At the Chime of a City Clock

Summer 1931 in seedy Bayswater and James Ross is on his uppers. An aspiring writer whose stories nobody will buy (''It''s the slump''), with a landlady harassing him for unpaid rent and occasional sleepless nights spent in the waiting room at King''s Cross Station, he is reduced to selling carpet-cleaning lotion door-to-door. His prospects brighten when he meets the glamorous Suzi (''the red hair and the tight jumper weren''t a false card: she really was a looker and no mistake''), but their relationship turns out to be a source of increasing bafflement. Who is her boss, the mysterious Mr Rasmussen - whose face bears a startling resemblance to one of the portraits in Police News - and why he so interested in the abandoned premises above the Cornhill jeweller''s shop?

Worse, mysterious Mr Haversham from West End Central is starting to take an interest in his affairs. With a brief to keep an eye on Schmiegelow, James finds himself staying incognito at a grand Society weekend at a country house in Sussex, where the truth - about Suzi and her devious employer - comes as an unexpected shock. Set against a backdrop of the 1931 financial crisis and the abandonment of the Gold Standard, acted out in shabby bed-sitters and Lyons tea-shops, At the Chime of a City Clock is an authentic slice of Thirties comedy-noir.

Praise for Kept: A Victorian Mystery:

''Very entertaining and well done, with a sharp appreciation for the details'' The Times

''An ingenious tale of madness, murder and deception.'' The Guardian

''A stylish page-turner ... all done with humour and cunning.'' Sunday Telegraph