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1929: There’s a murder on Hampstead Heath……………
1929: There’s a murder on Hampstead Heath……………
Selby Bigge is a bank clerk by day and a denizen of the capital’s queer underworld by night, but he yearns for a life that will take him away from his ledgers, deathly interactions with colleagues and a dreary bedsit in which his every move is scrutinised by a nosy landlady. So when he meets Patrick, son of knight of the realm and banking millionaire Sir Lionel Duker, he is delighted to find himself catapulted into a world of dinners at the Ritz and birthday parties at his new friend’s family mansion on Hampstead Heath.
But money, it seems, can’t buy happiness. Sir Lionel is being slandered in the press, his new young wife Lucinda is being harassed by an embittered journalist and Patrick is worried he’ll lose his inheritance to his gold-digging stepmother. And when someone is found strangled on the billiard room floor after a party it doesn’t take long for Selby to realise everyone has a motive for murder, himself included.
Can Selby uncover the truth while keeping his own secrets buried?
London
The area popular with the gay community in London is in and around Soho – Compton street is known as the Gay Catwalk – and lots of bars and clubs are located here as the ones in the book.
Selby navigates the clandestine, dangerous, and secretive LGBTQ+ underground of the era and we see Hampstead Heath where the house in the book is located. A visit to the Ritz for a grand dinner is also on the cards!
Destination/Location: London Author: Robert Holtom Departure: 1929
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