The Bee's Kiss

It's 1926, and Joe Sandilands is back from Ranipur, enjoying the frantic pleasures of Jazz Age London. Yet there is a darkness behind all the postwar gaiety. A woman has been discovered bludgeoned to death in her suite at the Ritz. A broken window and missing emerald necklace suggest that it is a burglary gone wrong. But the corpse is that of a much respected member of the British establishment, Dame Beatrice Joliffe, one of the founders of the Wrens; so Scotland Yard sends Joe to conduct a swift enquiry. Then, Joliffe's companion, an ex-chorus girl, falls from Waterloo Bridge at twilight, and two of the Dame's clique of eager young Wrens commit suicide. Although these deaths make Joe suspect that Beatrice has been killed by someone close to her, he suddenly finds that the case is closed, and he is asked by his superiors to surrender his files. Against the background of a looming general strike and pressure from unseen governmental presence, Joe struggles on, picking his way through the political panic and rebelling against authority. The fifth title in the Golden Dagger Award-winning series, The Bee's Kiss builds to a shattering solution.