This is the seventh in the Joe Sandilands murder mystery series. It is set in Folies Bergere, Paris, December 1926. Joe hurries to the assistance of an old friend who has been arrested for murder. In a cell of the Quai des Orfevres he meets with Sir George Jardine, still in the evening dress stained with the blood of the dead man. The only other witness, a blonde who was sharing the victim’s box, has vanished. Assistance for Joe comes from an entirely unexpected quarter – Francine, a young usherette, clawing her way into the world of the Paris Music Hall. It is she who becomes Joe’s guide through this treacherous place where Joe is sure the killer is lurking.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“‘Cleverly’s (novel) evokes and in some ways surpasses the work of Agatha Christie’ Publishers Weekly ‘The atmosphere of the dying days of the Raj is colourfully captured’ Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph ‘A great blood and guts blockbuster’ Guardian ‘Solidly plotted throughout’ Literary Review”
From the Author
This is the frothiest of the Sandilands series and, I hope, catches some of the spirit of Paris in the late twenties. It’s the world of Josephine Baker, Sydney Bechet, Coco Chanel and Georges Simenon; there’s a frenetic determination to have fun, to see a show at the Folies, to drink champagne and dance till dawn at a jazz club in Montmartre. But under all the glamour there’s a darker world of crime and vice and Joe has to navigate his way through this to solve a series of grotesque murders. Impossible to write about Paris without a love story breaking out and there is one – though an unexpected one!
About the Author
Barbara Cleverly was born in the north of England and is a graduate of Durham University. A former French teacher, her Joe Sandilands series was inspired by the contents of an old trunk in her attic. She now lives in the middle of Cambridge.
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