Number Seventeen

A young widow is strangled in her London flat, Number Seventeen. Her neighbor, the novelist Frank Theydon, refuses to let the murder go unsolved, and teams with the enigmatic millionaire James Forbes to hunt the killer through fog-shrouded Edwardian streets. As they dig deeper, they uncover a web of international intrigue involving a secret society with ambitions that stretch far beyond England's shores. Scotland Yard's Chief Superintendent Winter and his restless Inspector Furneaux work alongside the civilians, but the true danger lies in a revelation that gives the number seventeen an altogether darker meaning. Written on the eve of the First World War, the novel pulses with the anxieties of its moment: fear of aerial warfare, suspicion of rising Asian powers, and the creeping dread that modern technology will unleash new forms of terror. For readers who enjoy golden age detective fiction with an undercurrent of geopolitical tension, this delivers period atmosphere, intricate plotting, and the particular frisson of encountering a vanished world's fears made manifest in mystery form.