Richard Weill

Last Train to Gidleigh Richard Weill

London, October 1941. The Blitz has been over for five months as the Germans abandon London to press east toward Moscow. Civilian life on the British home front has just begun to recover from the ceaseless strain of nightly bombing raids-when a new terror erupts: In one night, dozens of separate fires ignite within, and destroy, myriad locked residential buildings in a single London neighborhood. Days later, the phenomenon recurs in another neighborhood, then another. As the London sky remains free of Luftwaffe bombers, the press dubs these fires the "Silent Blitz"-and the responsibility to stop them falls on MI5's Chief of Special Operations, Colonel Raymond Mott. Mott is known for creatively marshaling distinctly British talent for the war effort, like recruiting Britain's best crossword solvers as Bletchley Park codebreakers. He sees in these fires all the hallmarks of a locked-room mystery. Enter American-born, London-based locked-room mystery writer Anthony Pell, whom Mott asks to assist the task force formed to determine how, and by whom, these fires are being started. Teamed with members of MI5, Scotland Yard's Special Branch, and the National Fire Service, some of whom resent his presence, Pell applies his skills to solving the "Silent Blitz," even if he must butt heads with Mott to do so. Last Train to Gidleigh is a thrilling novel of wartime sabotage, filled with stunning twists, told in a unique manner, and guaranteed to grab and hold your attention from the moment you open the front cover to the moment you finish the final page.