Richard Jones enjoys the world of Edwardian spy, Oxford don Septimus Oates
Septimus Oates is a scholastic sleuth caught up in a regal conspiracy that takes the reader on a trip through European history during the 150 years leading up to the start of the First World War. The aspiring Oxford research fellow witnesses an apparent murder in a university side street. The only tangible link connecting the bloodied victim to the police statement provided by Oates is a folder of documents which reveals a ticking timebomb of bigamy and deceit that threatens to shake the constitiutional core of the monarchy.
Purser, the Mansfield College-educated author, conveys a geographical and cultural map of Oxford with sepia-tinted glimpses into an Edwardian style and approach to life long since destroyed, starting with the bellicose ambitions of the Kaiser in 1914. As the story moves seamlessly from the illegal and secret marriage of the future George III through to the potentially explosive ramifications and intentions of the eponymous Zaharoff the plot’s credibility is enhanced by the author’s use of historical fact.
No self-respecting amateur detective would enter the fray without a trusted companion. Oates’s youthful inquisitiveness is suitably complemented by Quayle, his former master from Winchester, who appears to lead a chaotic bachelor lifestyle. But his shambolic exterior conceals a secret and unexpected double life.
The combination of these two characters and their quaint use of the much-parodied Enid Blyton style of language could potentially detract from the less cynical ambitions of the author.
However, the language enhances rather than detracts from the story and by the subtle intertwining of fact and fiction the author’s key players are portrayed as exemplars of bygone virtues, whose thirst for adventure and the truth are character traits to be admired, and in stark contrast to the current vogue for ambiguous blurring of the truth.
The many twists and turns of this plot, which see the dynamic duo ultimately retreating into the shadows inhabited by the nascent secret intelligence, leave Oates questioning his future. He seems ripe for more adventures.
The Zaharoff Conspiracy
By Toby Purser
Methuen, £8.99
Spy story introducing detective duo with a thirst for adventure, encapsulating Edwardian virtues
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