Those who wish Dorothy L. Sayers had written more Lord Peter stories will embrace British author Roberts's fifth historical (after 2003's Dangerous Sea
) to feature Lord Edward Corinth, a wealthy bachelor and unofficial investigator for various government agencies, and Verity Browne, a scrappy war correspondent and ardent Communist. In the spring of 1937, the head of the Foreign Office, Sir Robert Vansittart, asks Lord Edward to find the source of embarrassing leaks about deficiencies in Britain's rearmament program to Winston Churchill, who's using the information to attack the government. Lord Edward reluctantly agrees to look into the possibly related matter of a minor Foreign Office employee's disappearance—which becomes personal when the man turns up savagely murdered. The killer's trail leads Lord Edward to Spain, where Verity is covering the civil war, just in time for a day-trip to a town called Guernica. Roberts adroitly combines engaging lessons on the politics of the day with a compelling, well-paced story. (Nov. 2)
