A murdered suffragette. A missing politician. A stolen artwork.
London, 1910
Coral Fairbanks is a contradiction. As well as a suffragette, she’s a bit-part actress and nude model, earning her the disapproval of her fellow suffragettes.
Guy Flynn is an artist. He’s also a detective inspector at Scotland Yard, who doesn’t always see eye to eye with fellow officers in the Metropolitan Police.
When Home Secretary Winston Churchill orders the police to terrorise the suffragettes during an afternoon of violence that becomes known as Black Friday, the battlelines are drawn – and Coral Fairbanks and Guy Flynn are on different sides.
But when a young suffragette is found murdered in the National Portrait Gallery and one of their paintings is stolen – Fairbanks and Flynn must put their differences aside and combine their
knowledge to track down the killer.
Introducing an iconic detective duo in Fairbanks and Flynn, this is an exciting and gripping historical mystery, which will delight fans of Agatha Christie, Benedict Brown and T. E. Kinsey
Michelle Salter writes historical cosy crime set in Hampshire, where she lives, and inspired by real-life events in 1920s Britain. Her Iris Woodmore series draws on an interest in the aftermath of the Great War and the suffragette movement.
Facebook: @MichelleSalterWriter
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My thoughts: The first in a new series featuring suffragette, actress and artist’s model Coral Fairbanks who teams up with Met detective and painter Guy Flynn to solve the murder of her fellow suffragette, Marian, in the National Portrait Gallery during a suffrage stunt.
The gallery was mostly empty when Marian was killed, so the suspect pool is small – staff of the gallery, her fellow suffragettes, an MP, his aide, and curiously another MP’s wife, who happened to be there at the same time. A painting was also stolen at the same time.
There’s also a missing Secretary of State, whose wife hasn’t a clue where he’s got to, nor do his colleagues. His house was firebombed roughly the same time and he seems rather connected to the actions the suffragettes have been carrying out.
Coral wants to protect her fellow suffragettes, she can’t imagine any of them are killers, but Flynn knows anyone can snap and do something terrible. Is that what happened here?
I really liked Coral and Flynn, I think they’re going to be an interesting pairing. Flynn empathises with the battle for suffrage, if not with the way the women are going about it. He’s drawn to Coral, they’re both widowed, and Flynn is raising a teenage daughter, who could do with more women around her. Coral is trying to work out what she wants to do with her life now, without her husband, and her acting career on the wane. She’s got good instincts and while she can’t officially be a detective she could be an asset to Flynn.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 