by David Field
‘Definitely!’ Jack beamed.
‘Good, then that’s all sorted, and we can enjoy the coffee and port that I can see Manning entering with,’ Ridley smiled.
‘There’s just one condition — for both of you,’ Melville added. ‘That is that if ever we need you again for an operation like the one you’ve just satisfactorily completed, you’ll answer the call without question.’
‘Of course!’ Jack enthused.
‘Suits me, since I’ve got less than two years to go,’ Percy grinned, to which Melville gave him a mockingly stern look and a shake of the head.
‘Don’t get your garden spade out just yet, Percy. There’s many a good tune played on an old fiddle, as the old saying goes.’
They walked out into the driveway of the Home Secretary’s country mansion, full of an excellent dinner and encouraging future prospects, in order to enter the coach via the step that had been lowered for them. Jack held back deferentially and waved for Percy to go in first.
‘After you, old fiddle.’
‘I still outrank you,’ Percy grinned back. ‘And don’t ever forget that.’
*****
Want to carry on the journey with Esther & Jack? Read The Lost Boys — Book Eight in the Victorian crime series.
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A NOTE TO THE READER
Dear Reader,
If you enjoyed this novel, my grateful thanks for joining me in the reality of the late Victorian world, which was far from the ‘good old days’ that the nostalgia merchants sometimes try to sell us.
By 1897, most of Europe was a powder keg of revolution and sullen resentment, as the ‘have-nots’ grew tired of watching the posturing of the ‘haves’ from behind their economic and social barriers. Across in Russia – where Victoria’s grand-daughter Alexandra was to become the final Tsarina of that nation in the Revolution that would remove the Romanovs from their lofty perches – the working class rumble was already building into the explosion that would rock the aristocratic world in 1917.
Another of Her Majesty’s grandchildren – Wilhelm 11 of Germany – was beginning to display the bellicose mental instability that would lock three Saxe-Coburg descendents into the Great War, while in England itself the Fenians were staging outrages designed to secure Home Rule for Ireland, and the Suffragettes had long passed the point at which peaceful protest was having any effect.
When launching Jack and Percy Enright into their next challenge I could hardly ignore the reality of the London they were helping to police, and so I opted to throw them right into the middle of it, using as much actual historical fact as was available. Queen Victoria really did have two Jubilees; the Golden Jubilee in 1887 that marked her fifty years on the throne, and the Diamond Jubilee ten years later, when she become the longest reigning monarch of England to that point in its history.
It’s a matter of record that a Fenian inspired attempt on her life was made during the 1887 Jubilee, and it was not stretching credulity too far to imagine one a decade later, but from a different source. I crave your indulgence for giving Wilhelm of Germany the idea to bump off Franz Ferdinand of Austria a generation earlier than he did, but even in 1897 it would have served the same purpose of giving him the excuse to rattle his sabre at Russia.
Although Percy and Jack have now proved themselves to be a formidable crime-fighting team, with Jack’s wife Esther playing a vital role whenever the services of a highly intelligent but bored mother of four are required, even they seem to be out of their depth when what they are confronting is something more out of the ordinary than East End violence, West End corruption or Essex crime in general. Jack in particular has learned to become wary of simply playing monkey to Uncle Percy’s organ-grinder, and is rapidly coming to learn that being the father of four, and the husband of one, must be his greatest priority. Esther is hardly likely to disagree with him, but just occasionally she needs a mental break from boiling nappies and bandaging cut knees. So in they plunge, three lambs to the slaughter of international intrigue and murderous skulduggery.
There has to come an end to all of this one day, and this awaits them in Book 8 – ‘The Lost Boys’, which is due out early next year.
As ever, I look forward to receiving feedback from you, in the form of a review on either Amazon or Goodreads. Or, of course, you can try the more personal approach on my website, and my Facebook page: DavidFieldAuthor.
Happy reading!
David
davidfieldauthor.com
MORE BOOKS BY DAVID FIELD
Esther & Jack Enright Series:
The Gaslight Stalker
The Night Caller
The Prodigal Sister
The Slum Reaper
The Posing Playwright
The Mercy Killings
The Lost Boys
The Tudor Saga Series:
Tudor Dawn
The King's Commoner
Justice For The Cardinal
Published by Sapere Books.
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Copyright © David Field, 2018
David Field has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.
eBook ISBN: 9781912786381
