A haunted old hotel deep in smuggling country, a friend in need, a local dancer who has disappeared in the depths of winter… Posie Parker heads to Rye in Sussex for this golden-age style mystery novella!

December, 1925.

A dark, smog-filled London doesn’t seem very Christmassy, or exciting, but then Posie Parker, London’s premier female Private Detective, receives an urgent call from one of her oldest friends; Rufus, Earl of Cardigeon.

Summoned to ‘The Mermaid’, a reputedly haunted hotel in Rye, on the Sussex Coast, in the heart of smuggling country, Posie, together with her husband, Richard, finds her old friend in a real state.

Rufus has been promised answers here about his missing wife, Dolly, but instead there’s simply a bizarre string of events: a priceless car mysteriously driven off a cliff; a missing Frenchman, and telegrams from men who simply don’t exist. While Richard Lovelace, Chief Commissioner of New Scotland Yard tries to work out if Rufus himself is the target of a complicated plot, Posie has her own rather more personal, pressing investigations to make.

The local tragedy of a missing dancer, Rosa Rossoli, fascinates Posie. It has been dealt with by local police as an open-and-shut case. But Posie soon discovers it is anything but. And she suspects foul play.

And as the snow falls, and Christmas lights go up, Posie becomes involved in perhaps her most touching case so far. Soon she becomes aware that danger lurks at ‘The Mermaid’, and not just for Rufus Cardigeon. In the twisty old smuggling tunnels of the hotel itself, a murderer is on the loose and they have Posie in their sights.

A totally gripping 1920s historical cozy!

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L.B. Hathaway

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