A Dangerous Language

By Sulari Gentill

When Rowland Sinclair volunteers his services as a pilot to fly the renowned international peace advocate, Egon Kisch, between Freemantle and Melbourne, he is unaware of how hard Australia's new Attorney General will fight to keep the reporter off Australian soil. In this, it seems, the government is not alone, as clandestine right-wing militias target Kisch...

A Communist agent is murdered on the steps of Parliament House and Rowland finds himself drawn into a dangerous world of politics and assassination. Once again, he stands against the unthinkable with an artist, a poet and brazen sculptress by his side...

'Gentill immerses us in an unfamiliar world that quickly becomes one we willingly reside in' - Herald Sun

'Again, Gentill has turned her deft touch to weave little-known details of Australian political intrigue into an engrossing, easy-read mystery novel' - Daily Telegraph

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crime & Mystery Club
• Release date: Jan 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9780857303721

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 A Dangerous Language

[rretzler_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rowland Sinclair, the younger son of a wealthy Australian family, has a reputation for causing scandal. Wilfred, Rowland’s older brother, presides over the family fortune and is influential in the conservative Australian government of the 1930s, while Rowland associates with bohemians and communists. Thinking that it will give him a chance to purchase a new airplane, Rowland agrees to secretly fly communist Egon Kirsch into the country to be a speaker at the All-Australian Congress Against War and Fascism. However, the government has barred Egon from entering the country. When a communist party member is found stabbed on the steps of Parliament House by Rowland’s friend Milton, whom the party member was on his way to meet, Rowland and his friends find themselves involved in several dangerous situations.A Dangerous Language is Sulari Gentill’s 8th book in the Rowland Sinclair series. I had not read any of the previous books, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Each chapter of the book has as an epigraph a portion of a newspaper article. After reading the book, I believe that many of these articles may be real historical accounts from the newspaper, but I am not certain about all of them. I felt that the book meandered in several different directions as the author tried to insert historical events into the book. For example, at the start of the book, a woman’s body was found, which was initially thought to be Rowland’s friend Edna. However, Edna is soon found, and we learn nothing more about the body until the Epilogue. Gentill has attempted to write the book around Egon Kirsch’s actual trip to Australia in 1934, but there are just too many plot points to make the book come together well. I think had she stuck to one or two of these instead of the six or seven that I can think of, I would have enjoyed the story more.I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and PanteraPress in exchange for an honest review.

[vesper1931 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

In this eighth of the series Rowland is approached by a member of the Communist Party to observe the Federal Parliament in Canberra, and replace the current man, Kelly. Although refusing, his friend the communist Milton Isaacs does not, and all four friends journey to Canberra where Kelly is found murdered.
For me the story contained too much politics which made the tale in quite a large part boring, and certainly not enough of any mystery. A pity as I do find the characters an interesting bunch.
A NetGalley Book