Special Operations Executive agent Duncan Forrester has returned from the war and is back at his Oxford college as a junior Ancient History Fellow. But his peace is shattered when a much-disliked Fellow is found murdered in the quad. Forrester is not convinced of the principal suspect’s guilt and, on the hunt for the true killer, he finds himself plunged into a mystery involving lost Viking sagas, Satanic rituals and wartime espionage.
My Review:
The Act of Treachery is the first in a new trilogy of books. Duncan Forrester is a very likeable character who is convinced that his close friend is not responsible for a hated colleague’s death. His efforts to prove that he is innocent doesn’t impress the police, he realises that his opinions of people he has known for years change and he finds himself in danger.
Many famous people feature in the novel, some I familiar with but some I had to re-read their part because I hadn’t picked up on it straight away. I thought this worked quite well and it had me looking on the Internet in some cases so I could find out more about the ones I was less familiar with.
The way post war Europe was described was convincingly grim especially in Berlin and this was my favourite part of the novel. I could see everyday people struggling to rebuild their lives after the war and the conditions that they were living in.
I did work out fairly early on who the murderer was fairly early on but not the reason why so I still enjoyed the novel. I will be definitely interested in reading the second book that is due to be published in 2017.
Thanks to Titan Books for the copy received.
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