In fear for his life, American millionaire Daniel Cartwright changes his will, appointing his old friend Rowland Sinclair as his executor. Soon murder proves that fear well founded. When Rowland receives word of Cartwright's death, he sets out immediately for Boston, Massachusetts, to bury his friend and honour his last wishes. He is met with the outrage and anguish of Cartwright's family, who have been spurned in favour of a man they claim does not exist. Artists and gangsters, movie stars and tycoons all gather to the fray as elite society closes in to protect its own, and family secrets haunt the living. Rowland Sinclair must confront a world in which insanity is relative, greed is understood, and love is dictated; where the only people he can truly trust are an artist, a poet and a passionate sculptress.
A Testament Of Character by Sulari Gentill was published as an ebook on on 21 May 2020 by The Crime & Mystery Club, the paperback will be released in October this year.
I'm delighted to welcome guest reviewer Louise Wykes to Random Things today, sharing her review of the book for the #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour.
You can find Louise on Twitter @jaustenrulesok
Louise's Review of 'A Testament of Character'
A Testament of Character by Sulari Gentill was published by The Crime & Mystery Club Limited on 21st May 2020. I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of the book to review and to Anne Cater for hosting my review on her blog.
After reading the blurb of this book I knew I simply had to read it. It promised a tale of Golden Age crime and mystery which is an era I love reading about. I was also intrigued by the premise of the amateur detective being a painter, Rowland Sinclair (Rowly to his friends) who is originally from Australia, who spends a large amount of his time with his three dear friends, Edna, a sculptress, Milton, a poet and another painter called Clyde.
At the beginning of the book we discover that Rowland has been named as the executor in a will of one his dear friends from his student days in Oxford. Rowland decides immediately to travel to Boston, America with his three close friends especially as it means he can avoid a trip back home to his brother. As a first-time reader of this series (this is book number 10) I am not familiar with Rowland’s family situation but there are hints throughout this book that point to troubled relationships.
This is one of the most fascinating books I’ve read in ages. The writing is sublime and completely captures the tone and feel of 1930s America and I really enjoyed how the author introduces real historical characters into the story, in fact F Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, play quite an important and pivotal role in the mystery element of the novel. I also enjoyed the little snippets that the author includes at the beginning of each chapter which highlight particular themes that will be addressed in each chapter. As a fan of historical fact and fiction, I loved how the little snippets piqued my interest and have given me a reading list of other parts of history that I am unfamiliar with. That’s one of the joys of reading a great book, it not only provides enjoyment in its own pages, but it can lead a reader to other adventures that they may not have thought of.
This book has it all: a beautifully conflicted, complicated main character who the reader roots for from the beginning, an honest portrayal of the joys and pains of close friendships, humour and a baffling mystery that the reader tries to solve but, in my case,, failed to do so!
I am so glad that this is book 10 in the series because I have the exquisite enjoyment of being able to go back and start reading the series from the beginning and knowing I have at least 9 more books to read and hopefully more in the future.
I highly recommend this engaging, elegant and accomplished book for any readers who wish to escape into another world for a couple of hours. Just utterly brilliant.
PRAISE FOR SULARI GENTILL
'A sparkling crime series... Evelyn Waugh meets Agatha Christie' - The Age 'An engrossing, easy-read mystery novel' - Daily Telegraph
'I must confess I've become rather fond of artist Roland Sinclair and his bohemian friends who divide their time globetrotting, solving murder mysteries' - Herald Sun
'Gentill has written an absorbing story about a crucial but underwritten slice of Australian history' - Courier Mail
'Sulari has delivered a spectacular story again. High stakes in many ways, but also, at times, sedate enough to allow the heroes to breathe' - The Book Muse
Sulari Gentill is the author of the award-winning and best-selling Rowland
Sinclair Mysteries, the Greek mythology adventure series The Hero Trilogy, and
winner of the Best Crime award at the 2018 Ned Kelly Awards, Crossing the Lines. She set out to study astrophysics, graduated in law, and then abandoned her legal career to write books instead of contracts.
Born in Sri Lanka, Sulari learned to speak English in Zambia, grew up in Brisbane and now lives in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of NSW.
Twitter @SulariGentill
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