Dead Man In...
4 total works
Barcelona, 1912. A city still recovering from the dramatic incidents of the so-called 'Tragic Week' when Catalonian conscripts bound for the unpopular war in Spanish Morocco had rebelled at the city's dockside against the royalist forces. In the fighting, many were killed, and afterwards, even more put in prison. Including an Englishman, who was later found dead in his cell. The dead man had been a prominent businessman in Gibraltar, so what had he been doing in Barcelona? What part did he play in the illicit three-way trade between Gibraltar, Spanish Morocco and Barcelona? And just how did he really meet his end - murdered, in a prison cell? The case, in Gibraltar's view, cries out for investigation - and by someone independent of the Spanish authorities.So Scotland Yard are summoned to send out one of their men - but who? Seymour ticks all the right boxes - he has experience of the tangled diplomatic world of that part of the Mediterranean. He speaks foreign languages. And possibly most importantly of all - he grew up near the docks of London's East End so with any luck, knows how to swim if pushed in the water...Praise for Michael Pearce's "A Dead Man in...series": 'His sympathetic portrayal of an unfamiliar culture, impeccable historical detail and entertaining dialogue make enjoyable reading' - "Sunday Telegraph".
'The steady pace, atmospheric design, and detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series' - "Library Journal". 'Sheer fun' - "The Times".
'The steady pace, atmospheric design, and detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series' - "Library Journal". 'Sheer fun' - "The Times".
The Second Secretary of the Embassy in Istanbul has died in decidedly strange circumstances while attempting to swim the Dardanelles Straits, the passage between Europe and Asia, heavily used by warships, liners, and cargo vessels of all kinds. A romantic attempt to repeat the legendary feat of Leander, as the Embassy claims? Or was it an attempt to spy out a possible landing place for a British military expedition, as the Turks are insisting? Whichever, Cunningham has ended up with a bullet in his head. The suspicious circumstances of his death have to be investigated so the Foreign Office sends out an officer of the Special Branch known as Seymour. Istanbul is a fascinating and exotic place in 1908. It is famously the point where East meets West, a matter of some significance as the old Ottoman Empire crumbles and, in the expectation of war, the Great Powers circle for the kill. Very soon Seymour comes to suspect that Cunningham may have been swimming in deeper waters than the Dardanelles.
This title is set in Athens, 1913, the capital of a country on the brink of war. The new Greek prime minister, Venizelos, tired of the Ottoman overlords, has what he calls the Great Idea - a vision of a new Greece which unites all the Greek people scattered around the Mediterranean. Not such a great idea, in the view of other countries, among them Britain, which believes in letting sleeping dogs lie. And cats. Including the one recently poisoned in Athens and which belonged to the exiled former Sultan. Unfortunately, as is the way with the Balkans, rumours start flying around; one being that this was a sighting shot for the ex-Sultan himself. This, in the Balkans, could start a war and so Britain has to sit up and take notice. Something has to be done. Fast. And - please, urge the diplomats - low-key. The lowest key of all is to send out a police officer from Scotland Yard to investigate, and, as it happens, the Foreign Office has a person in mind: Seymour, of the CID, who has had some experience of this sort of thing before...
Naples, 1913. Sun-baked, blue-skied, and with its amazing bay. One of the most beautiful spots in Italy - but also, one of the most backward. Into that world is sent a minor British consular official, Scampion, banished from Florence because he has allowed himself to be caught up in the mad social whirl surrounding D'Annunzio, the famous Italian poet, Nationalist and revolutionary. Scampion brings with him from Florence the new craze that is sweeping Italy: bicycling. And one day as he walks home after a road race that he has been organizing, he is stabbed to death. Nothing extraordinary about that in Naples - it happens all the time - but his wallet was not taken, a fact that is remarkable. Could Scampion's murder have something to do with the racing? Bicycling may seem like a harmless pursuit but in Italy passions run high and Neopolitans, too, are great gamblers; they gamble on anything, including bicycle races. And where there is gambling, in Naples there is usually the Camorra, the powerful Neopolitan secret society. But then the Foreign Office receives a tip off that the murder may be more complicated. It might be linked to high politics in Rome.
And that's when Seymour, the foreigner from the F.O, is sent South to investigate...Praise for Michael Pearce's "A Dead Man in...series" - 'The steady pace, atmospheric design, and detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series' - "Library Journal". 'Sheer fun' - "The Times". 'His sympathetic portrayal of an unfamiliar culture, impeccable historical detail and entertaining dialogue make enjoyable reading' - "Sunday Telegraph".
And that's when Seymour, the foreigner from the F.O, is sent South to investigate...Praise for Michael Pearce's "A Dead Man in...series" - 'The steady pace, atmospheric design, and detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series' - "Library Journal". 'Sheer fun' - "The Times". 'His sympathetic portrayal of an unfamiliar culture, impeccable historical detail and entertaining dialogue make enjoyable reading' - "Sunday Telegraph".