Decline in Prophets

By Sulari Gentill

The second book of the acclaimed Rowland Sinclair Mysteries. In 1932, the RMS Aquitania embodies all that is gracious and refined, in a world gripped by crisis and doubt. Returning home on the luxury liner after months abroad, Rowland Sinclair and his companions dine with a suffragette, a Bishop and a retired World Prophet. The Church encounters less orthodox religion in the Aquitania’s chandeliered ballroom, where men of God rub shoulders with mystics in dinner suits. The elegant atmosphere on board is charged with tension, but civility prevails… until people start to die. Then things get a bit awkward. And Rowland finds himself unwittingly in the centre of it all.

“I’m afraid, Sinclair has a habit of being in the wrong place every possible time. I would think twice about standing next to him.”
“God forbid, Rowland, you should return home without some sort of scandal… leading some kind of insane cult!”

A Rowland Sinclair Novel

* Winner of Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction 2012

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pantera Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781921997013

Sulari Gentill

Sulari Gentill is the award-winning author of The Rowland Sinclair Mystery series, historical crime fiction novels set in the 1930s. She won the 2012 Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction and has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. After setting out to study astrophysics, graduating in law, and then abandoning her legal career to write books, she now grows French black truffles on her farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales.

Reviews for Decline in Prophets

[jamespurcell · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

After several tries, I lost interest and gave up. Characters werew quite without affect except for pedantic sophistry.

[quibee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the second book in the Miles Rowland series set in Australia in the 1930s.
To escape the problems and people he annoyed in the first book, Miles' brother has sent him out of the country. Things should have settled down by now so he and his friends are making their way back home by boat.
On board the boat are a group of people associated with the Theosophical Society. One of them, a grand old lady, becomes an immediate friend.
Also on board are some priests, one of them a Bishop, who does not approve of Miles or his friends, or indeed of very much at all.
Murder happens and Miles gets involved, first as a suspect. They eventually get home and then Miles gets involved in further murders and thoroughly embarrasses his brother over and over again.
An nice enough read, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first one.

[liz1564 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel was sent to me by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press via Net Gallery. Thank you.This absolutely delightful mystery and novel of manners is set in 1932. The hero/detective, with a nod to Lord Peter and Nick Charles and Fred Astaire, is Australian millionaire Rowland Sinclair. Handsome, suave and witty, he and his three friends are on RMS Aquitania crossing the Atlantic to New York when they become involved in a murder aboard the luxury liner. The ship has more than the usual number of suspects since, aside from the society guests, there is a very intolerant Catholic bishop and his priest companions. Add to that the World President of the Theosophical movement and its named messiah and the scene is set for a theological murder! But the victim was just a bounder and Rowland Sinclair’s walking stick was found near the scene of the crime…As the plot shifts from sea to New York to Australia, Rowland and his buddies, two artists and a poet, sift through the clues until the murderer is revealed. It is a neat mystery with a very satisfying puzzle.But for me it was like watching those wonderful 1930’s movies. The author has the banter right, the costumes right, the settings right. A very good four star read.

[vesper1931 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In 1932 Rowland Sinclair and his friends are travelling from Europe to New York on the luxury liner Aquitania when the first murder is committed. But this is not the last before they reach home in Australia. Is the motive in any way connected to the Theosophical Society, a religious movement of which a few members are aboard.
Sinclair and his friends decide to investigate.
Quite a slow paced novel, but which kept my interest, with some amiable characters.
A NetGalley Book

[smik_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In this sequel to A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN Rowly and his entourage have been to Europe and are returning aboard a luxury liner. When the first murder occurs it is not clear what the reason behind it is. It seems that the real target may be the Theosophist leader Annie Besant but then the attacks continue and one victim is a seemingly innocent girl.Rowly returns home, the central figure of newspaper headlines much to his elder brother's disgust. Wilfred has been hoping the world trip will have settled his brother down. Rowly himself would like nothing better than to be able to return to the quiet life in Sydney and to take up painting again, but Wilfred's son is being christened and Wilfred is determined that Rowly will also take up some familial obligations. Things get nasty when the murderer from the RMS Aquitania makes another appearance.Once again Sulari Gentill has put together an interesting mix of fact and fiction: 'real' people like Annie Besant, Charles Leadbetter and Norman Lindsay; and fictional creations. The mixture of fact and fiction even extends to the luxury liner she uses as her setting for the first half of the novel. The Aquitania was the longest serving Cunard liner built in the 20th century and survived service in both World Wars. Although I could vaguely remember reading about Annie Besant, I knew next to nothing about Theosophy and went scurrying off to do some research.The main characters from the first novel in the series, Rowly's bohemian friends, are all there, and provide a good reason for reading these books in order.A very satisfying read, good Australian flavour.

[austcrimefiction · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fans of Australian writing (not just crime fiction) if you've not caught up yet with Rowly Sinclair and his wanderings through 1930's Sydney and beyond, where on earth have you been?A DECLINE IN PROPHETS is the second book in the Rowland Sinclair series from Sulari Gentill and after dithering around for a week or so trying to come up with something that describes the book accurately. I'll just have to settle for my first reaction when I got to the last page. Blast - wonder when the next one will be out...In my review of the first book - A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN - I did comment something along the lines of there being just a little more history than mystery at points, but that balance has been elegantly sorted out in the second book. Not to say that the history suffers here either - the research that goes into the background of these books is fantastic, but the story-telling is even better. In A DECLINE IN PROPHETS Roly and his band of supporting artists and bohemians have been off around the world, but the action of the book mostly takes place on the RMS Aquitania - giving a very believable closed room setting. Both on ship and on land, there's a good range of puzzles and mysteries, a good dose of the relationships between Roly and his friends, and as an added extra a lot of Roly and his family when the travellers eventually return home.The great thing about these books is that you can really see them appealing to lots of different reader's preferences - the historical period is wonderfully evoked, the action is strong but there's no overt sense of thriller going on. The deaths are believable, but the scenes described with sufficient detail to give the reader a sense of what is happening, without any gore or sensationalism. There's a touch of romance, just the slightest bit of unrequited relationship between Roly and sculptor and companion Edna but not enough to make me throw my hands in the air and scream not again! There's also a great cast of the slightly eccentric through to flat out mad as a hatter types all of whom serve their part in the cast without raising any sneaking sense of affect. What really sticks in my mind about A DECLINE IN PROPHETS is that it's just flat out, great story telling. Good characters, a believable plot, both of which transport the reader to a place and a time that just feels right. Regardless of your preference in crime fiction, lovers of cozies, procedurals, historical or current day settings, A DECLINE IN PROPHETS is just a fantastic book.