Gentlemen Formerly Dressed

April 16, 2018
Set in 1933, Gentill’s entertaining fifth mystery featuring wealthy Australian artist Rowland Sinclair finds Rowland in London, ensconced in a penthouse suite at Claridge’s, after being left for dead by Nazi thugs in his previous outing, Paving the New Road. Rowland’s straitlaced brother, Wilfred, is in town to attend the London Economic Conference. Keen to tell someone in the British government about the atrocities Rowland has seen in Germany, the brothers set off to an exclusive gentlemen’s club to speak with Viscount Pierrepont, an influential Tory. They arrive at his suite to find Pierrepont dead, dressed in a baby-doll nightie and impaled in his bed by a sword. Rowland and his pals decide to investigate. They do so by picking up gossip at swanky parties and motoring down to country houses. The pleasure of this novel lies not in the detection but rather in observing Rowland at dinner with Evelyn Waugh, trading insights with H.G. Wells, and setting Winston Churchill straight on the evils of nationalism. Fans of upper-class sleuths will be in their element.