I don't usually read thrillers or murder mysteries, but I've loved all the books by Mark Mills, starting with The Savage Garden which I read after reading A Villa in Italy by Elizabeth Edmondson. They had very similar storylines, but I liked Mark's best because of the local detail and characterization.So again, these aspects stood out for me in The House of The Hanged which is set in a bright 1930s summer in the South of France, close to the area of Deborah Lawrenson's The Lantern that I blogged about recently.
As I've mentioned before, I like to link up the books I read if I can, and this one begins in Petrograd (St Petersburg), just after the Russian Revolution which I read about in The Jewel of St Petersburg by Kate Furnivall.
Tom Nash of the British Secret Intelligence Service escapes from Russia after the execution of his girlfriend, Irina. Sixteen years later, having made a new start on the French Riviera, his life is threatened, and he has to discover from the gathering of friends around him who has betrayed him.
It's a great story, and makes me want to read Mark Mill's books again. If only someone would invent a way of reading books more quickly!
