The last two novels of the Alms for oblivion sequence are the most complicated and ambitious, and in many ways also the most effective in the sequence. Obviously, Vintage decided to arrange their omnibus edition this way simply to make the three volumes all about the same length, but there is also a strong sense that these two books are the ones that wrap up the threads laid out in the first eight, at the same time as setting up for the First-born of Egypt sequence that follows them.

Bring forth the body is set in 1972 and takes the outward form of a detective story. A body is found in the opening pages, and (once the necessary formalities to cover up any possible scandal have been gone through) it is up to Captain Detterling and Leonard Percival to investigate the cause of death. Detterling has appeared in most of the earlier books in the sequence, but this is the first time he has really acted as a developed central character. He serves as an amateur counterpart — a sort of amoral Lord Peter Wimsey — to Percival, the cynical professional investigator. As they look into the career of the deceased, digging up the requisite number of juicy scandals (mostly thoroughly disgusting, and served up with Raven's usual relish), Raven uses the opportunity to push his idea of the randomness of fate, the trivial event that has unimaginable consequences in the future.

The survivors, set in 1973, opens with most of the major characters in Venice for a writers' conference, almost certainly a little dig at Anthony Powell, who does the same thing in Temporary Kings. It also fits in with the big upsurge of interest in Venice after the 1966 floods, both political and cultural (Visconti's film of Death in Venice appeared in 1971, Britten's opera in 1973). Raven also has a significant death, and plenty of doom and gloom about Venice's environmental problems and the apparent indifference of the Venetians to the destruction of their heritage, but sets it off against a racy historical mystery that is being unravelled by Fielding Gray. The title also gives us a strong hint that this isn't primarily a story about death: as usual, it is the unscrupulous, amoral and devious life-force that triumphs. ( )

Simon Raven's Alms for Oblivion series is a delightful, beautifully written, absolutely addictive, and entirely scabrous look at the English upper classes at play (and occasionally a bit of work). When you start the first in the series, be warned that you won't want to read anything else until you've completed the final volume. Highly recommended. ( )