Book Overview
From award-winning British author, Michael Pearce, comes the first in a new series introducing Seymour of Special Branch. Trieste in 1906 is one of Europe's great seaports, the Austrian Empire's main outlet to the Mediterranean and the world beyond. But various nationalist movements are threatening to pull the place apart. The heavy-handed militarist regime has trouble keeping a lid on it, the secret police are everywhere, and now the British consul has gone missing. Was this the result of an ill-advised liaison? Could he have fallen afoul of the secret police, or the even more secret revolutionaries? The Austrian police are of course investigating, but the Foreign Office would prefer this matter to be handled with sensitivity. Britain has commercial interests in the port after all, so perhaps it would be wise to send someone out--someone very special from Special Branch who is capable of speaking the relevant languages; a good officer, but not someone British. That someone should be born here, lived here, but a member of, say, an East End immigrant family from somewhere in Europe. You can never quite rely on them. A bit dubious really, but just the man for the job.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0786714654
ISBN13:9780786714650
Release Date:October 2004
Publisher:Carroll & Graf Publishers
Length:192 Pages
Weight:0.86 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 5.7" x 8.7"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Terrific mystery about an city unknown to many in days leading up to WWI
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
This book provides a fascinating view of Trieste and some of it's inhabitants in a time leading up to WW1. As with Pearce's series set in Egypt in the same time frame, it helps to know background and the way the British government operated at the beginning of the 20th century. Pearce has a very dry sense of humor which some people may find off putting but how else to highlight the difference between the British Establishment's haughty world views when living and working among the inhabitants of a differnt world?
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