Poison at the Press Club

London, late 1903. At the annual Press Club banquet, crusading editor Sir Arthur Pendelton raises his glass, begins his toast, and collapses before the rim touches his lips. Half the room exhales in quiet relief. Miss Temperance Vane, Edwardian London's most discreet enquiry agent, is rather more interested in the other half.

Called in when Scotland Yard would rather not be, Temperance arrives to find Fleet Street ready to print its own version of events, a guest list thick with grudges, and a murdered man whose private notes suggest he had been building toward a story worth killing for. Sorting real motive from mere dislike proves rather more difficult than anyone at the Press Club would care to admit, and Temperance is soon navigating a world of proprietors, junior editors, chemists, and coroners' clerks, each with their own small secrets to protect.

With Detective Inspector Hale distracted by the official inquiry and the press sharpening its pens, Temperance must work her own quiet channels - through a mutual acquaintance in the trade, a chemist of her acquaintance, and the patient assistance of Jasper Wren, her late mentor's long-suffering assistant. The clues she uncovers lead from the banquet hall back to the offices of the Chronicle itself, where a crusading editor's enemies prove rather more numerous, and considerably more willing to speak at length, than his admirers ever allowed.

Fair clues, airtight plotting, and a satisfying resolution await in this third outing of a series beloved by readers who want Agatha Christie's plotting served with P.G. Wodehouse's tone. Charmingly British, delightfully deadly, and carried throughout with a wit-forward hand, Poison at the Press Club is the perfect next read for fans of female sleuths, country-house murders, and historical mysteries with a twist of humour.