flags 10 years later for former Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Sinclair, who calls his retired colleague, John Madden, into action in this fifth entry to the series, following The Reckoning (2014). A house party at the Kent country estate of Sir Jack Jessup turned tragic with the shocking murder of a guest on the grounds, actress Portia Blake, who was last seen flaunting the pendant in question. As Madden immerses himself in the case and delves into Portia's life, the pernicious tentacles of a larger picture emerge. Why were an actress and the Chinese businessman, Mr. Wing, invited to the party? Was the man convicted of the murder actually guilty? A procedural and a fairly straightforward puzzler become utterly absorbing and psychologically intriguing by virtue of the characters' personalities and unusual motivations. One can't help but compare Madden to other chief inspectors, like Armand Gemache in Louise Penny's Three Pines mysteries or Reginald Wexford in the series by Ruth Rendell, set in fictional Kingsmarkham, England.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)