Pantheon
by Sam Bourne
HarperCollins (e-book)
Sam Bourne is the pen name of political journalist Jonathan Freeland, who has written several increasingly successful thrillers, often with real historical and ideological range. This goes double for Pantheon. Set shortly after the outbreak of the second world war, the plot follows the hundred or so children who were evacuated from Oxford, England, to Yale in the United States. The destinations are important, as they suggest a high intellectual pedigree. Bourne narrates his story through one family: Oxford academic James Zennor returns beaten in body and mind from the Spanish civil war. When his wife, Florence, disappears suddenly, taking son Harry with her, we assume it's because she has wearied of Zennor's post-traumatic stress. When Zennor realises his family has decamped to Yale, he follows. Once there, he meets a vampish investigative journalist who suspects that Yale's motives are anything but noble. Zennor then uncovers a secret coven of eugenicists. Bourne writes adequately, but with surprising woodenness. The story is interesting, if not overwhelming.