Miles Off Course

April 10, 2017
Set in Australia in 1933, Gentill’s entertaining third mystery featuring portrait artist Rowland Sinclair (after 2016’s A Decline in Prophets) will appeal to fans of L.B. Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher. Soon after Rowland is recognized for his work with an invitation to contribute a painting to an exhibition at the prestigious Art Gallery of New South Wales, he barely escapes being abducted from his Sydney hotel suite by three thugs, an attempt that may be part of a pattern of kidnappings in the city targeting the affluent. The obvious motive is greed, given Rowland’s family’s financial resources, but he can’t rule out the possibility that he was targeted by a business or political enemy of his influential and powerful older brother, Wilfred. Meanwhile, Rowland learns that a longtime Sinclair employee, Harry Simpson, one of Wilfred’s most trusted men, has disappeared after being asked to look into discrepancies in the records of the family cattle holdings. Gentill matches Greenwood’s skill at blending suspense with a light touch.

April 1, 2017
A wealthy artist with a sideline in sleuthing is beset by danger in Depression-era Australia.Rowland Sinclair is the youngest of three boys in the wealthy Sinclair family. Aubrey, the middle brother, was killed in the Great War, and Wilfred, Rowly's very conservative oldest brother, runs the family businesses and disapproves of his bohemian kid brother, whose permanent houseguests--lower-class fellow artist Clyde Watson Jones, poet Milton Isaacs, and beautiful sculptress and model Edna Higgins--are all leftists. Soon after they learn that someone's been kidnapping wealthy people, Rowly, Clyde, and Milton must fight off three intruders. Wilfred arrives with a request for Rowly to go up to cattle country, where one of their employees has vanished, hoping that his excursion will keep him away from danger. The man Harry Simpson, an Aboriginal, was supervising claims that he just went walkabout, but both Rowly and Wilfred are sure the man they have known for years is unlikely to have walked off. Rowly and his friends head for the High Country and right into trouble. Someone tries again to kidnap Rowly. At the guesthouse where they're staying, Rowly meets an old school friend who claims someone is trying to kill him and Sarah Brent, a fiercely feminist writer who worked as governess to Rowly's brothers before he was born. Rowly also meets Moran, who's now in charge of the crew working the Sinclair cattle, and doesn't take to him at all, especially when he opines that they needn't bother to look for Harry. Saddling up and heading for the mountains, the group, including Sarah, runs into many more dangers before Rowly can unravel a host of problems from rustling to treason. Gentill's third (A Decline in Prophets, 2016, etc.) reads like a superior Western, alternating high adventure with social and political observations about prewar Australia.

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May 1, 2017
Originally published in Australia in 2012, this third Rowland Sinclair mystery takes place in 1933 and finds the likable artist, who devotes himself to cultivating a bohemian lifestyle, spending some time with friends at a famous sanatorium. When Rowland's brother, Wil, comes to him with a tale of an old family retainer who's gone missing, Rowland isn't exactly keen to trade the comforts of the sanatorium for the wilds of the Outback. But family is family, and soon Rowland is knee-deep in a seemingly impenetrable mystery and a deadly conspiracy. Rowland is an especially interesting character: at first he comes off as a bit of a layabout, a guy who feels he's entitled to a cushy life by virtue of his aristocratic roots, but, as the story moves along, we realize he has a strong moral center and a compulsion to finish a job once he's started it. A great addition to a strong series and a fine read-alike for fans of Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)