Death Has Deep Roots

Two of the three main characters in this book are from previous novels, Major Angus McMann (They Never Looked Inside) and Noel Anthony Pontarlier ("Nap") Rumbold (The Doors Open).

Victoria Lamartine, a young French woman working at a small family hotel in Soho, has been arrested for the murder of an English major whom she had previously known in France during the war.

Rumbold, in particular, in trying to uncover new information in France, is put in particular danger by a murderous gang and at one point saves his life only by a desperate plunge into the Loire River.

Anthony Boucher of The New York Times said that "the first 1952 book to reach this reviewer's desk is one which wouldn't disgrace any Best-of-the-Year list" and went on to say that it concerned:...an important murder trial, with real understanding of courtroom psychology and technique.

But the camera eye of the author constantly flashes from this... to the efforts of two likable and believable amateurs detectives who are striving to assemble last-minute evidence for the defense; and their adventures, involving maquisards and collaborators from the past, and gold-smugglers and secret agents of the present, make a thriller as wildly exciting as the courtroom scenes are suavely persuasive.

[2]A much later appraisal comes from Barzun and Taylor's encyclopedic Catalogue of Crime: There have been many mystery tales based upon the activities of the French Resistance; few have been good, and fewer stand up to current rereading.