The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds by T.E. Kinsey

But the stakes change dramatically when a mysterious death at the club brings a sinister note to the investigation. And the thief is planning to steal a hoard of jewels hidden there under the cover of a dance contest.Īs mutual pal Lady Hardcastle has suggested, Skins and Dunn are perfectly placed to be Sunderland’s eyes and ears-and Skins’s wife Ellie soon lends a hand with a bit of light snooping.

Superintendent Sunderland has had word that a deserter who stole a fortune in diamonds as he fled the war is a member of the Aristippus private members’ club in Mayfair-where the Dizzy Heights have a residency.

With their band the Dizzy Heights, jazz musicians Ivor ‘Skins’ Maloney and Bartholomew ‘Barty’ Dunn are used to improvising as they play the Charleston for flappers and toffs, but things are about to take a surprising turn. The problem is, everyone seems to have a motive, and everyone seems to have an alibi…In this locked-room mystery in which nothing is as it seems, the amateur sleuths need to put on the performances of their lives if they’re to stand a chance of shining a spotlight on the truth… Rustling up some cunning disguises of their own, she and Flo are soon in deep cover among the cast and crew, pulling back the curtain on some shocking secrets and rivalries… When other matters get in the way of Inspector Sunderland overseeing the case himself, he asks the ever-resourceful Lady H to keep a watchful eye on the suspects-and his police colleagues. One of the cast has been brutally murdered during the interval. Then Act Two opens with a body on stage-a real one. Lady Emily Hardcastle is celebrating her birthday by seeing a play at the Duke’s Theatre in Bristol with her maid and confidante, the inimitable Flo. But can they catch the killer before any more people drop dead? With the local constabulary baffled, Lady Hardcastle and Flo must use all their powers of wit and whimsy to get to the bottom of the dastardly deed. A secret someone will do anything-anything at all-to keep hidden. And evidence points to a macabre secret in the village stretching back years. The daring duo uncover whispers of an ancient order and moonlit rituals. When a second cider-related murder takes place, it quickly becomes clear that there’s more to these mysterious deaths than meets the eye.

Might the mysterious stranger they recently met in the village be to blame? The villagers are thrilled, but events quickly turn sour when one of them turns up dead in an apple orchard, stabbed through the heart.Īmateur sleuth Lady Hardcastle and her trusty lady’s maid, Flo, suddenly have a juicy case on their hands. A scorching heatwave engulfs the quiet town of Littleton Cotterell and brings about an unusually early harvest.

The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds by T.E. Kinsey