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Death in Focus (Elena Standish Book 1)

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Death in Focus (Elena Standish Book 1)

By: Anne Perry
Narrated by: Polly Edsell
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New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry brings us an exciting new thriller of espionage and murder set across Europe in the 1930s. The world is on the brink of war and no one is to be trusted as young photographer Elena Standish becomes embroiled in a terrifying game of cat and mouse...

It is 1933 and Europe is a place of increasing fear and violence. Young British photographer Elena Standish is on assignment in Amalfi when she meets Ian Newton, a charming Englishman with whom she falls in love. But what does she really know about him?

Accompanying him on a train across Italy to Paris, she finds him critically stabbed and dying. He tells her he is a member of Britain's Secret Service, on his way to Berlin to warn MI6 so that they can foil a plot to assassinate one of Hitler's vilest henchmen and blame Britain for it, thus causing a devastating diplomatic crisis. Elena promises to deliver the message. But she is too late, and finds herself fleeing for her life.

Meanwhile Lucas Standish, secret head of MI6 during the war, learns that his beloved granddaughter is being hunted in Berlin for murder. With Elena on the run, and at least one traitor in the British Embassy, it is impossible to know who to trust...

Praise for Anne Perry's previous novels:

'A brilliant Victorian police procedural in which well-realized characters and settings are fascinating in themselves' Booklist

'Engrossing... Perry has always excelled in courtroom scenes and arguments between barristers, and she outdoes herself in two dramatic trials'Washington Times Daily

'Perry balances plot and character neatly before providing a resolution that few will anticipate'Publishers Weekly

(P)2019 Headline Publishing Group Ltd©2019 Anne Perry Crime Fiction Espionage Historical Mystery Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Fiction War Exciting Italy Detective Crime
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Critic reviews

Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries are marvels of plot construction... truly remarkable
There is a freshness about [Perry's] writing which makes it truly exceptional and I was gripped until the final page. Death on Blackheath was one of the best books I've read this year and I cannot recommend it highly enough
Elegantly constructed and nail-bitingly tense
The investigation concludes in a hold-your-breath trial... A brilliant Victorian police procedural in which well-realized characters and settings are fascinating in themselves
Give her a good murder and a shameful social evil, and Anne Perry can write a Victorian mystery that would make Dickens' eyes pop out
Engrossing... Perry has always excelled in courtroom scenes and arguments between barristers, and she outdoes herself in two dramatic trials ... The book gallops to a dramatic conclusion
A truly unusual mystery... Perry balances plot and character neatly before providing a resolution that few will anticipate
Redolent with Victorian atmosphere, from the hypocritical snobbishness to the rigid social conventions of the time
All stars
Most relevant
Story is excellent but the reader is very poor. You have to try and ignore the dreadful plummy accent that she gives several of the characters.

Great story as always by Anne Perry

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I have enjoyed every Anne Perry book I've read in every medium. But, the narrator for this novel destroys the story. I cannot listen to her without wincing as she continuously 'puts on' supposed upper class accents. She cannot manage a male voice and her female voices are insipid. I gave her a chance. I listened to six excrutiating chapters. The audible purchase was a waste of money. Instead, I shall borrow the book from the library.

Anne Perry foine. Narrator Zero.

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I found this book quite gripping and enjoyed the plot. The only thing I found irritating is that the text stated that Elena had an American mother but the narrator gave the grandmother an American accent and the mother an English one.

I enjoyed this book

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took a while to get going then dead bodies everywhere... lovely posh folks too,

good old fash cloak and dagger stuff

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Many unlikely turns and lots of clichés. Felt like the script of a third rate movie. Compared to this the occasional anachronism is just a minor quibble. As in another of the author's (can't recall the title, it was the first in the Inspector Monk series) I did enjoy the interior dialogue. In fact, I very much enjoyed that one, full stop. So this one was a bit of a disappointment.

Lots of clichés

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