Death in Berlin / M.M. Kaye

 

Death in Berlin by M.M. Kaye
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo

3.25 stars

I know for a fact that I read this novel back in the 1980s, but I remembered nothing about it. Actually, I think it is the most forgettable of Kaye's mystery books, perhaps because of the grey, dismal surroundings of Berlin immediately after WWII. Kaye manages to make the ruins and relics somewhat impressive, but only the family backyard and the cherry blossoms seem at all beautiful. Quite unlike her usual exotic settings. But she was describing the Berlin that she stayed in as an army wife, the role allotted to Stella Melville in this tale.

These mysteries are frightfully predictable, at least with regards to the heroine’s love life, if not the identity of the murderer. Miranda, our main character, becomes accidentally enmeshed in the very first killing and remains at the centre of the storm for the duration. Of course, there is an improbably attractive man, Simon Lang, in charge of the investigation. How someone young enough to be a romantic interest for our girl in her late teens/early twenties could possibly achieve the rank of lead investigator is conveniently omitted.

Another unusual facet of this story is that Miranda is not as good at putting the clues together as other Kaye heroines. She spends a great deal of the book confused and scared. She is also sans female friends, unlike Death in the Andamans, which I read earlier in this year's Bingo. Although staying with her cousin’s family in Berlin, she has very little emotional support. This also detracts from the charm of the story, at least for me. There also seemed to be an emphasis on possible marital infidelities that seemed overdone. Kaye generally has at least one rather greasy philanderer per novel, but this one seemed rather catty, with women looking to snag one another's husbands.

I'm always nonplussed by the rapidity of the decision to marry in novels of this vintage. However, Kaye's husband is reputed to have proposed to her after five days acquaintance and by the time he got divorced from his first wife, Kaye was pregnant with their second child. They were married on Armistice Day 1945. So perhaps she knew something about wandering spouses, especially in the years just after the war.

This novel will never be my favourite Kaye mystery, but I'm still glad to have renewed my acquaintance with it.




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