DCI Frank Merlin

Mark Ellis’s DCI Frank Merlin novels follow an Anglo-Spanish Scotland Yard detective through wartime London from the Phoney War of 1940 into 1943. The Embassy Murders begins amid uneasy Anglo-American diplomacy; In the Shadows of the Blitz moves into the Battle of Britain and Blitz; The French Spy expands into the international espionage world of 1941; A Death in Mayfair opens as Pearl Harbor brings the United States into the war; Dead in the Water is set in 1942; and Death of an Officer continues Merlin’s investigations in spring 1943.

The series combines fictional police procedurals with a closely researched Home Front setting in which bombing, black markets, espionage and reduced police manpower create opportunities for ordinary and organised crime. Several historical figures appear under their own identities, while Merlin, his colleagues and the central murder conspiracies are fictional. The first three books have been republished under new titles: Prince’s Gate became The Embassy Murders, Stalin’s Gold became In the Shadows of the Blitz, and Merlin at War became The French Spy.