2007 PUBLICATIONS

THE PAINTED LADY (Edward Marston, Allison and Busby, January 2007, hardcover) - Araminta Jewell is a beautiful young woman with many admirers. Four of them are so desperate to seek her favours that they have formed a Society for the Capture of Araminta’s Maidenhood, with a cash prize for the winner. Henry Redmayne is one of the rakes involved and, like his friends, he is dismayed to learn that Araminta has married in secret. Undeterred, they continue their pursuit of her even when her husband, Sir Martin Culthorpe, is murdered in his garden. The chief suspect is Jean-Paul Villemot, the French artist who has been engaged to paint Araminta’s portrait.

Because he has designed a house for the Frenchman, Christopher Redmayne has a keen interest in the fate of his client. With the aid of his friend, Jonathan Bale, the dour constable, Christopher sets out to solve the crime. He is horrified to discover that his brother, Henry, has been harassing Araminta and he exposes vice and corruption on all sides. When Bale is brutally attacked, Christopher realises how dangerous their pursuit of the killer has become but the two of them persist in the face of repeated setbacks as they track the villain through the dark recesses of Restoration London.

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THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE (Edward Marston, Allison and Busby, January 2007, paperback) - When aspiring young architect, Christopher Redmayne, attends a party to celebrate the opening of a building he designed, one of the guests, a Member of Parliament, is shot as he leaves. As he seeks the killer, Christopher is plunged into a world of political corruption and conspiracy. Aided by Puritan constable, Jonathan Bale, he makes progress in the investigation until he himself is stalked by a killer. Christopher's dissolute brother, Henry, has to be involved because of his knowledge of political factions, but he proves to be a positive menace when he decides to seduce the daughter of Sir Julius Cheever MP. Christopher believes that Sir Julius was, in fact, the intended murder victim and that the other MP died by mistake in his place. Full of incident, danger, skulduggery and comic invention, THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE is the fifth in the Redmayne series. Like its predecessors, it is a riotous Restoration romp.

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MURDER ON THE CELTIC (Conrad Allen, St Martin's Press, January 2007, hardcover) - When they sail from New York on the Celtic, a White Star ship, George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield face an immediate problem. They are warned that a dangerous criminal may be aboard. Genevieve excites the interest of two passengers, a Briton and an American, who compete for her attention. Also on board is the creator of the most famous fictional detective of them all – Sherlock Holmes. Dillman is delighted to meet Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but the author is soon the victim of a crime when his annotated copy of A Study in Scarlet is stolen. More thefts follow.

Sir Arthur and his wife attend a séance and Genevieve, though highly sceptical, also wishes to see the medium in action. The leisured luxury of first class is contrasted with the privations in steerage where some passengers are emigrants who were refused entry to America. One man is so distressed that he contemplates suicide. While the Celtic sails on, Dillman and Genevieve work frantically to solve the various crimes even though they put themselves in jeopardy. An interested observer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle learns the essential difference between detection in a story and in practice.

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THE IRON HORSE (Edward Marston, Allison and Busby, July 2007, hardcover) - The fourth outing of the Railway Detective is based around the Derby of 1854. When a porter unloads luggage from the roof of a train in Crewe, he drops a trunk on to a lady’s hatbox and breaks the strap. As the hatbox opens, a human head rolls out. It is the beginning of a case that takes Inspector Robert Colbeck to Ireland, where one of the favourites for the Derby is being trained, and sets him off on a trawl through the nobility, crooks and undesirables who live off horseracing.

Overcoming his dislike of train travel, Sergeant Victor Leeming is eager to be involved because he hopes he may pick up valuable tips about the Derby itself. The detectives follow a tortuous route through the London underworld and soon discover that they have more than one serious crime to solve. Their efforts are hampered by the fact that there is a spy in Scotland Yard who is warning one of their suspects about their movements. The action builds to a climax at Epsom where the Derby brings the three fancied horses together and unleashes further crimes. Colbeck and Leeming – aided by Madeleine Andrews, who gains information that only a woman could glean - have to work at full stretch to bring the villains to book.

CRIME ARCHIVE - John Christie (Edward Marston, National Archives, non-fiction) - 10 Rillington Place was one of the most notorious addresses in Britain. It was here that John Christie killed seven women (including his wife) and a small child, hiding the corpses on the premises.

Serial killer, thief, necrophile and practised liar, Christie's murderous career ran for years before he was finally caught.

Drawing on files at the National Archives and other sources, Edward Marston has recreated the story of a man whose name once sent shivers down the national spine.