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161 pages

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'Manhattan, beware! Formidable reporter Poppy Danby enjoys a luxury voyage across the Atlantic. Her indefatigable and entertaining search for truth reveals the seediness and glamour of 1920s New York.' Frances Brody, author of the Kate Shackleton mysteriesWhen London Daily Globe editor Rollo Rolandson has to return to New York for three months, he takes his star reporter, Poppy Denby, with him. Poppy is very excited to be working on the world-famous New York Times and looks forward to immersing herself in the arts and entertainment of Manhattan. Instead, she is allocated the death beat--journalese for obituaries--and tied to her desk.But the young reporter has a nose for a story, and when a European prince dies in a luxury penthouse apartment, she starts to investigate. She follows a sordid trail involving illegal immigrants, forced labor, eugenics, sexual scandals . . . and an unexpected ghost from her past. Poppy is determined to help the victims, but can she find the evidence to bring the perpetrators to justice without putting her own life in danger

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Publié par	Lion Hudson
Date de parution	20 octobre 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781782642480
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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THE DEATH BEAT
Manhattan, beware! Formidable reporter Poppy Denby enjoys a luxury voyage across the Atlantic. Her indefatigable and entertaining search for truth reveals the seediness and glamour of 1920s New York.
Frances Brody, author of the Kate Shackleton mysteries

Text copyright 2017 Fiona Veitch Smith
This edition copyright 2017 Lion Hudson
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
an imprint of
Lion Hudson IP Ltd
Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road
Oxford OX2 8DR, England
www.lionhudson.com/fiction
ISBN 978 1 78264 247 3
e-ISBN 978 1 78264 248 0
First edition 2017
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover image Laurence Whiteley
For Rodney and Megan. Always.
C ONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Characters
The New Colossus
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
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
The World of Poppy Denby: A Historical Note
For Further Reading
Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. From The Automobile Blue Book , 1920.

Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. From The Automobile Blue Book , 1920.
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
R eaders of the Poppy Denby books will know that our heroine gets by with a lot of help from her friends. So I would like to dedicate this third adventure in the series to friends old and new. To my old friends at Lion, Kregel, and the Association of Christian Writers: thanks for your unwavering support for Poppy and her author. And to my new friends at the Crime Writers Association: thank you for honouring Poppy by short-listing The Jazz Files for the CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger award and introducing our flapulous sleuth to a whole new audience.
Writing a Poppy Denby book requires months of research. I am always surprised at how generous people are in supporting me, freely, with their expertise. An enormous debt of gratitude goes to Professor Vincent Cannato, Associate Professor in history at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, for his insight into immigration to the USA in the 1920s. I would also like to thank Professor Richard Hand of the University of East Anglia for his knowledge of American radio drama. Thanks too to Keith Jewitt for introducing me to the flapulous feminist icon Annette Kellerman. In addition, the publicity departments at The New York Times and the Lyric Theatre, New York, have been very responsive to my queries.
A special word of thanks goes to a group of friends I ve known since we all studied at Rhodes University, South Africa. Twenty-five years on, and scattered around the world, I am delighted to be able to keep in touch with you all through social media. Thanks to Louis Brandt, now a solicitor in England, who advised me about early twentieth-century divorce law; and Michael Carklin, now the principal lecturer in drama at the University of South Wales, who introduced me to Professor Hand. Also to Michelle Shaw, a freelance journalist who now lives in Canada, for sending me the wonderful book on the Roaring 20s in America. I hope Poppy and her friends will still be in touch a quarter of a century down the line.
Immense thanks to the team at Lion - particularly Jessica Tinker and Julie Frederick - who although going through turbulent times have managed to keep a steady ship. Also to members of the team who have sadly moved on: Remy, Jess, Rhoda, Andrew H.W., Andrew W., and Tony; your support for Poppy has not been forgotten. And finally, to my wonderful family for their unwavering love and patience: I promise I ll get the dinner started as soon as I ve finished the next chapter
C HARACTERS
F ICTIONAL CHARACTERS ( IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE )

L ONDON
Poppy Denby - arts and entertainment editor at The Daily Globe, London. Our heroine.
Mavis Bradshaw - receptionist for The Daily Globe.
Vicky Thompson - assistant to The Daily Globe archivist.
Rollo Rolandson - owner and managing editor of The Daily Globe. A native New Yorker.
Daniel Rokeby - photographer at The Daily Globe. Poppy s beau.
Ike Garfield - senior journalist at The Daily Globe.
Ivan Molanov - archivist at The Daily Globe.
Archie Weinstein - one of two associate editors for The New York Times, currently in London trying to buy an interest in a British newspaper.
Delilah Marconi - Poppy s best friend. Actress, singer, flapper and Bright Young Thing.
Dot Denby/Aunt Dot - Poppy s aunt. Former West End leading lady and suffragette. Now in a wheelchair.
Gertrude King - Aunt Dot s companion.
Alfie Dorchester - Disgraced aristocrat, wanted for attempted murder, on the run from police.
Marjorie Reynolds - British Member of Parliament, minister of state for the Home Office, secretly works for the Secret Service (psst: don t tell anyone).
T HE SHIP / N EW Y ORK
Captain Gilbert Williams - Captain of the Olympic cruise liner. Admirer of Dot Denby.
Estie / Esther Yazierska - Jewish Ukrainian refugee with a learning disability.
Mimi / Miriam Yazierska - older sister of Estie. Former maid to White Russsian aristocrats.
Anatoly Pushtov - White Russian aristocrat.
Dr Toby Spencer - orthopaedic surgeon at Bellevue Hospital, Manhattan. Son of US senator from Long Island.
Miles Spencer - cousin of Toby Spencer. Film director.
Senator Theodore Spencer - US senator from Long Island. Friend of Rollo Rolandson s family.
Amelia Spencer - wife of Theodore Spencer. New York socialite and philanthropist.
Seaman Jones - third-class steward on the Olympic.
Judson Quinn - associate editor at The New York Times, holding the fort when Weinstein is in London, and editor in chief Charles R. Miller (real historical character) is out of town.
Paul Saunders - journalist at The New York Times. Cousin of Lionel Saunders, former arts and entertainment editor at the Globe.
Chester Wainwright - owner of Chester s Speakeasy, Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
Count Otto von Riesling - expat playboy from Liechtenstein. Heir to fortune.
Prince Hans von Hassler - millionaire businessman, philanthropist, member of the New York Eugenics Society, formerly of Liechtenstein. Uncle of Otto.
Kat - Ukrainian immigrant. Workshop supervisor, Magriet Fashions.
Slick - manager at Magriet Fashions.
Helena - fourteen-year-old Italian immigrant, housemaid at Chelsea settlement house.
Elizabeth Dorchester - sister of Alfie Dorchester, daughter of British lord, former suffragette, friend of Dot Denby, owner of Chelsea settlement house.
Mrs Lawson - housekeeper of Prince Hans von Hassler.
Mr Barnes - lawyer of Prince Hans von Hassler.
Morrison - butler for the Rolandson family in Manhattan.
Howard Parker - film producer.
H ISTORICAL CHARACTERS (CAMEO APPEARANCES)

Rudolph Valentino - Italian American silent moving picture actor and heart-throb. Star of The Sheik (1921).
Annette Kellerman - champion Australian swimmer and swimsuit designer. Star of synchronized swimming-themed moving pictures. First woman to appear naked on film ( A Daughter of the Gods , 1916). First woman to be arrested for wearing an indecent one-piece bathing suit (Boston, USA, 1907).
Dorothy L. Sayers - Christian apologist, playwright, and mystery novelist, whose first novel, Whose Body?, was published in New York in 1923. Literary heroine of the author.
Dr Carl G. Jung - Swiss psychiatrist and one of the fathers of psychotherapy. His ground-breaking article Personality Types was published in New York in 1921.
Theda Bara - American silent moving picture actress, best known for her starring role in Cleopatra (1917).
T HE N EW C OLOSSUS
E MMA L AZARUS, 1883

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she
With silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
C HAPTER 1
T he ferryman lit a cigarette and waited. He would get into trouble, no doubt, but he didn t care. It was cold, it was late, and the fog that mingled with the sewage fumes, cloying to the shore of the little island, would kill him long before any Lucky Strike. Besides, it wasn t his health his employer was concerned about but rather that the red tip would alert the harbour patrol that something was amiss.
And something was amiss; the ferryman was certain of that. Even though he tried not to think where his illicit cargo ended up when he dropped it on the big island after every trip, when he climbed into bed and placed his hands on his wife s pregnant belly, he feared that he knew. The child would kick against his hand. His wife would stir. And he would think of the jar in the kitchen cabinet that when full would pay for a tic