Death in Focus (Perry)
This is the first in a new series, with a new chronological setting, from Anne Perry. Elena Standish is a photographer, but with high connections in the British establishment. She knows that her father is a former diplomat from Germany (indeed she lived in Berlin as a child); she does not know until the end of the novel that her father's father is the retired head of MI6. The events of this novel take place in the lead-up to World War II, chiefly in Germany, and although Elena is not a spy, it's essentially a spy thriller, not a mystery like the Pitt or Monk stories.
As a non-professional in a violent world, Elena is very vulnerable, and some of her decisions (such as deliberately going out to photograph the book-burning) might qualify her, in the jargon of modern fanfic, as TSTL (too stupid to live). However, her principal failing, which might not be so very unrealistic, is relying on whichever nearby male appears to know what's going on. Without introducing any spoilers, I think we can safely point out that not all those males have the agenda they appear to have. However, there's remarkably little in the way of sexual threat to our heroine. She does sustain some physical damage at the hands of the SS.
I think I actually preferred some of the subsidiary characters to Elena. The dynamic between her grandfather (a crony of Churchill, who gets a cameo) and her father, the diplomat who still thinks appeasement is possible is quite interesting, the more so since I think that most of us would incline towards the side of those who desperately did not want a repeat of the First World War.
I enjoyed this. It had a certain energy that I thought was lacking in the latest Monk outing, which seemed to be falling back on formula; perhaps the 1860s had ceased to be interesting to Perry the inveterate researcher.
10
