REVIEW: Fire Must Burn (A Sparks and Bainbridge Mystery Book 8) by Allison Montclair
The owners of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau are back, and more determined than ever to bring love matches to the residents of Post-WWII London . . . so something as trivial as being dragged into a spy mission isn’t going to stop them!
Sparks fly when an old friend comes to town . . .
London, 1947. After recent events have left the normally steadfast Iris Sparks thoroughly shaken, she’s looking forward to some peace. With The Right Sort doing well, she and business partner Gwen Bainbridge are due a holiday. Until Iris’s former boss enlists their help for a secret mission.
Iris, who left British intelligence after the war, is being recruited for her Cambridge connection to one Anthony Danforth. She hasn’t seen Tony in almost ten years, yet she and Gwen must manipulate him into hiring their marriage service.
Tony’s suspected of being a Soviet operative, and an undercover agent posing as his perfect match could discover the truth. Despite her reluctance at being dragged back into the world of espionage, Iris agrees. After all, Tony was once a very good friend. If he’s innocent, she’ll happily prove it. If not? Well, no one ever said being a spy was easy . . .
CW/TW – attempted sexual assault – on page, mention of past rape, suicide
Warning – This is book eight in the series. I don’t recommend starting here. There will be spoilers for past books in this review.
Dear Allison Montclair,
Yay! A new Sparks and Bainbridge murder mystery. Like the last one, “An Excellent Thing in a Woman,” the book focuses on both women though Spark’s past at Cambridge will figure heavily in the “why” and “who.”
One thing I truly love about this series is that each book delves deeper into what makes Sparks and/or Bainbridge tick. New layers are being added to both of them and the plots center on events of the day rather than just being mundane murder mysteries.
We start with a flashback, of which we will see several over the course of the story, of Sparks’ time as a student at Newnham College at Cambridge. As I would expect, she’s up to something and manages to succeed at it. This brings her a new friend, Anthony “Tony” Danforth who appreciates Sparks’ intelligence and lively nature. It also introduces Sparks to two other men who will figure in something that reverberates to the present day.
This all ties in with The Right Sort Marriage Bureau and what happened at the end of the last book. Now someone wants Iris and Gwen to assist with determining whether or not Tony is a Soviet spy. Iris is conflicted about doing this and Gwen is conflicted for Iris but they are assured that their part in this will be sparing and not (that far) outside of what they would do for any client. Only things go pear shaped and now there are not one but two investigations ongoing trying to determine a) is Tony a double agent and b) who tried to kill him. Caught in the middle are Iris and Gwen who know things the police don’t know and that they can’t reveal.
As the two women try and unravel the attempted murder, they begin to think it ties back with something, something awful, that happened eleven years ago. But Iris could never learn what actually happened which led to the death of a friend and discovering this will take the women, and Iris in particular, deep into a night that will cause her to examine her own actions.
Please note the CW/TWs I’ve included. Also remember that in real life several Cambridge grads were recruited and eventually became spies for the Soviet Union. Also, also remember that men in government positions were more likely to advance in their careers if they were “stable, married men.”
The Brigadier will ask Iris, whom he didn’t want to lose as an agent after the war, to assist as a favor for the favor he did in the last book. Very quickly this causes Gwen to regret what they’re doing. But it’s Iris who will have to examine her conscience and her past actions. This is not an easy book on her nor should it be. One thing I thought a bit weird is the current employment of a minor character given what that character saw and went through herself in the past.
It’s lovely to see Gwen and Sally’s romance progressing and I laughed at how Gwen twits Iris a little about how often Iris mentions Cambridge as well as the one-upwomanship going on between Iris and another person. Major hooray that solving what’s going on requires the individual skills, knowledge and positions of both Gwen and Iris. They really are a team. However, I found this installment a little less “action focused” than the previous few and caught a few of the reveals before they were revealed. Now I’m off to look up British beetles. Really. B
~Jayne
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I read this as an ARC. I thought that this was a solid addition to the Sparks & Bainbridge series, but not my favorite. I found it a bit darker, covering more sordid subject matters than some of the prior book. I think since the author switched to a different publisher, these books have become noticeably darker and more serious. Books 1-6 (published by Minotaur) were lighter cozy mysteries with witty banter and romantic elements. Books 7-8 (published by Severn House) feel more like thrillers or women’s fiction. The fast-paced, sharp, witty dialogue is still there, but think West Wing, not Bridgerton. Which you prefer is a matter of personal taste, but I think it’s a change that may lose some of the audience that got into the series from the beginning. Also, and this is speculative on my part, I think readers of WWII mysteries may be looking for a certain type of straightforward black and white/good vs evil escapism and the people and stories described in this book are all shades of gray, up until the end, which might make it hard to find an ideal audience, especially when it’s book 8 of a series.
I found the blurb of this book misleading. Not only does it make the book sound more fun, like the earlier cozy mysteries, it also hints at a direct continuation of earlier plot lines. However, my impression was that this book mostly ignores earlier plot lines (e.g. no developments happen with Gwen’s recent court battle or involvement with a family business, no significant progress in Iris’ relationship with Sally; no resolution of fallout from Iris’ recent loss and no developments in the will they won’t they relationship with Mike). On the plus side, I do think this book is a better “stand alone” story than the last 2 books, and a good entry point for readers looking for mysteries set in the post-WWII era.
The mysteries were satisfying and I was able to guess one of the reveals fairly early and another one of the reveals just beforehand based on the clues that the author left. One of the mysteries was left unsolved but it was still a satisfying and thoughtful way to end the story in my opinion. Romance was a missing element of this book, if that is something you are looking for, prepare for disappointment. It was a fairly short read, I finished it over 2 nights. I think the earlier books were generally in the 300 page range and books 7-8 under the new publisher have been in the 200 page range.
@Li: I agree somewhat about your thoughts that books 7-8 are darker but I though book 6 with the cancer death was also fairly dark. After Gwen signing herself somewhat under the Brigadier’s control, I figured this one, especially mentioning a possible Soviet spy, would be dark but the past events when Iris was in college were so dark. And the villain here is batshit. Are the best spies batshit?
I think Gwen’s court battles are over and she did mention offhand to Iris that she has board responsibilities for the business plus she and Sally seem to be enjoying at least the physical side of their relationship. I missed having the boys in this book. Perhaps Iris’s boat journey will help her with her recent loss.
But at this point, there are so many personal subplots and personal things (which I love) for both Iris and Gwen that it would be hard to stick all of them into each book.
@Jayne: You’re right, book 6 was dark too, maybe that was the inflection point? I remember being fairly shocked about the unexpected and sudden death of Gwen’s possible love interest in that one.
Sorry my review was meant for netgalley so I was being vague as to not give away spoilers. What I meant by “mostly ignores earlier plot lines (e.g. no developments happen with Gwen’s recent court battle or involvement with a family business” is that I was expecting more payoff based on the prior books’s discussion of her desire to get back her rights as a mother and business woman, like an exploration of her life now as a working mother and board member, how her sense of self evolves, how she juggles the adventures solving mysteries and being Sally’s girlfriend with motherhood and being a working woman. I mean I do find books/movies about mothers who do more-than-full time jobs (e.g. killer or spy) ludicrous most of the time, but interesting! In this book, Ronnie is weirdly absent, even from Gwen’s thoughts most of the time. Maybe this is because the author Alan Gordon is a man? He writes female friendships/relationships really well so I was expecting better.
For Iris, I was expecting maybe some signs of moving on and for Mike to show up again. I barely remember Parham from the prior books. Is he going to be playing the role of the police detective side kick now? If so, why spend all those prior books developing Mike and Iris’ relationship? That also felt weird to me.
I think you’re right in your review that “each book delves deeper into what makes Sparks and/or Bainbridge tick.” I was expecting more forward momentum in the characters’ lives based on the prior stories, but this book seems to be mostly looking backward.
Also agree with you that one of the highlights of these books is the lovely relationship between Gwen and Iris and I enjoy spending time with them together.
@Li:
These are all good points. Especially that she doesn’t seem to think of little Ronnie enough. I do like that she jumped into using her aristocratic connections to get them interviews and info.