Everything to Hide

A seasoned police detective and a dog with a nose for crime. One dead body. Twelve suspects.

Sydney, Australia, 1933: Wealthy impresario and amateur Egyptologist Roland Cuthbert Barry is murdered on his 60th birthday, and everyone attending the evening’s celebrations is a suspect.

Detective Senior Sergeant Harold Chesterfield of Sydney Central Police has been sent by Chief Inspector Ron Thompson to Barry Island on the Hawkesbury River and the rambling sandstone house of the wealthy Barry family. Thompson is a longtime friend of Roland Barry, who has confided in him about threatening notes he has received, suggesting he will be held to account for past actions.

Harold Chesterfield discovers a curious cast of characters at Barry Island: a long-suffering wife and an ambitious young mistress; a Russian ballet dancer who isn’t what he seems; Roland’s daughter and her lover, an Egyptian woman; the family doctor with a secret past; Roland’s two troubled sons; and the evening’s entertainment, a psychic medium, who, from the moment she steps foot on Barry Island, declares something terrible will happen.

With Harold is Ben, an English Pointer with a nose for crime; together, Harold and Ben will face their most challenging case.

Australia is in the grip of the Great Depression, and Harold is surrounded by opulence: tuxedos, sequinned dresses, and sumptuous food. But when a severe storm hits and the electricity and telephone are cut off, Harold and the guests find that Roland Barry’s vast wealth cannot protect him, and Harold must uncover secrets, discover motives and find the killer.

Who knows more than they’re telling? Who has everything to hide?

‘Everything to Hide is a hugely entertaining novel. K.V. Martins has created a suitably eerie atmosphere; the guests are all beautifully illustrated, in several cases by comparing their likenesses to film stars of the day. A terrific read!’

Reading High Reviews (Full review here)

''It's going to come as no surprise to any readers of EVERYTHING TO HIDE, that author K.V. Martins is a fan of historical crime fiction, in particular, the work of Dame Agatha Christie. It should also come as no surprise that she has a background in history and archaeology.

This is a novel set in 1933 Sydney, Australia, with a strong hat tip to some of the well-known interests and themes of Christie, set within the world of Egyptology, wealthy families, tyrannical fathers, weekend house parties, and a locked room scenario.

There’s much to like about Everything To Hide, which fits nicely into the timeframe it’s designed to come from, with lots of habits and sensibilities that gave a very strong sense of time, to say nothing of reminders of the deprivations of the Great Depression outside this world of privilege and excess.'

Karen Chisholm

Australian Crime Fiction (Full review here)