The perfect quirky nostalgic crime read - a tale of steam trains, giant squid, missing screenplays, missing mothers and a quest for the truth, from the inimitable Malcolm Pryce
It's the winter of 1948. The four great railway companies have just been nationalised and Jack Wenlock - the last of a fabled cadre of railway detectives - is thrown out onto the street.
Penniless, with new bride Jenny to support, and hiding from a murderous organisation called Room 42, Jack's prospects look bleak.
But then a letter arrives from a mysterious Cornish Countess revealing that Jack's mother - long believed to be dead - may have survived a shipwreck off the coast of Java. Seizing the opportunity to track down his only remaining family member, Jack and Jenny board a boat heading East.
The trail takes them to a run-down Siamese hotel where a motley assortment of drifters has washed up. Here a spy, an assassin, a deserter, an old soldier and a fading Hollywood movie star all await the arrival of a missing part for a flying boat and a journey that will take them into the realm of myth.
But if Jack is ever to see his mother again, he has to stop them…
| ISBN: | 9781408895276 |
| Publication date: | 4th February 2021 |
| Author: | Malcolm Pryce |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 352 pages |
| Genres: |
Crime and mystery: private investigator / amateur detectives Crime and mystery: hard-boiled crime, noir fiction Satirical fiction and parodies Humour |