First published in Great Britain in 2020
by Egmont UK Limited
2 Minster Court, 10th floor, London BC3R 7BB
Text copyright © 2020 Katherine Woodfine
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First e-book edition 2020
ISBN 978 1 4052 9328 0
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
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This adventure takes place just over a year after the conclusion of the Sinclair’s Mysteries series, and several months before Taylor & Rose Secret Agents: Peril in Paris begins.
Here, we follow young detectives Sophie Taylor and Lilian Rose as they take on their first case for the British government’s Secret Service Bureau. Readers of other Taylor & Rose Secret Agents stories will know that these books take some inspiration from the real-life Secret Service Bureau which was set up by the British government in 1909. Initially a very small operation that was focused on identifying German spies believed to be at work in Britain, it soon grew – and later became what we know today as MI5 and MI6.
CONTENTS
‘I think we’re almost there!’ announced Lil, pushing down the train window.
A whoosh of cold, damp air swept into the compartment, making Sophie shiver. She pulled her coat more closely around her as she peered out of the window at the dim landscape beyond.
It was six o’clock, and already growing dark. Here and there, Sophie could see the warm light of a farmhouse window glowing in the distance – but mostly there was nothing except wide, empty sky, and a flat expanse of grey salt marsh. The bright lights and cheerful, glittering shop windows of London already seemed a long way away.
‘It looks rather like the end of the world, doesn’t it?’ said Lil, leaning out of the window a little further. ‘What a queer sort of place to take a holiday!’
Not that this was really a holiday, of course. This trip was strictly business: an important new case for Taylor & Rose Detectives.
‘I must say, when that “C” fellow said he was sending us away on an assignment, I never thought it would be somewhere like this,’ Lil went on.
‘Sshhh!’ Sophie warned her – but Lil only grinned and gestured around at the deserted train compartment.
‘Don’t fuss,’ she said. ‘It’s not as if there’s anyone to hear us!’
‘Maybe not this time,’ said Sophie, with emphasis. ‘But you never know, with trains.’
She knew Lil would understand what she meant. After all, last winter they’d been on a train like this one, heading out of London into the countryside. On that journey, the little old lady snoozing in their compartment had turned out to be an American detective, Miss Ada Pickering, who was listening to every word of their conversation. Since then, Sophie and Lil had learned a great deal from Miss Pickering, who had taught them all kinds of detective strategies and skills.
‘You’re right,’ Lil agreed now, as the train jolted to an unsteady halt. ‘Miss P would absolutely not approve of me yelling about our secret schemes. But I can’t help it! This assignment is just so thrilling!’
Sophie nodded as she opened the door and hopped down on to the empty station platform. It was true that the start of any new case always gave her a very particular feeling of excitement – but this one was especially intriguing. For one thing, it was taking them away from the familiar London streets they knew so well to the wilds of the Sussex coast. For another, it would be quite different to anything they’d done before.
This would not be in the least like tracking down missing jewels or stolen paintings – nor even like trying to untangle the schemes of their old enemy, the mysterious crime lord once known as ‘the Baron’. Working for the British government would be something entirely new.
It had been their friend