It is New Yearโs Eve 1915 and the Hardcastle family are welcoming 1916 at their home in Kennington, London. But an hour into the New Year, Hardcastle is called to a murder in a jewellerโs shop in Vauxhall. In a first for the A Division senior detective, the killers apparently made their escape in a motor car.
As Hardcastleโs enquiry progresses, what he believed to be a fairly straightforward investigation turns into one with ramifications extending from Chelsea via Sussex and Surrey to France, close to the fighting on the Western Front. And as is so often the case in wartime, the army becomes involved and so, to Hardcastleโs dismay, does Scotland Yardโs Special Branch . . .
From Publishers Weekly
Ison throws his readers more than a few curveballs in the 11th mystery featuring irascible Divisional Det. Insp. Ernest Hardcastle, of the Metropolitan Police (after 2012's Hardcastle's Frustration). On New Year's Eve 1915, the DDI's plans for celebrating are disrupted by the murder of jeweler and pawnbroker Reuben Gosling. A witness reports seeing two men speed off in a motorcar, but when the police locate the vehicle's owner, wealthy Sinclair Villiers, he plausibly denies any involvement. Routine police work leads to the discovery that Sinclair's army captain son, Haydn, who often borrows the car, spent the night of the crime with his colonel's wife. Hardcastle, theorizing that an enemy of Haydn's was trying to frame him, looks into an espionage angle, only to find British intelligence intervening in the case. Ison does little to distinguish Hardcastle from countless other gruff series leads, but he does offer readers a genuinely unusual secret at the heart of the mystery. (Nov.)
From Booklist
Another top-notch entry in this well-regarded British police-procedural series set during WWI, this latest adventure has the irascible DDI Hardcastle faced with two murders. Jeweler Reuben Gosling has been beaten to death, with robbery appearing to be the motive, but something doesnโt smell right to Hardcastle. Heโs hardly begun the investigation when another murder takes place: this time, a man named Peter Stein is shot to death in his flat. Are the cases related? The most promising clue is the car Goslingโs killer used to flee the scene. The carโs owner is the extremely wealthy Sinclair Villiers, whose son, Haydn, is an officer serving in France. As Hardcastle investigates, he soon has a wealth of cluesโa Morse code machine, an illicit love affair, a group of Jewish activists, a deserting officer, and a bizarre rendezvous with a Swedish ship. But when Special Branch and MI5 get involved, Hardcastle knows this is no ordinary case. As usual, Ison offers full-bodied characters, entertaining badinage between Hardcastle and his long-suffering sergeant, a byzantine plot to keep readers off balance, and plenty of authentic period ambience. --Emily Melton