Simon Brett worked as a produced in radio and television before taking up writing full-time. He was awarded an OBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours for services to Literature and also was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2014 he won the CWA’s prestigious Diamond Dagger for an outstanding body of work. simonbrett.com
Also by Simon Brett
The Fethering Mysteries
Bones Under the Beach Hut
Guns in The Gallery
The Corpse on The Court
The Strangling on The Stage
The Tomb in Turkey
The Killing in the Café
The Liar in the Library
The Charles Paris Theatrical Series
Dead Room Farce
A Decent Interval
The Cinderella Killer
The Mrs Pargeter Mysteries
Mrs Pargeter's Point of Honour
Mrs Pargeter's Principle
Mrs Pargeter's Public Relations
First published in Great Britain, the USA and Canada in 2019
by Black Thorn, an imprint of Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
blackthornbooks.com
This digital edition first published in 2019 by Black Thorn, an imprint of Canongate Books
First published in 2017 by Severn House Publishers Ltd,
Eardley House, 4 Uxbridge Street, London W8 7SY
Copyright © Simon Brett, 2017
The moral right of the author has been asserted
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is purely coincidental.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 78689 486 1
eISBN 978 1 78689 503 5
To Alicia,
with love
from Ong Noi
Contents
ONE
‘And I think it’s very important for a writer to have a secure emotional base at home. In the solitude behind one’s desk one travels a roller-coaster of ideas and impressions, so it’s good when one returns from the wilder shores of the imagination, to be able to settle back into a reality in which one feels grounded. And I am fortunate to have found that emotional grounding with my wife – not my first wife; many of us make mistakes when we are young and foolish (SMALL CHUCKLE) – but the right wife. In my case, Persephone.’
The speaker’s words prompted an only-just-audible sigh of satisfaction in Fethering Library. His audience, mostly female and mature, felt comforted by avowals of marital love. Particularly when they came from a writer as eminent as that evening’s guest, Burton St Clair. They knew, from their reading of the Daily Mail, how often fame and fortune triggered promiscuity. It was nice to be in the company of someone who hadn’t been spoiled by success.
He stood in front of a display sent to the library by the publicity department of his publishers. There was a large posed photograph of the author looking soulful, along with a blown-up image of his bestselling book, Stray Leaves in Autumn. On a table beside him were stack piles of the recently published paperback edition.
Jude was as pleased as the rest of the audience to hear the writer’s