Chapter One. Enter Agatha. London, 1923. "Sex, as a word, had not been mentioned out loud in my young days, but there had been plenty of it. Maybe not talked about so much, but enjoyed far more than nowadays. Though usually labelled 'Sin,' I can't help feeling that that was preferable to what it seems nowadays. A taboo subject." Agatha Crowley lit a cigarette and put it into the end of her black holder. She bent her left...

Chapter Three. The 43 Club. London, 1923. It was the dawn of a new era. The time of Flappers, cocktails, frivolity, and the Charleston. In the 1920s, London's toes were tapping to the new sound of jazz. Everybody wanted to dance, nobody wanted to sleep, and nightclubs were mushrooming around the city's West End. Deep in the heart of Soho, at 43 Gerrard Street, was a small, intimate nightspot known simply as the '43'. Its...

Chapter Four. The Incredible Theft. England, 1924. "MISTER BROWN. COME AT ONCE. YOU ARE NEEDED." That was all the telegram said. And, apart from the fact that Sir Oscar Trevelyan of Mostyn Manor, in Surrey, was one of the best-known financial magnates in the City of London, that was all that Sexton Brown knew of the case when he left his rooms in Farringdon and drove to Victoria Railway Station. It was then half-past seve...

Chapter Five. Lust on the Nile. xxx Egypt, 1924. Agatha Crowley stood on the foredeck of the narrow boat and looked up at the enormous yellow ball that was the sun shining from a cloudless sky. It had been a pleasant journey by sea from the port of Southampton to the port of Alexandria aboard the 525-foot steamship SS Heliopolis. Passage to Egypt had cost her the princely sum of sixty pounds which, since her best-selling...

Chapter Seven. The Regatta Mystery. Established in 1839, the Henley Royal Regatta is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It differs from the three other regattas rowed over approximately the same course: the Henley Women's Regatta, Henley Masters Regatta, and Henley Town and Visitors' Regatta, each of which is an entirely separate event. The regatta lasts six days (Tu...

Chapter Eight. And Then There Were None. xxx A bitter wind swept over the chill waters of the River Thames, sending savage gusts into the faces of the three huddled men. It was a moonless night as the men drew their scarves about their necks and brought their cloth caps further down onto their heads. "This haul should fetch us a pretty penny, eh, Lefty?" "Shut yer trap! And take up the slack there." "Don't mind him, Charl...

Chapter Nine. Cat Amongst The Pigeons. England, 1924. Agatha Crowley thought that there was something quite erotic about the game of tennis in 1924. The modern era has brought in a more casual look to ladies' attire, which she welcomed wholeheartedly. On this fine Sunday afternoon at Ashe Manor in Wychwood, under Ashe, the famous author of crime fiction in pulp magazines was wearing a white button-down shirt over a drop-w...