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Lessons in Keeping a Dangerous Promise
By Charlie Cochrane
Published by the author, 2021
Five stars

The lovely Cambridge Fellows series bridges quite a length of time, and there is a distinct “before�� and “after�� in the chronology. This book is set in 1923, which is in the “after:�� after the Great War; after the death of Jonty’s parents; after the trauma of the War’s end, when Jonty and Orlando each think the other lost.

The mystery that our sleuths take on in this book is very much an “after�� as well. An acquaintance asks Orlando and Jonty to fulfill a promise he took on himself under fire from someone very close to him. That someone didn’t survive the war. With all the dropping of hints, our friends realize that their client is like them, and mourning a loss they understand all too well.

So begins a quiet adventure in small town gossip, rumor, and the power of unjust words to damage a life beyond repair. Aided by Jonty’s sister Lavinia, they visit various players in a drama enacted in 1913 (“before��) and begin to unravel the truth. The whole story is a study in personalities and the secrets people keep.

This is a particularly poignant tale, handled with empathy and delicacy that both suit the historical moment, and our protagonists�� distinctive circumstances. Jonty and Orlando are still tender with the traumas that the war brought on them, yet mindful of how fortunate they are compared to the sufferings of others.

They solve the mystery (no surprise there); but the end of the story required rereading before I fully understood its quiet purpose. The world in 1923 was still a place of secrets for men like our heroes, and the complications of trying to find happiness when you know that most folks are against you is something few people fully comprehend. Cochrane manages to make it all very clear, without ever imposing a modern perspective.