All the tears in China

In the ninth book in the Rowland Sinclair series by Sulari Gentill, Rowland is ordered to go to Shanghai by his brother to take part in discussions about selling surplus wool. His brother warns him not to make a final decision on the matter. Rowland suggests that he is not the best person to undertake such a project but his brother insists as he has family matters at home to attend to.

Shanghai in the the mid 1930s is not the safest place to visit as Rowland and his friends, Edwina, Clyde and Milton discover. It is soon obvious that they do not know who to trust especially when Rowland is accused of murder.

Shanghai is a cosmopolitan city with British expats, French, Germans and Japanese mingling with the Chinese. It is a city of politics - communists and non communists (both Chinese and Russian), fascists from Nazi Germany, the Japanese invasion of part of Manchuria - making it often a dangerous place to be, especially when you do not know your way around.

One of the features of the books in this series is that at the beginning of each chapter the author includes part of an actual newspaper article relating to what is happening in the chapter. These articles help explain and add atmosphere to the historical setting of each book.

There is plenty of action and suspense as Rowland's friends attempt to extricate him from the dangerous politcal situation  in which he has become involved.

Gentlemen formerly dressed

The fifth book in Sulari Gentill's Rowland Sinclair series is set in England in 1933 after Rowland and his friends have escaped from Germany. In London Rowland and his brother visit Lord Pierrepont in the hope that they could persuade someone in the British government to listen to Rowland's story about atrocities occurring in Nazi Germany. Unfortunately when they arrive at his rooms they discover that he is dead and his niece who also acts as his assistant is suspected of murdering her uncle. Rowland and his friends attempt to prove the innocence of Allie Dawe and in so doing find themselves in a world of spies and that their lives are in danger. The book is set in London in the time when appeasement with the Germans was paramount. As with her first book Gentill weaves a fictional story with historical fact providing an outline of mistrust and events occurring in the 1930s.

I have not read numbers 2 to 4 in this series but it was still possible to follow the plot, however it probably would be a fuller reading experience to read all the books in the series as published in sequence in order to fully follow the story.

A few right thinking men

Sulari Gentill has created an interesting collection of characters in this addition to Australian crime fiction. The first book in the Rowland Sinclair series was published in 2010. The plot for A few right thinking men is set in Sydney between December 1931 and April 1932. Rowland Sinclair, an artist, lives in a large house in Woollahra with three fellow artists - Ed (Edwina) a sculptor, Clyde a painter and Milton a poet. The political tensions of the early 1930s fuelled to some extent by the economic depression form a major part of the book. Fear of the possible growth of Communism in Australia sees the development of right wing movements including the Old Gard and the New Guard formed to 'protect democracy' in New South Wales. Rowland discovers that his brother is a member of the Old Guard but Rowland's friends have views tending to the left of politics. Rowland manages to continue living in his comfortable lifestyle until his uncle, also named Rowland Sinclair, is murdered. When the police investigation appears to be making little progress Rowland and his friends make their own investigations.

This was a traumatic time in New South Wales politics and Gentill portays a sense of this as Rowland investigates the identity of the people who attacked his uncle. Using the time frame of the story I found it interestingto investigate articles about New South Wales politics in Trove, including the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.