The Moonlit Murders: A historical mystery page-turner (A Fen Churche Mystery Book 3) Fliss Chester (most read book in the world txt) 📖

Night Train to Paris

Paris, 1945. Fen looked out over the rooftops as the sun was setting. The letter she was holding, written on blue paper, was the clue she’d been searching for. She wiped away a tear and pulled herself together. Who would want to murder her dearest friend?

Fen Churche arrives in Paris, determined to put the horrors of the war behind her. But the city of lights has lost its spark, except inside the beautiful apartment of Fen’s godmother, artist Rose Coillard. Fen can’t wait to hear about Rose’s war work – under the nose of prominent Nazis, Rose created a secret list of the precious paintings they stole. Now Rose will be able to return them to their rightful Jewish owners.

But after a blissful few days reuniting with old friends, Fen finds Rose dead: stabbed through the neck with one of her own paintbrushes. Bewildered and scared, Fen is determined to solve her beloved friend’s murder, just like she does with her favourite crossword puzzles. Then she discovers the cypher that unlocks Rose’s list is missing. Could Rose’s death be linked to the brave work she did during the war?

When Fen finds a blackmail letter in Rose’s mailbox, accusing her of selling Jewish-owned paintings to the Nazis, she can’t believe what she’s reading. Then another member of Rose’s Resistance network, who transported the artwork, dies in a volley of gunshots and Fen is sure the deaths are the work of the same villain. One who will stop at nothing to keep their treachery hidden.

Can Fen clear Rose’s name and catch this devious killer?

You won’t be able to put down this utterly addictive historical mystery! The absolutely perfect treat if you love Rhys Bowen, Charles Todd and Jacqueline Winspear.

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Acknowledgements

Although writing a novel is, by its very nature, a solitary activity, there have been some very important and helpful people who have collaborated with me on this one. Thank you to the editorial team at Bookouture, especially my editor Maisie Lawrence, whose suggestions and thoughtful edits have shaped the book you’ve just read. My literary agent, Emily Sweet, is always on hand too with thoughts and support, so thanks as always to her. There are a group of fellow crime authors who I message on a regular basis – you all know who you are – thank you for the constant chatter and morale-boosting. Also, thanks to my stepfather, Philip, who travelled across the Atlantic in the 1950s and told me of his escapades aboard the SS Liberté on his way to New York and on the SS Homeric on his way back from Montreal. My late great-aunt, Glenys, also travelled across the Atlantic – at times on a banana boat when she lived and worked in the Caribbean – and she too narrowly missed being torpedoed in the 1940s. Her scrapbooks and stories of these trips have stayed with me.

The De Grasse was a real ocean liner and there’s plenty of information about it, and its sister ships, which ploughed the waters between France, England, America and Canada in those post-war years. The De Grasse really was scuttled and resurrected twice, before finally being grounded and scrapped in Italy in the 1950s. Although she didn’t make her first post-war voyage until 1947, I’ve brought her departure forward for the benefit of our story. I’ve also combined information about the De Grasse with other ocean liners of the day, so my apologies to ocean-liner purists and enthusiasts.

During my research, I fell down a particular rabbit hole where I found that a French ship, the Venezuela, was torpedoed by the Germans just off the coast of the Isle of Wight at the very end of the First World War in 1918. Sadly, all souls on board were lost, including the cabin boy, a sixteen-year-old Jean-Louis Cailloce. I noticed the same surname crop up as I was looking through crew and passenger lists in the post-war era – a Captain Joseph Cailloce – and although there is no evidence at all that they were related, it made me wonder if perhaps a surviving brother might seek revenge for the death of his sibling, if the chance ever came along. And, of course, German engineers and scientists were transported to America during Operation Paperclip, many ending up putting their knowledge of rockets to good use at NASA. Still, the mind of the murder mystery novelist whirrs.

Apart from family oral history, I made use of several excellent websites as I researched this book, and my thanks must go to the administrators and creators of www.gjenvick.com, www.thegreatoceanliners.com and www.criticalpast.com.

Finally, thanks to my ever-wonderful husband, Rupert, for always being utterly supportive and listening to me as I told him lots of useless facts about ships.

Published by Bookouture in 2021

An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

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Copyright © Fliss Chester, 2021

Fliss Chester has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.

ebook ISBN: 978-1-83888-647-9

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, organizations, 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 resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.