Safe Return Doubtful

American Literature – published July 2026

I’m new to Mark Haber, and on the strength of this I will be seeking out more of his books. I was assured that he writes with wry humour, usually succinct historical fiction featuring flawed male narrators. That certainly is the case here.

Gerard Desacroux IV, the son of a dead French nobleman has been exiled to Berchtesgaden, “a lump of land tottering between Bavaria and Saxony.” Gerard’s opinion regarding his geographical location is just the start of his bottomless apathy and contempt. He is a sort of baron or petty king, but that chiefly means keeping the locals at bay and various menial privala series of food tasters ready to monitor potential poisonings. Like a chastened teenager though, he is filled with apathy and contempt at his geographical situation, a place where winter is “greedily devouring ten months of the year with the remaining two left for mud and disease”.

The only brightness on his horizon is a woman, Ada, with whom he once had a short affair in Paris as a younger man. He has invited her to visit, unfortunately with a husband, the heir to a fortune in the paisley-design business. They are apparently on route, and he has assigned his useless butler to watch for them.

Despite the setting being the dying days of the Holy Roman Emoure, the late 18th century, Gerard’s character could be from any era; he is the archetypal wastrel, incompetent at almost everything he does and yet constantly incensed at other people’s efforts.

Haber writes with great skill though, for as useless and ignorant as Gerard is, he is still in power, and getting the balance right so it remains plausible, is key. It’s a sharp depiction of fetid indignant leadership.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5