Unlike most mystery writers, Barnard seems never to repeat himself; each
book has a new setting and new characters. This particular effort is
remarkable less for the mystery and more for the time period–rural
England in the interval between the Wars. The main characters, the
Hallams, are a well-to-do family dedicated to Peace and the League of
Nations. And though this was written in 1987, I found that a number of
passages resonated with the events of the last several years. Here,
one of the younger Hallams has just heard of the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War, and is on fire to go enlist in the fight against Franco. His
father Dennis responds thus:

“Will, dear old thing,” said Dennis earnestly, “I know how one reacts
at first to things like this: one wants to fight back. It’s an almost
irresistable urge. But one has to resist it! Fighting back never
settled anything.”

“Fighting back settled the Spanish Armada,” said Will, obviously
clutching at the first historical example that came into his head.
“What good have all your motions and resolutions done for Abyssinia? Did
they stop Herr Hitler from marching into the Rhineland? They’re just
impotence with a loud voice.”

“That’s a very fine phrase, Will,” said Dennis quietly. “But is that
really all your mother’s and my work means to you?”

Will looked momentarily shamefaced, and Helen said quickly:

“No, Dennis, you shouldn’t put it like that. This is not a personal
thing. The point is that if the governments of the world put their
hearts into economic sanctions they really will work. And they’ll work
without the terrible senseless slaughter we went through in the war.”

“If, if, if,” said Will impatiently. “But of course they won’t put their
heart into sanctions. Half of them will be hoping Franco wins. Just
watch Cousin Mostyn tomorrow. He’ll be positively purring at the
prospect. And he’s in the government.”

Substitute Iraq, Saddam, and the U.N. for Spain, Franco, and the League
of Nations, and you’ve got a conversation that could have happened just
months ago…and probably.

I have my doubts about economic sanctions; from what I can tell, economic
sanctions are simply a way to hold the common folk of a country
hostage for the good behavior of their leaders–and if their leaders
truly cared about the common folk we probably wouldn’t be thinking about
sanctions. But clearly they won’t work if some of the nations levying the
sanctions are cheating. And from what I hear about the Oil-for-Food program
and the actions of the French and the Russians in the years during which
sanctions were in place on Iraq, it seems pretty clear that young Will
Hallam is right on the money.

Other than that bit of political observation, though, the book was rather
ho-hum.