Page 322: Given her access to poisons, she had the means at her disposal to commit the crime and disguise the death as natural causes.
How Leonora escaped detection
Page 269: things were utterly chaotic. Nobody at Mortmain was a medical expert, apart from one old doctor who was going senile
The motivation of the Masqueraders and their accomplices
Page 62: Calling Britain a land fit for heroes might be stretching it somewhat, but at least they were keeping the Bolshies at bay
Page 67: “Lives are at risk. Can’t be too careful. Beware the enemy within.”
Page 79: Sylvia Hardman’s father was a Norfolk builder who was bankrupted after a strike by construction workers wrecked his business.
Page 131–2: After that, Evison drifted from job to job; his drinking companions were political agitators, and he was forever arguing for higher wages and better working conditions.
Acknowledgements
I’ve received assistance in the writing of this novel from a wide range of people, and I’d like to mention several of them specifically. John M. Clarke, author of The Brookwood Necropolis Railway, gave me a good deal of information about the railway. Tim Benson, a former schoolfriend and nowadays a volunteer guide at the Royal Academy, gave me invaluable help with the chapter set there, as did colleagues of his. Margaret Mackay, librarian of Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution, provided me with information and even photos relating to the HLSI in the 1930s, and the staff of Who’s Who and at the National Railway Museum also responded helpfully to my enquiries.
Jonathan Edwards gave me invaluable advice about the legal aspects of inheritance by illegitimate children at the time of the events of the story, and also helped with my account of the Old Bailey trial. Helena and Catherine Edwards, James Wills, John M. Clarke, Shawn Reilly Simmons, and Kate Godsmark made very helpful comments on the draft manuscript. The accounts of the fictional criminal cases in the story owe something to real life precedents, but my invented versions are not intended as “explanations” of the actual cases which inspired them, and the characters and events are all products of my imagination. Leonora Dobell’s musings on respectability and murder anticipate those articulated by George Orwell in “The Decline of the English Murder”. As ever, I’m grateful to my agent James Wills and the team at Head of Zeus for their faith in this book.
About the Author
Martin Edwards has won the Edgar, Agatha, H.R.F. Keating, Macavity, Poirot and Dagger awards as well as being shortlisted for the Theakston’s Prize. He is President of the Detection Club, Chair of the CWA and consultant to the British Library’s bestselling crime classics series.
In 2020, he was awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing.
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