The Cold Light of Day

By Anna Lee Huber

Told in the first person by Verity Kent, the reader is quickly informed that Verity had served as a spy during The Great War with dangerous assignments in Europe. Her husband also did undercover work, but he emerged as a well recognized hero. Despite needing to recover from their war experiences, including Verity’s belief that her husband Sidney had died, they quickly became a power couple invited to the very best homes in Britain. Money never seems to be a limitation for them.

The plot of The Cold Light of Day is tortuously twisted. Neither Verity nor Sidney knows which characters can be trusted as they work through unofficial assignments in Ireland where the two main branches of Irish rebels (Irish Republican Army and Sinn Féin) are resisting British rule. In talking about Irish resentment, she says “The Irish might be considered British citizens, but always second or third class.” The author researched the conflict well and is able to give the reader both sides of the revolution with Britain promising certain rights and then never fulfilling them. Both sides resorted to violence during this period.

The Kents live a double life in Ireland. They assume their natural role as socialites with their peers. Verity is a talented linguist so she also poses as an Irish house cleaner to be able to go places she can not visit as a glamorous Brit. Meanwhile, Sidney mixes with the males, some of whom were undercover or military during the war. They discuss current and past events after a few pints, and Sidney follows up on some of the things they divulge. They also bond over horse racing and riding.

The couple’s focus is on locating some missing phosgene cylinders so that this poisonous gas can not be used against either population. Also missing is Alec who formerly worked with Verity during her undercover years. In the middle of these searches, while trying to not trigger an enemy from either side, Verity is asked to solve the mystery of a young woman who has committed suicide. Even that effort becomes very complicated. When Verity confronts the British officials, she finds them very condescending; but when Nimble, her husband’s “batman” during the war and now his trusted valet, is brutalized and arrested, she stands up to those powerful men and makes them release him. She occasionally falls back on feminine wiles to manipulate men, using tricks she had to employ during the war.

The Cold Light of Day showed me how little I know about Irish history—especially the more recent Irish Revolution. Huber brings to light what people at that time experienced and how and why their loyalties were sometimes influenced by their humanity and often by their upbringing. The British in charge politically and militarily in Ireland were often motivated by greed, power, and career potential. There were many on both sides of the conflict who were willing to give up their lives for what they saw as the right thing to do.

I have read a few books in this well-written series, and I think it has just gotten better as it progressed. The author is skilled at creating believable characters from all classes—villains, heroes,  and everyday workers. A thread that runs through the series is the character, actions, and motivations of Lord Ardmore. Almost everything bad can be traced back to his manipulations behind the scenes. I am not a fashionista, but I do like Huber’s descriptions of Verity’s clothes from the disguises as a “care woman” to her exquisite designs that attract both male and female attentions.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Mystery

Notes: #7 in the Verity Kent Mystery series. I would not recommend it as a stand alone as there is so much critical background about the protagonists in the previous books.

Publication: October 24,  2024—Kensington

Memorable Lines:

But for every upstanding soldier there seemed to be another who took pleasure in the task of bullying and belittling those they were supposed to be protecting, not just policing.

Curse these men who had decided cutting women’s hair was a justified action. And curse the society who colluded in the weaponizing of shearing women’s hair by dint of the fact that somehow its length was an indication of virtue.

But while I’d failed to give chase, I had noted one particular thing about Collins’s bicycle. Its chain rattled like old Marley’s shackles from Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. That was something I was certain I would recognize if I heard it again.