Assassins: An Inspector Stark Mystery

YA author Eldridge (The Lethal Target) makes his adult debut, a historical mystery launch, with mixed results. In October 1921, Winston Churchill, at the time secretary of states for the Colonies, asks Det. Chief Insp. Paul Stark of Scotland Yard to investigate the murder of Lord Amersham, a cabinet minister, who was gunned down in front of his London home. Churchill is certain that Bolsheviks were behind the assassination. Meanwhile, Special Branch inspectors Burns and Rogers would like Stark to look into Amersham’s involvement with the Irish delegation negotiating for home rule. The skeptical Stark, aided by Det. Sgt. Robert Danvers, pursues other leads as well, one of which ends up having a personal connection. Danvers’s sister, Lettie, reveals to her brother that their father, jealous of Amersham’s attentions to their mother, may have wanted the man dead. Other murders follow, building up to a dramatic, if not fully plausible, denouement. A romantic subplot feels forced. (Oct.)