Death Of An Officer is the latest in my Frank Merlin WW2 London detective series. The book is set in May 1943 and Merlin is charged with the investigation of two violent deaths, one of an Indian medical man in his Kensington flat, and the other of a well-dressed young man found buried under the rubble of an East End bomb site.
In researching the book I identified a number of themes I wanted to develop in the book. One was the world of illicit clubs that existed in WW2 London, including drinking clubs, gambling clubs, and vice clubs catering to both heterosexual and homosexual clientele.
I was also attracted by an unusual political theme – a substantial number of Indians at the time, including many living in England, mistrusted British promises of Indian independence or semi-independence after the war. To some of these it seemed that the surest chance of Indian independence rested on the Germans winning the war and they acted in accordance with that belief.
As in some of my previous books, leading members of the London gangster community, some real, some fictional, are thrown into the mix. Gangs had a great time in the war. As the notorious mobster and hit man ‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser famously said ‘I’ll never forgive that coward Hitler for giving in…the war was a golden time for us criminals’. Most people are unaware that a huge crime boom took place in WW2, particularly in London and other major UK cities. Reported crime in England and Wales grew by around 60% between 1939 and 1945. Contributory factors included the blackout, the black market, the pervasive gang culture, and a rapidly growing market for sexual services which was considerably accelerated by the arrival of the American forces in 1942. In the latter stages of the war the home grown gangsters, like Billy Hill, Jack ‘Spot’ Comer, and the Messina Brothers, were joined in their criminal activities by ruthless foreign gangs made up largely of American and Canadian deserters.
Merlin as usual is joined in his Death Of An Officer investigations by his trusty Scotland Yard team. Inevitably he and they ruffle the feathers of powerful people and powerful criminals alike. Merlin also finds his professional activities impacting his personal life in a seriously frightening way.
Death Of An Officer is the 6th book in the Merlin series, which started off with The Embassy Murders set in earl 1940, a period known as the Phoney War, and featuring investigations into violent deaths at Joe Kennedy’s US Embassy. Other books have featured the search for lost Russian gold in the midst of the Blitz, the hunt for a lethal French spy, murder amongst the wartime London film community, and a mystery related to Nazi-looted Jewish art. My work in progress, Frank Merlin 7, takes place in February 1944 and the plot revolves, inter alia, around deserter-gang activity and espionage in the run up to D-Day.
Mark Ellis is the author of the Frank Merlin WW2 detective series which is published by Headline and Audible. His latest book, Death Of An Officer, won the award for Best Crime Fiction Novel of 2025 at the recent inaugural Bloody Barnes Crime Festival.
