“Penny for Your Secrets” - Anna Lee Huber

 

(Verity Kent book 3)

⚓️ Verity and Sydney remind of Tommy and Tuppence, but broody and dark. I enjoy the post-WWI detail about how life slowly reverts to some level of normalcy, all the while geopolitical forces are at work such that the recovering nations are once more on the path to warfare.

⚓️ Verity makes an interesting observation about the disparate treatment of opium versus cocaine by the British legal system. It’s as true today as it was in the 18th century. How often does pride or self-righteousness obstruct a just course of action?

⚓️ Verity is called in by her exceedingly self-centered friend Ada. A murder at Ada’s London mansion leaves Ada a prime suspect - mostly due to her own foolishness. Meanwhile, Verity is also involved in investigating a former wartime colleague’s sister’s death. Scotland Yard appears to stymie both investigations - much to the consternation of the good CI Thoreau, Verity, and Sydney. Is there a deeper plot afoot, one which the government is loathe to uncover?

⚓️ I can appreciate Huber’s intent with the passages pertaining to Sydney’s conflicted state of mind; but be warned - they tend to be long-winded. He experiences swirling anger at the duplicity of others, crippling grief over the loss of so many during the Great War, and above all, a searing guilt that he should survive and not they. All of this is told from the POV of Verity who Sydney shuts out from these moments. She struggles with how to help him.