A novelist writing a tell-all memoir, a society beauty asking for help, an international explorer in danger. This is one for Posie Parker!

Summer, 1921.

Newly successful Private Detective Posie Parker was about to enjoy a restful summer. Think again!

Invited by society beauty Lady Violet Boynton-Dale to her ancestral home, Boynton Hall, to investigate dangerous threats which are being made against her brother, the dashing Explorer Alaric Boynton-Dale, Posie leaves London for the sun-dappled beauty of the Cotswolds. She finds that Boynton Hall is a place of opulent grandeur, but also of dark secrets, not least that Alaric is a man with jilted lovers and jealous husbands left trailing in his wake.

Garden parties and formal dinners abound, but a brooding mood persists. Why does the host, Lord Roderick Boynton-Dale, resent Posie’s presence at his home? And why does the resident novelist, Dame Ianthe Flowers, relish the poisonous atmosphere? Is Dame Ianthe simply looking for material for her new book, or, as she implies to Posie, does she have secret knowledge to impart?

But when Ianthe is found murdered, and the manuscript to her new book is nowhere to be found, Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. Meanwhile, Alaric himself has also vanished, and Posie uncovers a cryptic clue he has left behind.

Posie’s investigation to find Alaric takes her through the glamorous South of France, on to the mysterious Italian island of Ortigia, and then into the Tombs of the Pharaohs in Egypt.

But is Posie being followed by a cold-blooded killer? Where has Len Irving, her almost-boyfriend, disappeared to? And is her interest in Alaric purely professional, or is she falling under his charming spell?

Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie.

Clare Wille

Voice