Gavin Scott's The Age of Treachery was published by Titan Books in April 2016.
Information about Gavin Scott:
Gavin Scott is a British Hollywood screenwriter who spent twenty years as a radio and television reporter for BBC and ITN, and has worked in film and television with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. His films include Small Soldiers and The Borrowers; among his television series are The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and War and Peace: his next project is Dunkirk for Working Title. He lives in California.
Click here to visit his official website.
Information about The Age of Treachery:
It is the winter of 1946, and after years of war, ex-Special Operations Executive agent Duncan Forrester is back at his Oxford college as a junior Ancient History Fellow. But his peace is shattered when a hated colleague is found dead: stabbed and pushed from an upper window.
One of Forrester's closest friends is arrested for the murder, but Forrester is not convinced of his guilt; the dead man had many enemies, and there are rumours that he was in possession of a mysterious Viking manuscript. A manuscript that may have been owned by a German spy...
Travelling from Oxford to bombed-out Berlin and to the fjords of Norway in his search for the truth, Forrester must use all his wartime skills to find the true killer.
A REVIEW OF GAVIN SCOTT'S THE AGE OF TREACHERY
Gavin Scott's The Age of Treachery is the first novel in the Duncan Forrester Mystery series. It's a highly enjoyable mystery novel with adventure elements. It will appeal to readers who enjoy reading gradually unfolding mystery novels. It will also appeal to speculative fiction readers, because it contains fascinating references to Norse mythology and Viking sagas. It's possible that it may also appeal to those who love the adventures of Indiana Jones, because the protagonist is an archeologist.
The Age of Treachery was a pleasant reading experience for me, because it was an entertaining and well written novel. I normally tend to avoid reading this kind of mustery fiction, because I've often been more or less frustrated by the low quality of several mystery novels, but I found this novel thoroughly captivating and enjoyable.
Here's information about the story:
The event takes place in Oxford after World War II. Duncan Forrester attends a reading of Völuspá, which is one of the most important poems in Norse mythology. Soon the body of David Lyall is found and Forrester's best friend, Gordon Clark, is arrested for the murder. Forrester doesn't believe that his friend is guilty and intends to find out who the murderer is and why Lyall was murdered. His investigations reveal interesting things and the trail of clues leads him to Germany and Norway...
The author delivers an entertaining and clever story that moves forward with a good pace. He keeps things in motion and gradually adds more tension to the story by revealing new things to readers. He has created a puzzle that keeps readers turning pages.
Duncan Forrester is a well-created and three-dimensional protagonist. He works at Barnard College as a Junior Research Fellow. He has returned from World War II and is free to pursue his reseach. He wants to return to Crete to retrieve his own personal Rosetta stone, which he found during the war. He's a determined and intelligent man who is willing to help his friends. His investigations lead him from Oxford to Germany and Norway.
In my opinion, Duncan Forrester is an easily likeable, trustworthy and intelligent protagonist. He has had his own problems and has lived a humble life, but has become an archeology research fellow. It's possible to say that he's a classic heroic protagonist.
It was interesting to read about Duncan's friend, Gordon Clark, because he was arrested for the murder of David Lyall. His personal life is complicated, because his wife has had an affair with David Lyall. What complicates his life further is that there has been bad blood between him and David Lyall because of the Rotherfield Lectureship.
I also enjoyed reading about Professor Arne Haraldson. He was from the University of Oslo and was visiting Oxford. There was an interesting link between him and David Lyall, because Lyall had contacted him about an Old Norse manuscript that may have something to do with the supernatural.
Detective Inspector Barber, who investigates the murder, adds a touch of old school detective elements to the story. He seems to be a man who wants to be right and doesn't approve of others trying to solve things for themselves.
Gavin Scott has created a story that is a fluent combination of crime fiction, historical fiction, thriller fiction and adventure fiction. This kind of a combination seldom works well, but this novel works perfectly. I found no faults in the story, because it flows gently from start to finish and becomes increasingly intriguing as events unfold and secrets are revealed.
Forrester's investigations are a real joy to read, because he finds out interesting things about the victim and other things related to his death. The philandering academic seems to have had quite an interesting life, because he was a commando who was betrayed to the Germans. It was fun to read about how Forrester travelled to Germany and Norway in search of the truth, because the author's way of writing about wartime happenings, Nazis and Viking sagas feels thrilling.
It's interesting that the author mentions J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in the story, because I didn't expect to find any mentions of them. Epic fantasy fans will be delighted to know that J.R.R. Tolkien makes an unexpected appearance as a minor character in this novel. The author has also other surprises in store for his readers, but I won't reveal what they are.
Gavin Scott's depictions of different places, people and events are excellent and engaging. He evokes such a distinct and realistic sense of place and time that you are immediately pulled into the story. His vision of the 1940s is wholly believable, because you can sense how the world has changed and how reserved people are about certain things.
I think that readers who love British crime and mystery TV series will find this novel especially interesting, because it's slightly reminiscent of such TV series as Inspector Morse, Lewis and Inspector George Gently. It's a charmingly old-fashioned mystery novel that has many things in common with these TV series.
I've sometimes found it a bit difficult to fully get into this kind of mystery stories, because many stories have lacked that special something or the atmosphere hasn't felt fully believable, not to mention realistic. This story, however, impressed me, because Gavin Scott writes convincingly about the protagonist's life, feelings and investigations (during the investigations readers get to know Forrester as a person and learn things about him). Because he's a likeable and reliable person, it's easy for readers to become interested in his adventures.
Besides the story being gripping and thrilling, one of the main reasons why this novel is worth reading is that Gavin Scott expertly creates an intense atmosphere that oozes mystery and threat by writing about what Forrester finds out and how he deals with what he has learned during his investigations. He also succeeds in maintaining a fine balance between style and substance, which is not an easy thing to do in this kind of fiction.
The prose is easy to read and enjoy, because Gavin Scott writes fluently about the happenings and the various characters. There's nothing heavy about his prose, because he concentrates on writing thrilling entertainment that will please many readers. I enjoyed his way of writing about the characters and their secrets.
I look forward to reading the forthcoming sequels, The Age of Olympus (April 2017) and The Age of Exodus (April 2018), because I want to read more about Duncan Forrester and his future adventures. I have a feeling that the sequels will be worth waiting for and offer more insight into Forrester's life and adventures.
Gavin Scott's The Age of Treachery is a prime example of how to write compelling mystery fiction. It's excellent entertainment for fans of well-created mystery stories, because the story goes forward and the author doesn't get stuck on meaningless issues. It has plenty of old-fashioned charm, and it offers wonderful escapism to readers who want to immerse themselves in a good story.
Excellent and exceptionally intriguing mystery fiction!