Autumn In Oxford by Alex Rosenberg

 

Tom Wrought, an American teaching for a semester at Oxford falls in love with Liz Spencer, one of his neighbors.  The problem is that both are married.  They start an affair anyhow.  Tom pretty easily sheds his marriage but Liz has children and supports her husband so it is more complicated for her.  Before she can get herself free, her husband is pushed in front of a train and Tom, who was on his way to meet her, is arrested for the murder.

Tom has had a varied career.  He is teaching history but has worked in the United States with the civil rights movement, has a military stint behind him and worked for the CIA for a short time.  In addition to teaching, Tom reviews books and writes articles for the newspapers.  

Liz finds a barrister that is as determined as she is to find the real killer and set Tom free.  The two women soon determine that the plot against Tom goes back to his young student days when he was a member of the Communist party for a short while and some of his articles that hint at secrets the government wants kept hidden, both in England and in the United States.  Can the three find a way to set Tom free?

Alex Rosenberg is a professor of philosophy at Duke University but he also makes contributions to economic and the philosophy of biology.  He has written multiple novels that use history as a starting point.  In this book, I thought too much time was spent at the beginning establishing Liz and Tom's affair but outside of that one quibble, I enjoyed learning more about the time after World War II and the various government agencies that were set up to protect us but often take actions that question that mandate.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.