Where There's a Will

October 15, 2021
A Brahmin Boston family is shocked to be cut out of an inheritance. Would any of them resort to murder? Fresh from a 1935 business trip to China that turned into another sleuthing adventure, Australian artist-cum-reluctant businessman Rowland Sinclair is sent to Boston to settle the estate of his friend Daniel Cartwright. He owes his appointment as executor to Danny's estrangement from his family. Danny was shot, presumably by a vagrant, and his body left beside the Charles River. Taking artistic sidekicks Milton, Clyde, and Edna along for moral support, Rowland faces a phalanx of attorneys and Danny's angry brothers, Frank and Geoffrey, eventually joined by Molly, their blithe, bubbly sister. Tensions boil over at the reading of the will, which reveals the main heir to Danny's estate to be one Otis Norcross, who hasn't attended the reading and whom no one seems to know. This last development, coupled with the strange circumstances surrounding Danny's death, prompts Rowland to investigate. Physical and legal threats follow, but after the initial flurry of mystery and danger, the plot moves slowly, propelled mostly by the banter of the investigative quartet and entertaining cameo appearances by Zelda Fitzgerald, Orson Welles, etc. Once they find Norcross, the threads of Danny's private life begin to unravel, and the story accelerates to a conclusion. Gentill begins each chapter with a short, entertaining news item from the period as another way of contextualizing her piquant recurrent theme of the social value of art and artists. Rowland's leisurely 10th case colorfully re-creates the flavor of serial mysteries of Hollywood's golden age.

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Starred review from November 8, 2021
Gentill’s witty, rip-roaring 10th mystery featuring Australian portrait painter Rowland Sinclair (after 2021’s Shanghai Secrets) takes Rowland to Boston, Mass., with his ever-faithful entourage. His flamboyant university friend, Daniel Cartwright, has been murdered, and Rowland has been appointed the sole executor of the man’s considerable estate. Rowland winds up not only investigating his friend’s death but also dealing with Daniel’s angry siblings, who have been left with what they consider to be the paltry sum of $10,000 each. The bulk of the estate is to go to the mysterious Otis Norcross, whose whereabouts are unknown. The search for Norcross takes Rowland and his crew in some unusual directions, leading to encounters with William Randolph Hearst, Orson Welles, Joseph Kennedy, and Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald. Each chapter begins with an edifying quote from a period publication, and, as ever, Gentill elegantly infuses historically accurate details on the rise of fascism into the text, providing insight that’s relevant to today’s readers. This is historical mystery fiction at its finest. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

December 1, 2021
While in Singapore, Australian heir Rowland Sinclair receives two communications: a letter from his brother requesting Rowland's return to Sydney, and a telegram from the lawyers for his American friend and fellow artist Daniel Cartwright, who has died, his body found in Harvard Square. Cartwright's will names Sinclair the executor of the document. Upon arrival in Boston, Sinclair and his travelling companions learn that Cartwright's designated heir to a considerable fortune is Otis Norcross, who cannot be found. Cartwright's brothers and sisters are contesting the will, claiming that their brother was not competent, and the brothers have involved the Boston underworld, in the form of rival Irish and Italian gangsters, to intimidate Sinclair. Sinclair takes them on, uncovering inconvenient truths in the process. The investigations take Sinclair and friends to 1930s New York, North Carolina, and Rockport, Massachusetts, all in Gatsbyesque style with cameo appearances by celebrities who frequent the elegant settings. Tenth in the series, Gentill's tale works on several levels: thriller, mystery, and commentary on the society and social mores of the mid-1930s.

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