Crystal Crypt , livre ebook

Lion Hudson - Veitch Smith Fiona

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

144 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

The 1920s most stylish sleuth returns in The Crystal Crypt for another thrilling murder mystery! "But accidents can still happen... Perhaps there was something out of her control, something she couldn't have foreseen...""Like someone plotting to kill her?" Reporter sleuth Poppy Denby is asked to investigate the mysterious death of an up-and-coming female scientist in an Oxford laboratory known as the Crystal Crypt. The official verdict is that Dr June Leighton died in a tragic accident, but Dr Leighton's lab assistant believes it was murder. However, when Poppy discovers that the colleague has spent time in a mental institution and has an unresolved murder in her own past, Poppy wonders if she is being misled. But then, another female academic is attacked, and Poppy herself becomes a target.

Informations

Publié par	Lion Hudson
Date de parution	19 novembre 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781782643609
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Text copyright 2021 Fiona Veitch Smith
This edition copyright 2021 Lion Hudson IP Limited
The right of Fiona Veitch Smith to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Lion Fiction
www.lionhudson.com
Part of the SPCK Group
SPCK, 36 Causton Street, London, SW1P 4ST
ISBN 978 1 78264 359 3
e-ISBN 978 1 78264 360 9
First edition 2021
Cover Illustration Laurence Whiteley
Acknowledgments
Excerpts on pages 12 and 65 from Married Love , Marie Stopes, 1911
Galton Institute London
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
For the forgotten and overlooked women of science .

C ONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Character List
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
The World of Poppy Denby: A Historical Note
For Further Reading
Book Club Questions
What s your Next Poppy Denby Novel?
Also Available from Lion Fiction
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I started writing The Crystal Crypt in January 2020 before I, like most other people in the world, knew that our personal and professional lives would be severely curtailed by a global pandemic. Fortunately, I managed to get in a research trip to Oxford for a few freezing days in January, intending to visit again later in the year. In August, a few hotels and restaurants managed to reopen, so I squeezed in another visit; but unfortunately all the buildings I hoped to go into were still shut due to lockdown restrictions. Nonetheless, I was still able to walk the streets where Poppy walked (and cycled), and even visit the Botanic Garden. I would like to offer my thanks to the very helpful staff at the History of Science Museum who, in January, showed me where Dorothy Hodgkin had her laboratory, and the intersecting basement rooms - now part of the museum s displays - which would house the fictional Crystal Crypt.
I shall explain how the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dorothy Hodgkin inspired the writing of this book in the historical notes at the end, but here I would like to express my thanks to her and other leading women of science, for their incredible work. Not least of these, the women and men of Dr Sarah Gilbert s team at Oxford University, who, unbeknownst to me when I visited in January 2020, were already working on a vaccine against Covid-19. As I write this today, in March 2021, my arm is aching slightly from receiving that very vaccine, and I hope that by the time this book hits bookshelves later this year, the world will be a brighter, healthier, and more open place.
Thanks, too, go to Paul Gitsham for helping me get my head around some of the science in this book.
As always, I would like to thank the team at Lion Hudson, for helping to bring this book to Poppy s readers, not least my erstwhile editor, Julie Frederick. A particular word of thanks to my former editor, Jess Gladwell, who, although no longer with Lion, continues to encourage me. I was able to meet her in person, in Oxford, in both January and August, where we put the world to rights in the White Horse, as do Poppy and Sophie in the book.
Finally, my thanks, as always, to my family, who due to the pandemic have been at home far more than usual. And to you, the reader, who gave me reason to write another Poppy Denby adventure.
C HARACTER L IST
L ONDON

Poppy Denby - arts and entertainment editor for The Daily Globe ; amateur detective.
Daniel Rokeby - a photographer on The Daily Globe ; Poppy s beau.
Rollo Rolandson - owner and managing editor of The Daily Globe; Poppy s boss.
Yasmin Rolandson (n e Reece-Lansdale), KC - a barrister; Rollo Rolandson s wife.
Delilah Marconi - actress, flapper, and socialite; Poppy s best friend.
Ike Garfield - senior journalist at The Daily Globe .
Ivan Molanov - archivist at The Daily Globe .
Mavis Bradshaw - receptionist at The Daily Globe .
Lionel Saunders - reporter with The London Courier , rival of The Daily Globe .
Richard Easling - disgraced former Detective Chief Inspector of the Metropolitan Police.
Lord Melvyn Dorchester - disgraced peer and industrialist serving time in Pentonville Prison.
Bert Isaacs - (deceased 1920) former senior journalist at The Daily Globe .
Roger Leighton - a jeweller; June Leighton s father.
Mrs Leighton - a former medical student; June Leighton s mother.
Larry Leighton - a jeweller; June Leighton s brother.
Dot Denby - radio actress and former suffragette; Poppy s aunt.
Dr Theo Dorowitz - psychiatrist at Willow Park Asylum.
O XFORD

Dr June Leighton - DSc graduate in chemistry; recently deceased.
Sophie Blackburn - lab assistant and former suffragette; former fianc e of Bert Isaacs.
Reg Guthrie - lab assistant.
Professor James Sinclair - senior research fellow in chemistry.
Dr Bill Raines - senior researcher, physics.
Dr Miles Mackintosh - DSc graduate student to Dr Raines.
Dr Gertrude Fuller - principal of Somerville College; PhD in linguistics.
Annabel Seymour - Dr Fuller s assistant.
Edward Sanforth - member of the Sanforth Foundation funding scientific research in Oxford.
Mrs Mary Sanforth - head of the Sanforth Foundation; mother of Edward.
George Lewis - editor of The Oxford Gazette .
WPC Rosie Winter - only woman police officer in the Oxford City Police.
Chief Constable Fenchurch - head of the Oxford City Police.
Detective Chief Inspector Birch - head of detection at the Oxford City Police.
Dr Dickie Mortimer - pathologist for the Oxford City Police.
Mr Cooper - porter at Somerville College.
While modern marriage is tending to give ever more and more freedom to each of the partners, there is at the same time a unity of work and interest growing up which brings them together on a higher plane than the purely domestic one which was so confining to the women and so dull to the men. Every year one sees a widening of the independence and the range of the pursuits of women; but still, far too often, marriage puts an end to woman s intellectual life. Marriage can never reach its full stature until women possess as much intellectual freedom and freedom of opportunity within it as do their partners. That at present the majority of women neither desire freedom for creative work, nor would know how to use it, is only a sign that we are still living in the shadow of the coercive and dwarfing influences of the past.
From Married Love , Marie Stopes, 1918
C HAPTER 1
T HURSDAY 16 A PRIL 1925, L ONDON

T wo bright young women, arm in arm, strode out of Piccadilly Circus Tube Station and headed down Piccadilly Road. Both were wearing fashionably cut coats and the latest in Paris millinery. One sported a flamboyant headscarf in lilac, with a black ostrich feather; the other, a slightly more restrained red and black velvet cloche hat. The taller blonde and the shorter brunette laughed at a shared joke, giving off the air of a pair of thoroughly modern misses. Their Cuban heels clicked on the pavement as they headed past the imposing triple-arched gateway to Burlington House, home to the Royal Academy of Arts, which was currently hosting an exhibition, in memoriam, of the late post-impressionist artist Agnes Robson.
They paused for a moment as the dark-haired girl with the lilac headscarf took out a cigarette and lit it, endangering the ostrich feather as it brushed perilously close to the flame.
Careful, Delilah! warned the blonde. You ll set yourself alight!
Delilah giggled, wafting away the smoke and the warning with a delicately gloved hand.
Not to worry, Poppy. I shall live to embrace another day! Unlike poor Agnes
A shadow passed over Poppy s face as she looked towards the entrance to the Robson exhibition, where, under the watchful stone stares of Leonardo, Titian, and Michelangelo, a queue of people waited for the final entry of the day.
We must still go, Delilah. I just haven t been able to summon up the courage yet.
Delilah put her arm around her friend s waist. Give it time, Poppy. Grief takes a while to work through. And then, as if she were on stage in one of her theatre productions, she switched mood, splashed on a smile, and said, Chin-chin, old bean, let s not get all glum. We ve got a night of revels to enjoy!
Poppy laughed and linked arms again with her friend. I wouldn t exactly call a scientific lecture at the Royal Institution a revel , but you re right. Let s try to enjoy ourselves anyway. Besides, it might actually be interesting.
Delilah wrinkled up her nose. I doubt it. But thank you for coming with me anyway.
Poppy smiled indulgently. You re welcome. But you still haven t told me exactly why you have to come. And I m sorry, old girl, but I don t buy the tale that it s because you want to be able to impress your Uncle Elmo next time you see him.
Delilah s great-uncle was the famous radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, who frequently berated his niece for her lack of attention to matters of the mind.
Poppy and Delilah resumed their stroll westwards along Piccadilly as a number 9 omnibus trundled past in the opposite direction on the way to the theatre district of Covent Garden. A few moments later, the ladies both nodded in acknowledgment when a gentleman, alighting from a hackney carriage, raised his hat to them before ascending