Author(s): Pryce, Malcolm,
Binding: Paperback,
Date of Publication: 04/02/2021,
Pagination: 384 pages,
Series: N/A,
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC,
Published By: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC,
Book Classification: Crime & mystery
ISBN13\EAN\SKU: 9781408895276

Description:
The perfect quirky nostalgic crime read - a tale of steam trains, giant squid, missing screenplays, missing mothers and a quest for the truth, from the inimitable Malcolm Pryce.

It's the winter of 1948. The four great railway companies have just been nationalised and Jack Wenlock - the last of a fabled cadre of railway detectives - is thrown out onto the street. Penniless, with new bride Jenny to support, and hiding from a murderous organisation called Room 42, Jack's prospects look bleak.

But then a letter arrives from a mysterious Cornish Countess revealing that Jack's mother - long believed to be dead - may have survived a shipwreck off the coast of Java. Seizing the opportunity to track down his only remaining family member, Jack and Jenny board a boat heading East. The trail takes them to a run-down Siamese hotel where a motley assortment of drifters has washed up.

Here a spy, an assassin, a deserter, an old soldier and a fading Hollywood movie star all await the arrival of a missing part for a flying boat and a journey that will take them into the realm of myth. But if Jack is ever to see his mother again, he has to stop them...