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The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism

Robert Paarlberg

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Americans take pride in their "exceptionalism," not always aware that exceptional excess is part of...

Maxwell's Point

M.J. Trow

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With girlfriend DS Jacquie Carpenter back at work and little baby Nolan rapidly growing into a...

How to Abandon Ship: The World War II Classic That Can Save Your Life

Phil Richards, John J. Banigan and Twain Braden

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Based on interviews with the crew and captain of a torpedoed tanker who survived nineteen days in a...

ClareR (5726 KP) rated Where Every Man (Inspector James Given #4) in Books

Oct 26, 2020

Where Every Man (Inspector James Given #4)

Charlie Garratt | 2020 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery

8.0

(1 Ratings)

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Where Every Man by Charlie Garrett is set in rural France at the beginning of the second World War. James Given has retired from the police force back in England and has moved with his wife Rachel, to work on a farm. He seems happy with the work, and their plan is to move south with the good weather. This looks increasingly less likely as time progresses because of the approach of the German army towards France’s borders. Regardless, James and Rachel love their lives in the small French town, and consider staying anyway. Rachel teaches local students to play the violin, and it’s one of these students who draws James back in to his role as an investigator when the local librarian dies unexpectedly. The local policeman believes its merely a cycling accident, but it increasingly looks like it’s murder. When James looks further in to the accident, it appears there is a German spy in the village. Before he can do anything about it, the spy disappears. Did the spy have anything to do with the death of the librarian?

This mystery played out so well, and I loved the interactions between James and the violin student. She wants to work as a police officer when she leaves school - much to her fathers disapproval. The students role in the story was a really good way of showing how James approached the task of solving a murder.

I have to say, I read a lot of this with a feeling of mild panic, especially when James goes to visit his uncle and his family nearby. It showed the vulnerable position he and his family were in as Jews in France. Even though James and Rachel have forged passports that showed that they were Christians, there was still that worry for them and their family - and the spectre of the Nazis is hanging over this whole story.

I always enjoy these James Given books, and I’m intrigued to see what comes for him next as war approaches.

Many thanks to Sapere Books for a copy of this book to read and honestly review - I really enjoy this series (I bought books 2 and 3 myself, if that’s anything to go by!)