The Berkeley Square Affair

February 24, 2014
In Grant’s unfocused fourth Regency mystery (after 2013’s The Paris Affair), Malcolm and Suzanne Rannoch, ostensibly retired from espionage work and living in London society, are enjoying domestic pleasures when their friend Simon Tanner appears on their doorstep, the victim of a brutal robbery. Though the value of the document he was carrying—possibly a newly discovered version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet—would explain the crime, a visit from Lord Carfax, Malcolm’s onetime spymaster, suggests another motive. Carfax believes the script holds coded clues to a security breach that led to needless deaths during the Irish rebellion decades before and that Malcolm’s late father might have been involved. As her husband investigates, Suzanne discovers that secrets she has hidden even from him could be revealed, destroying their marriage. Grant’s gifts shine in depictions of the couple and their suspenseful emotional tensions. But the diffuse plot is too reliant on distant backstory to provide effective drama. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency.