M. J. Trow: Lestrade and the Magpie

From the Publisher
England in 1920 is a land fit for heroes. So why is one of those heroes found dead in a dingy London hotel? And why does his war record show that he has been missing, presumed killed in action, for three years?

The deceased is none other than the fiance of Superintendent Lestrade's daughter. When her tears are dry, she sets out on a quest to find his murderer.

With Sholto Lestrade, one murder has a habit of leading to another, and this time is no exception: a second body turns up, linked to the first. How can a woman killed in an air raid in 1917 be found with a bullet through her head three years later?

Lestrade and his daughter go undercover in Britain's War Office, in the Foreign Office, at a film studio, and at Scotland Yard itself. When a succession of foreigners is murdered with the same tell-tale weapon, it begs the question, has World War II begun already? Is this the work of the Germans? The Communists? The Black and Tans?

Despite the international intrigue that surrounds these murders, however, the case takes on a decidedly British cast when Lestrade's daughter is kidnapped and signs point to the nation's own internal security service, MI5.

M. J. Trow: Lestrade and the Magpie. Regnery Publishing, ISBN: 0895262894 (April, 2000), 218 p., $19.95