J. G. Kelly

The White Lie appealed to my interest in the stark landscape of Antarctica and I was really intrigued by the storyline which is set around the legend of Captain Scott and his companions' ill-fated Antarctic expedition which led to their deaths in 1912. This book considers an alternative conclusion in which the men didn't die naturally but were murdered.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard was to have met the men but turned back when he couldn't see them. In later years he finds himself tormented by the guilt. Falcon Grey is a young man who was taken in by Cherry after a rocket attack in WWII and it falls to him on Cherry's death to try and find out the truth of what happened, with some risk to himself as somebody clearly wants it to remain a mystery.

I enjoy books where fact is combined with fiction and The White Lie is a great example of this, taking a piece of history that is so well-known and adding a murderous slant to it. I must admit to being a little out of my depth at times when it became quite complex, but there was much I enjoyed about it, including the details of Falcon's childhood and his unstinting search for the truth, along with the secret diary of Captain Scott. This is a well-written and inventive work of historical crime fiction.… (más)