Mask of the Verdoy
(2014)(The first book in the George Harley Mystery series)
A novel by Phil Lecomber
LONDON, 1932 … a city held tight in the grip of the Great Depression. George Harley’s London. The West End rotten with petty crime and prostitution; anarchists blowing up trams; fascists marching on the East End.
And then, one smoggy night …
The cruel stripe of a cutthroat razor … three boys dead in their beds … and a masked killer mysteriously vanishing across the smoky rooftops of Fitzrovia.
Before long the cockney detective is drawn into a dark world of murder and intrigue, as he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the very security of the British nation.
God save the King! eh, George?
"An engrossing historical murder mystery … readers will practically see the city’s pea-soup smog and smell Harley’s ubiquitous Gold Flake cigarettes wafting off the page." - (KIRKUS REVIEWS)
‘It feels as though the reader is actually walking the cobbled streets and rubbing shoulders with the Londoners of the period … The plot moves with unremitting pace and it is a great tribute to Mr Lecomber that he manages to keep up both the tempo and the suspense until the very last page. 5 STARS – Highly recommended!’ – (BEST SELLING CRIME THRILLERS)
''The smoky and smoggy atmosphere of 1930s London is captured beautifully … The dramatic finale is magnificently melodramatic, and ends the book – an excellent debut – in fine style.’ - (CRIME FICTION LOVER)
‘MASK OF THE VERDOY is an enthralling tale of murder and manipulation that’ll place you in 1930’s London.’ – (CRIME THRILLER HOUND)
In part an homage to Grahame Greene’s Brighton Rock, and to the writings of Gerald Kersh, James Curtis, Patrick Hamilton, Norman Collins and the other chroniclers of London lowlife in the 1930s, Mask of the Verdoy also tips its hat to the heyday of the British crime thriller—but unlike the quaint sleepy villages and sprawling country estates of Miss Marple and Hercules Poirot, George Harley operates in the spielers, clip-joints and all-night cafés that pimple the seedy underbelly of a city struggling under the austerity of the Great Slump.
With Mussolini’s dictatorship already into its seventh year in Italy, and with a certain Herr Hitler standing for presidential elections in Germany, 1932 sees the rise in the UK of the British Brotherhood of Fascists, led by the charismatic Sir Pelham Saint Clair. This Blackshirt baronet is everything that Harley despises and the chippy cockney soon has the suave aristocrat on his blacklist.
Mask of the Verdoy is the first in the period crime thriller series, the George Harley Mysteries.
Genre: Mystery
And then, one smoggy night …
The cruel stripe of a cutthroat razor … three boys dead in their beds … and a masked killer mysteriously vanishing across the smoky rooftops of Fitzrovia.
Before long the cockney detective is drawn into a dark world of murder and intrigue, as he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the very security of the British nation.
God save the King! eh, George?
"An engrossing historical murder mystery … readers will practically see the city’s pea-soup smog and smell Harley’s ubiquitous Gold Flake cigarettes wafting off the page." - (KIRKUS REVIEWS)
‘It feels as though the reader is actually walking the cobbled streets and rubbing shoulders with the Londoners of the period … The plot moves with unremitting pace and it is a great tribute to Mr Lecomber that he manages to keep up both the tempo and the suspense until the very last page. 5 STARS – Highly recommended!’ – (BEST SELLING CRIME THRILLERS)
''The smoky and smoggy atmosphere of 1930s London is captured beautifully … The dramatic finale is magnificently melodramatic, and ends the book – an excellent debut – in fine style.’ - (CRIME FICTION LOVER)
‘MASK OF THE VERDOY is an enthralling tale of murder and manipulation that’ll place you in 1930’s London.’ – (CRIME THRILLER HOUND)
In part an homage to Grahame Greene’s Brighton Rock, and to the writings of Gerald Kersh, James Curtis, Patrick Hamilton, Norman Collins and the other chroniclers of London lowlife in the 1930s, Mask of the Verdoy also tips its hat to the heyday of the British crime thriller—but unlike the quaint sleepy villages and sprawling country estates of Miss Marple and Hercules Poirot, George Harley operates in the spielers, clip-joints and all-night cafés that pimple the seedy underbelly of a city struggling under the austerity of the Great Slump.
With Mussolini’s dictatorship already into its seventh year in Italy, and with a certain Herr Hitler standing for presidential elections in Germany, 1932 sees the rise in the UK of the British Brotherhood of Fascists, led by the charismatic Sir Pelham Saint Clair. This Blackshirt baronet is everything that Harley despises and the chippy cockney soon has the suave aristocrat on his blacklist.
Mask of the Verdoy is the first in the period crime thriller series, the George Harley Mysteries.
Genre: Mystery
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