A DECLINE IN PROPHETS

This murder mystery, the second in the Rowland Sinclair detective series, is an entertaining frolic that made me yearn for the era of ocean-liner travel.

It is 1932. Rowland and his artistic friends are enjoying a life of gracious refinement aboard the luxury RMS Aquitania after months abroad. But the genteel atmosphere is shattered when a fellow diner is found stabbed with Rowland's silver-capped walking stick. As the body count climbs, and Rowland is implicated, he pursues his own investigations.

We meet some vivid characters including an intimidating clairvoyant, a conniving Irish beauty and a bad-tempered archbishop. But the question of whodunit is less engaging than the social theatre of the liner and a christening at the Sinclair family's Woollahra mansion, where po-faced matrons rub shoulders with artists and a clan of bearish Scots.

While some characters remain elusive, Gentill captures beautifully the camaraderie between Rowland's free-spirited friends. She also portrays the strands of bohemian and morally conservative society in which they cavort.

Verdict: a killer of a tale

...I really ought not to have enjoyed this book. Its hero, Rowly Sinclair, is the kind of world-wandering dilettante living off inherited wealth instead of the product of his own toil that should offend my lefty sensibilities. But, in what might be evidence that my principles are only skin deep, I like Rowly very much and loved the book too. Rowly is generous to all and a good and true friend to his pals (none of whom share his wealthy background). He also tries hard to fulfil the duties and obligations his family expect of him (except when it comes to marrying the string of suitable women they throw at him). His life is tinged with sadness too as his own mother does not acknowledge his existence, behaving instead as if he is his older brother who died in the war a dozen years earlier. His friends, a sculptress with whom Rowly is in love, a painter whose background is the complete opposite of Rowly's and a plagiarising poet with Communist sympathies, are nicely fleshed out too and the relationships between the various members of the group are a real highlight of this book. There is a real Australian feel to it too

Rowland Sinclair, Milton Isaacs and Clyde Watson Jones lined up at the foot of her bed, all leaning against the rail as they asked about her health. Annie Besant regarded them warmly. It was a particularly Australian habit, she observed - to lean. Australian men seem to lean whenever possible - against walls, posts, chairs. Her late husband would have considered it offensive, slovenly, but Annie found it somehow charming...Australians had the ability to relax in any company or circumstances - they would face Armageddon itself leaning casually on a fence. It put her at ease in their presence.

Another highlight of A Decline in Prophets is the way Gentill absorbs readers in the historical period using a combination of real characters and events (each chapter begins with a news clipping or other snippet to set the mood) and delicious facts and details scattered throughout what is a gripping mystery. It doesn't hurt that this period, falling between two world wars which seem to me be saturated by historical fiction, is somewhat under-represented in the historical fiction space. I really enjoyed the depiction of a wide range of political and social groups (including the much-maligned Freemasons) as well as the more personal experiences that might have been unique to the time. Even a visit to Sydney's Rockwood cemetery provides an interesting insight into the social norms of the day and the meeting of Rowly's bohemian friends and his sister-in-law's pious Scottish relatives is an opportunity for much observational wit.

The only real problem I had with this reading experience is that I gobbled the book up too quickly and now have a long wait for the third instalment of the series. The combination of thoughtfully drawn characters, gentle but clever humour and the obvious love Gentill has for the story she wants to tell and the time period in which it is set made this a very satisfying read for me and one I would recommend widely."

I have lost count of the recent publications of around 350 pages where I have wanted to do some serious pruning. However, it was with some relief that I zoomed through A Decline in Prophets, by Australian writer Sulari Gentill, without picking up the shears.

A Decline in Prophets is a second 'Rowland Sinclair Novel', and there could be a third in the offering. Rowland Sinclair is the novel's handsome, gentlemanly protagonist. Rowly, as his friends affectionately call him, lives the life of an artist in Woollahra, Sydney. He is the younger son of a grazing dynasty, and absolutely rolling in money. His friends include Norman Lindsay (Gentill has great fun dropping names).

The novel opens with Rowly on board a luxury liner returning to Sydney, via New York. With him are close Aussie friends: Enid a ditzy ''sculptress'' and two mates, one an artist, the other a lack-lustre poet. This lucky trio has been shouted by Rowly and share his Stateroom. Rowly, whose mansion is adorned with paintings of nudes, may seem privileged, but he is smart: he helps solve several murders while magically escaping the same fate.Rowley is surrounded by wealthy, educated eccentrics, all of a religious frame of mind. Annie is a Theosophist who is returning to New York while several other Theosophists are heading home to Sin City. There is also an Irish Catholic Bishop, two Catholic deacons, and the Bishop's wayward niece on board.

Gentill sets up a rollicking high-seas yarn topped off in Sydney with a fall from a bell tower and some shenanigans in a graveyard where Rowly has another close shave. And then, Rowly is briefly considered a Prophet, the second gorgeously farcical idea that Gentill has some fun with.

Readers will find an interesting twist in the relationship between Rowly and his older brother Wilfred. Wilfred is a judgmental, manipulative conservative and Rowly experiences considerable character assassination as he struggles to please his bully of a brother. The denouement is deft."