Language : English
Paperback : 286 pages
ISBN-10 : 1960050230
ISBN-13 : 978-1960050236
Book Blurb
An inconvenient alibi…a priceless treasure…an MI6 mole
It’s a lethal cocktail
Journalist Emmeline Kirby and her jewel thief/
insurance investigator husband Gregory Longdon become targets after a desperate stranger asks them to deliver a fortune in rare red diamonds to hotelier Alexander Colefax. Before they can ask any questions, the man is killed.
Driven by dark secrets, Colefax is willing to flirt with treason if it means getting what he wants. His coterie included the son of a Kremlin elite and a Russian mafia boss. When a man’s only loyalty is to money, his enemies become twice as ruthless. After Colefax is bludgeoned to death, Emmeline and Gregory discover that his dangerous games involved not only diamonds, but a stolen Fabergé egg that has vanished and a spy named Snowdrop. The trail of lies and revenge leads to Switzerland, where a treacherous double-cross could cost Emmeline and Gregory their lives.
My Review
I always love getting an email from Daniella Bernett about a review for her latest Emmeline Kirby and Gregory Langdon series, and by my reckoning Betrayed by the Truth is the ninth book in this series. This book sees the newly weds Emmeline and Gregory in Madrid, after the end of the previous book, having a few days to themselves, before returning to their lives in London. But of course it’s never that simple in their world, a stranger runs up to them with a pouch of red diamonds, telling them to give them to an Alexander Colefax, before he runs off and gets hit by a car. And so Emmeline and Gregory find themselves mixed up with the Russian Mafia, MI5, MI6 and a Double Agent called Snowdrop. Full of twists and turns this is another thrilling journey for Emmeline and Gregory.
What I love most about this series is Daniella Bernett’s wonderful characters, who now feel like family. Emmeline and Gregory, now married, are an unusual pair, she an investigative journaist and he an ex jewel thief who works as an investigator for an insurance company dealing with luxury items including jewels. Emmeline is like a dog with a bone when following a story, she will stop at nothing to get to the truth, but her blind spot is definitely her husband whom she will hear nothing bad spoken about and believes he is no longer a jewel thief. I always think of Carey Grant when imagining a jewel thief and Gregory fits that idea perfectly; good looking, charming, a smooth talker and a good liar. Not everyone is charmed by him though, Superintendent Oliver Burnell sees Gregory and Emmeline as an annoyance, they always seem to find themselves in the middle of crimes, going off on their own and putting themselves in danger. Burnell is not fooled by Gregory who constantly tries to wind him up, and does so in style. Burnell is one of my favourite characters, he alwayd brings a smile to my face with his sarcasm ans wit especially concerning his ineffectual younger boss and his dragon of a secretary.
There are several things that I love about Daniella’s writing, her plotting of the books and her understanding of the British humour. Through her characters she shines a light on the dry British humour, our sarcasm and caustic rebounds and how a cup of tea is the British answer to everything. As for her plotting, it is remarkable, when I start reading these books I never envisage the endings that Daniella writes, nothing about her books are predictable. The tension is kept throughout, with an unusual suspect in Damien Rossiter whose alibi is that he couldn’t have murdered the victim as he was killing someone else. There is a sinister undercurrent in the plot with Emmeline and Gregory coming against the Russian Mafia who have no qualms about murder if someone gets in their way and an double agent looking for revenge all of which kept me on the edge of my seat as did the cliffhanger of an ending.
Betrayed by the Truth is another compelling and criminally good read. I love how the regular characters continue to develop throughout the books, keeping my interest in their lives. The plot is thrilling, twisting and turning with the tension interspersed with wit and humour to lighten the mood. I loved this book and was completely immersed in the story, so much so that on my birthday I had an early night to finish it (I dont have an exciting life). A real cliffhanger of an ending on several levels has left me desperate to read the next book in the series.
