‘God bless you,’ I said as his knees sagged under him. I held on but he was too heavy for me as he slumped.
My guardian grabbed him under the shoulders and tried to take his weight but he was a big man and we were off-balance. Horatio Green made one last shallow gurgling suck of air before it was flooded out of him and toppled backwards into his chair. I felt for his pulse but there was none to detect. I put my ear to his nose and listened for what I had no hope of hearing.
‘Blast and blazes,’ Sidney Grice put his hand to his forehead. ‘I have lost another client.’
Available from Head of Zeus in 2014
About this Book
Gower Street, London, 1882:
Sidney Grice, London’s most famous personal detective, drains his fifth pot of morning tea, and sets aside his copy of A Brief History of Impalement On The Metropolitan Line. He is expecting a visitor. From his library window, he can see a young, plain woman picking her way between the piles of horse-dung towards his front door. Sidney Grice shudders. For heaven’s sake – she is wearing brown shoes.
March Middleton is Sidney Grice’s ward, and she is new to London. With her sharp tongue and even sharper mind, March believes she could help on her guardian’s next case – if only he did not think women were too feeble for detective work. But then a grisly murder in the slums proves too puzzling for even Sidney Grice’s encyclopaedic brain... and he is forced to admit that March Middleton might be rather useful after all.
Set between the refined buildings of Victorian Bloomsbury and the stinking streets of London’s East End, The Mangle Street Murders is for those who like their crime original, atmospheric, and very, very funny.
About this Series
THE GOWER STREET DETECTIVE
London, 1882
Sidney Grice, London’s most famous personal detective, has an encyclopaedic mind and – according to him – no emotions save his twin love of possessions and the truth.
March Middleton is Sidney Grice’s ward and she is new to London. With her sharp tongue and even sharper mind, March is sure she could help her guardian solve his cases – if only he did not think women too feeble for detective work.
But even Grice must admit some puzzles are too great for even him to solve alone…
Set between the refined buildings of Victorian Bloomsbury and the stinking streets of London’s East End, The Gower Street Detective is for those who like their crime original, atmospheric, and very, very funny.
1. The Mangle Street Murders
Sidney Grice, London’s most famous personal detective, is expecting a visitor. From his library window, he can see a young, plain woman picking her way between the piles of horse-dung towards his front door. Sidney Grice shudders. For heaven’s sake – she is wearing brown shoes.
March Middleton is Sidney Grice’s ward, and she is determined to help him on his next case. Her guardian thinks women are too feeble for detective work, but when a grisly murder in the slums proves too puzzling for even Sidney Grice’s encyclopaedic brain, March Middleton turns out to be rather useful after all…
The Mangle Street Murders is available here.
2. The Curse of the House of Foskett
Sidney Grice, of 125 Gower Street, is London’s premier personal detective. But since his last case led an innocent man to the gallows, business has been light. Listless and depressed, Grice has taken to lying in the bath for hours. Once a voracious reader, he will pick up neither book nor newspaper. His ward, March Middleton, has been left to dine alone.
Then an eccentric member of a Final Death Society has the temerity to die on his study floor. Finally Sidney Grice and March Middleton have an investigation to mount – an investigation that will draw them to an eerie house in Kew, and the mysterious Baroness Foskett…
The Curse of the House of Foskett will be available from Head of Zeus in 2014
About the Author
M.R.C. Kasasian was raised in Lancashire. He has had careers as varied as a factory hand, wine waiter, veterinary assistant, fairground worker and dentist. He lives with his wife, in Suffolk in the summer and in Malta in the winter.
A Letter from the Publisher
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HeadofZeusBooks
Dedicated to great storytelling
First published in the UK in 2013 by Head of Zeus Ltd.
The moral right of M.R.C. Kasasian to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (HB) 9781781851845
ISBN (TPB) 9781781851852
ISBN (E) 9781781851876
Head of Zeus Ltd
Clerkenwell House
45-47 Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
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Contents
Cover
Welcome Page
Dedication
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Slurry Street Murders
Chapter 2: The Chelsea Strangler
Chapter 3: The Pig and the Perfume
Chapter 4: The Listeners
Chapter 5: Horrible Murder
Chapter 6: The Green Flag
Chapter 7: The Hansom Cab
Chapter 8: The House of Death
Chapter 9: The Same Moon
Chapter 10: The Scene of the Crime
Chapter 11: The Jewelled Dagger
Chapter 12: The Little Match Girl
Chapter 13: Marylebone Police Station
Chapter 14: The Hounds of Hell
Chapter 15: The Last Sigh
Chapter 17: The Duke’s Head
Chapter 18: The Man in the Rabbit Skin Coat
Chapter 19: The Uses of Gutta-percha
Chapter 20: The Name of the Game
Chapter 21: The Trial
Chapter 22: The Trained Monkey
Chapter 23: The Verdict
Chapter 24: The Maze of Vice
Chapter 25: Sticks and Stones
Chapter 26: Smoke
Chapter 27: The Vigil
Chapter 28: The Hanging
Chapter 29: The Pity
Chapter 30: The Boiling of Bones
Chapter 31: The Wigmaker’s Shop
Chapter 32: Broken Wings
Chapter 33: The Old Canal
Chapter 34: Buckets and Sacks
Chapter 35: Caligula
Chapter 36: Easy Tricks
Chapter 37: The House on Chandler Street
Chapter 38: The Plague of Flies
Chapter 39: Judas
Chapter 40: Diogenes
Chapter 41: Reasonable Doubt
Chapter 42: Boots
Chapter 43: Throats
Chapter 44: The Curious Curio Shop of Childe Finnegan
Chapter 45: Dogs
Chapter 46: The Strewing of Straw
Chapter 47: Lamb
Chops
Chapter 48: Return to Huntley Street
Chapter 49: Back to School
Chapter 50: The Man in the Cave
Chapter 51: The Confessional Box
Chapter 52: Rugs and Pictures
Chapter 53: The Vestry
Chapter 54: Cats and the Marriage Detective
Chapter 55: Shoe Laces
Chapter 56: Gulph’s Grief
Chapter 57: Plum Duff
Chapter 58: The Angle of the Spoon
Chapter 59: The Mausoleum
Chapter 60: Soot
Chapter 61: The Windows of the Soul
Chapter 62: The Nail
Chapter 63: Parma Violets
Chapter 64: The Power of the Name
Chapter 65: A Matter of Conscience
Chapter 66: The Aphrodite
Chapter 67: The Booking Office
Chapter 68: The Doctor
Chapter 69: News
Chapter 70: The Last Letter
Chapter 71: Grasping the Nettle
Postscript
Preview
About this Book
About this Series
About the Author
An Invitation from the Publisher
Copyright