A Testament of Character by Sulari Gentill

When his friend Daniel Cartwright dies and names Rowland Sinclair as his executor, Rowland must divert his plans to return home to Australia from Singapore and travel to America. Daniel was vastly wealthy but appears to have disinherited his family in favour of a man called Otis Norcross, whom no one can find. In the aftermath of Daniel's death, the Cartwrights challenge Daniel's will, alleging that he was not of sound mind. After Rowland and his troupe of friends take suites at the Copley Plaza in Boston, they then embark on a journey that takes them through New York, Warwick and Baltimore as they track down answers to the questions that surround Daniel's death and the mysterious disappearance of Otis Norcross.

I was enchanted by Gentill’s recreation of an era when the journey from Singapore to Boston took two weeks, lawyers sported mutton-chop whiskers and you could identify a Mafioso by his hat. I also enjoyed the stylishness of the characters, and the atmosphere of opulence surrounding them. Rowland is extremely wealthy, so although his investigation into his friend’s death takes him to very dark places, he is often heard to say things like ‘We’ll have the valet bring round the Cadillac’. Contrast, between the poverty of post-Depression America and the lifestyle Rowland shares with his three close friends, is one of the strongest features of ‘A Testament of Character’.

The interaction between Rowland Sinclair, Edna Higgins, Milton Isaacs and Clyde Watson-Jones is intriguing. This is the ninth book in the series, so the four of them are enjoying a well-established network of intimate relationships, based on loyalty. Their often disastrous efforts to support each other contribute an element of humour to the tale.

In addition, throughout the book Gentill intersperses events with entertaining newspaper extracts from the period, providing the plot with a realistic and informative background. I was interested to learn how the author weaves together all these different elements, so I asked her a few questions about her methods. I’m very pleased to present her answers here. Thank you, Sulari!

Q&A with Sulari Gentil

What inspired the title, ‘A Testament of Character’?

To be honest, I did struggle finding a title for this book.  There’s a will at the centre of the story and so the word “testament” lent itself nicely… but so did “legacy” and “deed” and “heir” etc.  I went around in circles with increasingly long and ridiculous titles for a while.  My husband came up with A Testament of Character after listening to me complain about what to name the latest manuscript – he’s my first editor so he had read it.  He’s also the person most likely to have to listen to me complaining, so he was motivated to resolve the issue!  I knew immediately that it was right and thereafter couldn’t imagine it being called anything else… until my American publishers renamed it Where There’s a Will for the US release…

Are there advantages to writing about a time when society was less dependent on technology?Absolutely.  Googling someone does not write nearly as well as digging into their past by talking to their associates, visiting their old haunts or putting together disparate observations into patterns. The advent of mobile phones makes it much harder for amateur sleuths to get themselves into life-threatening predicaments. And modern forensics makes the idea of a lay investigator outwitting the constabulary rather implausible.  My writing is quite character based, and so an era when conversations and courage were the mainstay of detective work suits me.  That’s not to say that I don’t wish sometimes that it didn’t take quite so long for people to get from one place to another in the 1930s.  If Rowland wishes to travel abroad, I have to write six weeks on an ocean liner into the timeline of the narrative.

Which comes first for you, the story idea or the research?

The story comes first.  I research as I go, which I suppose is a necessity of the way I write.  I am what is referred to in Australia as a ‘pantser’, in that I write by the seat of my pants.  I don’t plot or plan at all, and have no idea what will be in the next paragraph let alone the rest the book.  I simply begin writing with an idea for the first sentence and the setting and allow the story to unfold as it will.  That said, I am particular that my research is correct and that I don’t contradict history.   I like to write into a scaffold of actual events. And I like to think that anything in my novels could have happened as I have written it.  The newspaper extracts at the head of each chapter are genuine, but I find them after the manuscript is complete.

The relationships between Rowland and the three friends who travel with him are intriguing. How do you see Milton fitting into the group dynamic?

Milton is in many ways the agent provocateur of the group.  He’s the foil to Clyde’s caution and Rowland’s courtesy.  In the beginning of the series, at least, he is more interested in changing the world than Rowland—which is understandable.  The world to which he was born is a great deal less comfortable than Rowland’s.  Together he and Clyde represent two different faces of the Australian Communist Party—the salt-of-the-earth worker and the flamboyant idealist.  He and Edna have known each other since childhood—their relationship is that of devoted siblings. He is outrageous, mischievous, impudent, irreverent and entirely unrepentant, but he is also unfailingly loyal and quite brilliant.

Roland is described by one character as being ‘endearingly naive’. How do his actions confirm this?

Rowland has a tendency to take people as he finds them and expect that everybody will behave rationally and reasonably.  That is probably naïve. There’s also a kind of quiet decency about Rowland Sinclair, an earnest belief that he should help, which is read by some as naiveté. But I think that might just be who he is, rather than a reflection of what he believes the world should be.

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