Book review
204. David Roberts, Sweet Poison. I'm pretty sure Roberts' debt to Dorothy L. Sayers is conscious. His setting is the 1930s, his hero is the brother of a duke, and the duke's name is Gerald. However this 2001 novel is not merely a slavish interpretation of the Golden Age of Crime Fiction. With the character of Verity Browne, embodying the contradiction of a Upper Middle Class Communist with a private income, Roberts has created a perfect foil for Lord Edward Corinth, and this novel tackles quite serious themes (the rise of Nazi-ism, drug dependency, etc) with the nice gloss provided by historical setting and aristocratic milieu. I enjoyed this book which I happened to find in the library and I'll look out for the other novels in the series.