Penny for Your Secrets: A Verity Kent Mystery

In Huber’s action-filled third Verity Kent mystery (after 2018’s Treacherous Is the Night), former British Secret Service agent Verity is still adjusting to her post-WWI life and trying to rebuild her marriage to Sidney after a three-year separation. At a London dinner party, the Kents are shocked by the reckless behavior of Verity’s friend Ada, Lady Rockham, who finds a pistol on her chair and jokes that she might as well shoot her husband with it. Her joke backfires when Lord Rockham is shot to death that very night. Meanwhile, an ex-MI5 colleague of Verity’s, Irene Shaw, asks Verity to look into the death of her half-sister, Esther. The police say Esther’s murder was a robbery gone wrong, but the only things missing are letters from French cousins. Verity comes upon a clue in Esther’s journal that links the two unrelated deaths together by the most unlikely event—a wartime shipwreck in which the entire crew disappeared without a trace. Huber offers a well-researched historical and a fascinating look at the lingering aftermath of war. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Nov.)