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Death Descends On Saturn Villa (The Gower Street Detective Series)

Page 41

by M. R. C. Kasasian


  The Curse of the House of Foskett is available here.

  3 – Death Descends on Saturn Villa

  LONDON, 1883

  125 Gower Street was once a house of justice, truth and perspicacity. Now madness, murder and scandal lurk in its empty halls. It is rumoured that its owner Sidney Grice – London’s foremost personal detective – has been driven to the brink of despair.

  But, as with all good stories, we must begin at the beginning. With Sidney Grice journeying to Yorkshire to solve a mysterious death. And with March Middleton, his ward, left to her own devices in a London swarming with danger and vice.

  Curiosity, as we know, has a dark edge. So when an intriguing letter leads March to the gates of the palatial Saturn Villa, and into the nightmarish world of her long-lost uncle, it could be the beginning of an end, for all...

  A Letter from the Publisher

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  The story starts here.

  First published in the UK in 2015 by Head of Zeus Ltd

  Copyright © M.R.C. Kasasian, 2015

  Cover illustration: Jim Tierney

  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) 9781781859711

  ISBN (XTPB) 9781781859728

  ISBN (E) 9781781859704

  Head of Zeus Ltd

  Clerkenwell House

  45-47 Clerkenwell Green

  London EC1R 0HT

  www.headofzeus.com

  Contents

  Cover

  Welcome Page

  Display Options Notice

  Dedication

  Preface to First Edition

  Part I: Extracts from the Journals of March Middleton

  Chapter 1: The Delivery of the Soul

  Chapter 2: The Portrait of Marjory Gregory

  Chapter 3: The Death of Dom Hart

  Chapter 4: The Dog and the Letter

  Chapter 5: Past the Necropolis

  Chapter 6: Sherry and the Magpie

  Chapter 7: The Donkey and the Quill

  Chapter 8: Guns and Pickles

  Chapter 9: Pigs and Portholes

  Chapter 10: Meat, Charles Dickens and Murder

  Chapter 11: The Night Ritual

  Chapter 12: The Pier and the Smoke

  Chapter 13: Solid Shadows and White Slave Traffickers

  Chapter 14: The Howls and the Porcelain Handle

  Chapter 15: The Taste of Murder

  Chapter 16: The Hanging Hand

  Chapter 17: The First Mrs Rochester

  Chapter 18: The Frozen Bicyclist

  Chapter 19: Musical Mice

  Chapter 20: The Land of Angels

  Chapter 21: The Quirry

  Chapter 22: The Kidney Dish and the Ring

  Chapter 23: Chimpanzees and Emetic Tartar

  Chapter 24: The Amber Book

  Chapter 25: Christmas

  Chapter 26: The Man with the Twisted Ear

  Chapter 27: Anthrax

  Chapter 28: Umbrellas and the Double-headed Fox

  Chapter 29: The Death of Hope

  Chapter 30: The Six Dwarves of Streatham

  Chapter 31: The Dead Moth and the Dust

  Chapter 32: Shrews and the Submariner

  Chapter 33: Billy, Danny and Exotic Plants

  Chapter 34: Soppy Girls and the First Baron Lytton

  Chapter 35: Mr Snuffly and the Skull

  Chapter 36: Empty Sockets

  Chapter 37: Charred Bones and Vices

  Chapter 38: Shelley and the Seagull

  Chapter 39: Trombones and Liver Flukes

  Chapter 40: Pistols and Lies

  Chapter 41: Violins, Coffins and Toothache

  Chapter 42: Facing the Wall

  Chapter 43: The Stolen House

  Chapter 44: Harems and Hunting Dogs

  Chapter 45: Dogs and the Art of Persuasion

  Chapter 46: Pounce and the Dandelion Clock

  Chapter 47: The Drowning of New York

  Chapter 48: The Black Pool and the Terrible Crater

  Chapter 49: Resisting Arrest

  Chapter 50: Cleopatra

  Chapter 51: The Confines of a Bullet

  Chapter 52: The Tortured Tree

  Chapter 53: The Listener

  Chapter 54: The Shade of Merry Murray

  Chapter 55: The Bloomsbury Butcher

  Chapter 56: Haddock and Tonsils

  Chapter 57: The Glistening, Growing Lake

  Chapter 58: Hiawatha

  Chapter 59: The Woman from Over the Beacon

  Chapter 60: The Flat Stone

  Chapter 61: The Nun with a Hatbox

  Chapter 62: Flannels and Being Damned

  Chapter 63: The Diamond Dull in the Midday Sun

  Chapter 64: Imaginary Horses and Grown-up Writing

  Chapter 65: Prize Fighters and Custody

  Chapter 66: The Toad and the Righteous Dust

  Chapter 67: Admiral Nelson’s Hat

  Chapter 68: The Hoop and the Snail

  Chapter 69: Beef Tea and Dr Zenith

  Chapter 70: Messenger Bags and the Twickenham Triplets

  Chapter 71: Goat Moths and Brick Dust

  Chapter 72: Flat-footed Peter and Her Majesty’s Mail

  Chapter 73: Prejudicial Handling and the Steel Rule

  Chapter 74: Pork Pies and Votes for Women

  Chapter 75: The Picnic at Jacaranda House

  Chapter 76: Blankets, Buckets and Changing Walls

  Part II: Extracts from Mr Sidney Grice’s Notes

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Part III: Extracts from March Middleton’s Notes

  The Lost Ones

  Silence

  The Unredeemed

  Every Night

  The Carpenters

  Repentance

  The Remains of a Life

  The Dark

  Drowning in the Dark

  Waiting

  Lancelot

  Gloves and Dead Mice

  Follow

  The Rainbow

  The Night of the Storm

  The Shadow of Sadness

  Part IV: Extracts from the Journals of Ma
rch Middleton

  Chapter 104: The Last Day

  Chapter 105: The Ring in the Flames

  Chapter 106: Beside the Grandfather Clock

  Chapter 107: Goldilocks and the Man in the Furnace

  Chapter 108: The Rope and the Number

  Chapter 109: The Sunset

  Postscript

  About Death Descends on Saturn Villa

  Reviews

  About M. R. C. Kasasian

  About the Gower Street Detective series

  An Invitation from the Publisher

  Copyright

 

 

 


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