Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: A Few Right-Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill

A Few Right-Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill (Poisoned Pen Press, 2016; originally published in Australia in 2011) is the first historical mystery featuring Rowland Sinclair, the youngest son of landed gentry in New South Wales, Australia. While the world is still floundering in economic turmoil in 1932, the political factions of fascism, socialism, and communism are pitch hot, but Rowland is disengaged, insulated by his family’s money and his disinclination to become involved in much beyond his art. Rowland lives in the family’s city home in Sydney which he has turned into an atelier of sorts, with a poet, a sculptor, and an artist sharing the house. His oldest (quite conservative) brother lives in the country with his wife and son; the two seldom talk because of their fundamental differences. The third brother, whom Rowland closely resembles, was killed in World War I. Their mentally fragile mother is convinced that Rowland is his dead brother and that Rowland has died, which makes for some painful exchanges.

Rowland is content to paint in his bespoke suits while ignoring the political turbulence surrounding him, part of the larger worldwide uproar that will lead to war in a few years, until news of his uncle’s sudden death at the hands of unknown late night visitors shocks him into motion. The only witness is his uncle’s older housekeeper, who insists the killers were ghosts. The police don’t believe her and have no real leads. Their inaction angers and frustrates Rowland and he begins to look into his uncle’s business activities to find answers for himself. Along the way he is continually urged to take a stand with the ruling class against the evils of communism and socialism, all of which he has trouble taking seriously until he encounters a plot to kidnap the New South Wales premier and a large collection of guns where they shouldn’t be.

While written several years ago, events in this book parallel much that is happening in the United States now with eerie prescience. Political extremism is the norm, as is deep distrust of anyone who does not share similar political views. Rowland’s attempts to sit on a political fence are not acceptable to any of his friends or family, leftist or conservative. There are repeated references to uncontrolled wildfires in the western part of the land, mirroring the fires that devastated the U.S. West Coast in 2017. Each chapter starts with a snippet of an article from a period newspaper that helps set the context of the following section. Highly recommended. Booklist starred review.

·         Hardcover: 338 pages

·         Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (June 7, 2016)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 146420635X

·         ISBN-13: 978-1464206351

Aubrey Hamilton © 2018
 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal IT projects by day and reads mysteries at night.