Lestrade and the Magpie - Tapa blanda

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 the fiancé of Inspector Lestrade's daughter, and when her tears are dry she sets out to find his murderer. As always with Lestrade, one murder has a habit of leading to another; 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?

When a succession of foreigners is murdered with the same tell-tale weapon, has World War II started already? Can it be Hunnish practices? Or the Red Peril? Perhaps the Black and Tans?

A colourful web of intrigue unfolds as Lestrade and his daughter go undercover in the War Office, the Foreign Office, a film studio and at the Yard itself. When Lestrade's daughter is kidnapped, the writing is on the wall. And the writing says 'MI5'.

'Good enough to make a grown man weep.' - Yorkshire Post

M J Trow is a crime writer, historian and biographer who for many years doubled as a history teacher. Now retired, he is the author of three successful crime fiction series - Lestrade, Maxwell and Kit Marlowe, the latest written in collaboration with his wife. He lives in the Isle of Wight and, as well as writing, lectures on cruise ships, and has appeared many times on television in historical and crime documentaries.