- Publisher: Diablo Books (October 9, 2014)
- Paperback: 460 pages
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0993047203
- ISBN-13: 978-0993047206
- Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
BLURB:
LONDON,
1932 … a city held tight in the grip of the Great Depression. GEORGE HARLEY’S
London. The West End rotten with petty crime and prostitution; anarchists
blowing up trams; fascists marching on the East End.
And
then, one smoggy night …
The
cruel stripe of a cutthroat razor … three boys dead in their beds … and a
masked killer mysteriously vanishing across the smoky rooftops of Fitzrovia.
Before
long the cockney detective is drawn into a dark world of murder and intrigue,
as he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the very security of the British
nation.
God
save the King! eh, George?
THE
1930s … thinking debutantes, Bright Young Things and P. G. Wodehouse? Think
again—more like fascists, psychopaths, and kings of the underworld. GEORGE
HARLEY’S London is a city of crime and corruption … of murder most foul, and
smiling, damned villains.
In
part an homage to Grahame Greene’s Brighton Rock, and to the writings of Gerald
Kersh, James Curtis, Patrick Hamilton, Norman Collins and the other chroniclers
of London lowlife in the 1930s, Mask of the Verdoy also tips its hat to the
heyday of the British crime thriller—but unlike the quaint sleepy villages and
sprawling country estates of Miss Marple and Hercules Poirot, George Harley
operates in the spielers, clip-joints and all-night cafés that pimple the seedy
underbelly of a city struggling under the austerity of the Great Slump.
With
Mussolini’s dictatorship already into its seventh year in Italy, and with a
certain Herr Hitler standing for presidential elections in Germany, 1932 sees
the rise in the UK of the British Brotherhood of Fascists, led by the
charismatic Sir Pelham Saint Clair. This Blackshirt baronet is everything that
Harley despises and the chippy cockney soon has the suave aristocrat on his
blacklist.
But
not at the very top. Pride of place is already taken by his arch enemy, Osbert
Morkens—the serial killer responsible for the murder and decapitation of
Harley’s fiancée, Cynthia … And, of course—they never did find her head.
Mask
of the Verdoy is the first in the period crime thriller series, the George
Harley Mysteries.
Contest:
Phil will be awarding a $40 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $50 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn host.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
My Impressions:
This was an excellent first novel by Phil. The cover of this book draws you into a killer story filled with mystery, intrigue, history, an an amazing plot that all crime and detective junkies alike can fall in love with.
Set in London during the 1930's you read pages filled with corruption, violence, debutantes, gangsters and laymen alike who have their lives turned upside and inside out during the Great Depression.
This was a fast paced read, with some intriguing characters that moved the plot along. Twists and turns throughout with a surprise ending make this an easy one to recommend. I cannot wait to see what this author does next.
Excerpt:
JUST THEN HARLEY heard a shriek from the direction of the
fire escape.
He dashed back across the roof and lowered himself carefully
onto the ironwork, shuffling as quickly as he dared back to the open window.
‘George … George!’
It was Vi. But her shouting wasn’t coming from Miss Perkin’s
room, it was coming from further along the fire escape—from his own house. He
made the extra few yards and then yanked up the sash window and threw himself
awkwardly into the room.
Harley took in the scene with a professional’s eye: the dark
puddle congealing on the floorboards; the mother-of-pearl-handled razor gripped
loosely in the grubby, nail-bitten fingers; the leaden pallor on the boyish
cheek.
There was a call from the floor below.
‘Police! Anyone there?’
‘Up here, Burnsey! Top floor!’ shouted Harley, already at
Aubrey’s throat, searching for a pulse.
A thump of heavy footsteps announced PC Burns’ arrival.
‘Oh, Jesus Christ!’ said the policeman, removing his helmet
and rushing over to crouch down beside the bed. ‘Any luck?’
But as Harley drew back the only sign of life Burns could
see in the boy’s face came from the two tiny facsimiles of the guttering gas
mantle, dancing in the dull pupils.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Phil Lecomber
was born in 1965 in Slade Green, on the outskirts of South East London—just a
few hundred yards from the muddy swirl of the Thames.
Most of his
working life has been spent in and around the capital in a variety of
occupations. He has worked as a musician in the city’s clubs, pubs and dives;
as a steel-fixer helping to build the towering edifices of the square mile (and
also working on some of the city’s iconic landmarks, such as Tower Bridge); as
a designer of stained-glass windows; and—for the last quarter of a century—as
the director of a small company in Mayfair specializing in the electronic
security of some of the world’s finest works of art.
All of which,
of course, has provided wonderful material for a novelist’s inspiration.
Always an
avid reader, a chance encounter as a teenager with a Gerald Kersh short story
led to a fascination with the ‘Morbid Age’— the years between the wars. The
world that Phil has created for the George Harley Mysteries is the result of
the consumption and distillation of myriad contemporary novels, films,
historical accounts, biographies and slang dictionaries of the 1930s—with a nod
here and there to some of the real-life colourful characters that he’s had the
pleasure of rubbing shoulders with over the years.
So, the scene
is now set … enter George Harley, stage left …
Phil lives in
the beautiful West Country city of Bath with his wife, Susie. They have two
sons, Jack and Ned.
https://www.facebook.com/GHMysteries
http://www.georgeharley.com/
@GHMysteries
http://www.amazon.com/Mask-Verdoy-George-Mystery-Mysteries/dp/0993047211
http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&field-author=Phil+Lecomber&search-alias=books-ca
http://www.bookdepository.com/Mask-Verdoy-Phil-Lecomber/9780993047206
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