A Clara Fitzgerald Mystery

Brighton, 1920. Clara Fitzgerald is trying to earn a little respect as the first female private detective in Brighton when Mrs Wilton turns up on her doorstep one snowy day. Struggling to get by since the war, Mrs Wilton has been convinced by an unscrupulous clairvoyant that her dead husband is trying to make contact via strange riddles that supposedly lead to hidden treasure. Clara is quickly on the case to prove the notorious clairvoyant, Mrs Greengage, is nothing more than a scam artist extorting money from Mrs Wilton. 

Clara Fitzgerald is drawn to the reckless but charming Captain O'Harris and his daring attempt to cross the Atlantic in his biplane, White Buzzard. O'Harris is drawn to Brighton's first female detective because of a family mystery that has long haunted him. Can Clara discover the truth about the death of Goddard O'Harris and the reason his body mysteriously vanished? 

When Clara Fitzgerald, Brighton's first female private detective, is invited to the wedding of her cousin Andrew Campbell, she expects it to be a rather dull weekend. The Campbells, however, are far from dull, with proto-feminist Peg fighting with her stepmother and Susan Campbell on the verge of suicide. Matters are not helped by the arrival of the black sheep of the family, who is determined to ruffle everyone's feathers. But on the day of the wedding, events rapidly go wrong.

Who expects to find a corpse in a fairground? Certainly not Clara Fitzgerald, Brighton's first female private detective, who is enjoying some time off when a new case falls straight into her lap. Just exactly whose corpse is sitting propped up in the House of Curios, and why would anyone leave a body on view for everyone to see? Clara has a whole carnival of suspects and very few clues, but the ones she does have suggest she needs to look towards Brighton's seedy underworld for answers, and that may well mean putting her life in danger.