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A Decline in Prophets
As low as
$18.99
Published: December 2016
Published: December 2016
Published: December 2016
Published: December 2016
SKU: SBCNFG6818
SKU: 9781464206818
SKU: 9781464206832
SKU: 9781464206825
Ships to United States and Canada.
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Overview
Winner of the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction for 2012
Travel back in time to 1932 and book a first-class suite on the passenger liner RMS Aquitania, but take care, for among your fellow passengers is a ruthless killer....
Direct threats from Australia's warring Right and the Left having quieted, wealthy Rowland Sinclair and his group of bohemian friends are their way home to Sydney via New York after a lengthy stay in Europe. The wealthy Sinclair scion has treated his artist friends to first-class accommodations on the Cunard ship, the luxury liner of the day. Also on board are some members of the Theosophical Society, one of those spiritualism movements that had a heyday in the early twentieth century, as well as an aggressively conservative Irish Catholic Bishop and his cohorts. Their clash ups the tensions in first class and presents the liner's captain with a tricky situation when bodies start to drop.
It is Sinclair's bad luck that he becomes a suspect in the first death, that of the Bishop's beautiful young niece. But before the ship docks, he is cleared and the investigation, and further crimes, are taken ashore to the Australian capital and into some of its grand country houses.
Weaving historical fact, events, and people with fiction, Sulari Gentill has created a delightful and spirited crime story, the second in the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, set against the public unraveling of the Theosophist Society. There's an Evelyn-Waugh-meets-Agatha-Christie feel about this series and an extra treat in the New York scenes of A Decline of Prophets where one of Rowly's boho friends, in fact the sculptress whom he loves, is romanced by the not well-known English actor Archie Leach.
Product Details
- Case Count: Hardcover: 24, Paperback: 12, Paperback Large Print: 18
"A delightful period piece." — Kirkus Reviews
"Set in late 1932, Gentill's lively second mystery featuring dashing Australian millionaire Rowland 'Rowly' Sinclair takes place initially aboard the luxury cruise ship Aquitania, as it steams along toward Sydney ... The witty and insightful glimpses of the Australian bourgeoisie of this period keep this mystery afloat." — Publishers Weekly
"I thoroughly enjoyed the glamour of the ocean voyage, the warmth and wit among the friends, and yet all the time, simmering beneath the surface, was the real and savage violence, waiting to erupt. The 1930s are a marvelous period. We know what lies ahead! This is beautifully drawn, with all its fragile hope and looming tragedy. I am delighted this is a series. I want them all." — Anne Perry, New York Times bestselling author
"I thoroughly enjoyed the glamour of the ocean voyage, the warmth and wit among the friends, and yet all the time, simmering beneath the surface, was the real and savage violence, waiting to erupt. The 1930s are a marvelous period. We know what lies ahead! This is beautifully drawn, with all its fragile hope and looming tragedy. I am delighted this is a series. I want them all." — Anne Perry, New York Times bestselling author
"...the start of a promising new series set in 1930s Sydney about a character who is a little like a male Phryne Fisher. Rowland Sinclair is a gentleman artist who comes from a privileged background but whose sympathies are with bohemians, lefties and ratbags. It's a rich political and cultural era to explore and Gentill has a lot of fun with a hero who is always getting paint on his immaculate tailoring." — The Sydney Morning Herald
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