Adrian Magson is the author of 27 crime and spy thrillers. 'Death at the Old Asylum', the 8th title in the Inspector Lucas Rocco series set in 1960s France, currently in ebook, comes out in paperback on the 14th March via Canelo Books.
More information: https://www.adrianmagson.com/
Hired as a defence junior to represent the widow of a murdered dictator of Yanussia, an Eastern European country, young London lawyer Laura Lazarescu finds herself launched into a troubled web of past deceits, corruption and murder on an enormous scale.
Although a junior, Laura becomes central to the story by dint of having been born in Yanussia, from which her family was forced to flee years before. She falls under the spell of Marija Popa, the dictator’s widow, who is accused not only of being aware of but a central party to her husband’s colossal venality, brutality and theft of state monies.
Charismatic, beautiful and living a gilded life far removed from the impoverished people around and below her, Marija appears alarmingly oblivious to the dangers she faces if the case goes against her. Laura, meanwhile, is reminded of the claustrophobic atmosphere of the country, where the population appears split between those who support and even worship the deadly widow and those who want her hung from the nearest lamppost.
Divorced by distance and disagreement from her parents – they forbade Laura to take the assignment, something she ignored and which has caused a huge abyss between them – and part of a more senior team whose motives she doesn’t entirely trust or understand, Laura soon discovers what it is to be drawn into a spider’s web created by a mistress of the art of manipulation, until she is no longer sure of the difference between truth, rumour and outright falsehood.
Jolted by news that her mother is gravely ill, she pursues her task, trying to untangle the puzzle that is her client, while working in an atmospheric cesspool of questions that threatens to derail her own sanity.
How, for example, did the dictator Constantin fall victim to killers in what was a fortress controlled by his own electronic devices?
One cannot help but be reminded of the situation surrounding Nicolae Ceau?escu, communist ruler of Romania, and his wife, Elena, overthrown in 1989. That said, this debut novel is impressive and elegantly written, conveying the stultifying atmosphere of a closed state and those who inhabit it.
