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Book 1
Along Came A Fifer
Ernie Bisquets is a London pickpocket who was quite content with his station in life, until he put his hand in a pocket and pulled out a murder. It was this action that introduced him to the East London Adventurers Club. Murder and villainy seem to tug at the coattails of this unusual group. It's an ugly but acceptable byproduct of their business, but not something Ernie Bisquets was accustomed to. He just stepped off the bus on Conduit Street, after a short stay at Edmunds Hill Prison, and it was the last thing he imagined getting involved with. What confused him even more was why this group of Mayfair swells would require the services of a common pickpocket?
In Along Came A Fifer this question quickly leads Ernie Bisquets, Patterson Coats and the East London Adventurers Club on a dangerous adventure through the streets of London and Paris, exposing the darker side of the art world. Phynley Paine is the beautiful but treacherous antagonist in the story. With ruthless determination she manages to stay one step ahead of the police in her efforts to locate her accomplice, a known London forger. He’s double-crossed her and Phynley Paine has made it very clear that she intends to locate him and retrieve her property at any cost. What she didn’t count on was the intervention of the East London Adventurers Club.
Book 2
Rook, Rhyme & Sinker
A hoard of ivory chessmen discovered on the Isle of Lewis in 1831 still commands the attention of scholars and museum patrons in modern-day London, but the police are more concerned with the connection a newly discovered rook has with a body that just bobbed up in the Regents Canal. Just when Ernie Bisquets, a reformed London pickpocket, was settling into his new life with the East London Adventurers Club, his daily routine is interrupted by the apparent suicide of an old school mate. What surprises him even more is the bequeath left to him by the deceased—an old nursery rhyme and one of the lost Lewis Chessmen.
Intrigued over the connection, the group investigates the circumstances surrounding the death. They soon find it was murder, and that leads to the discovery of a lost hoard of these priceless artifacts hidden in a St. Ives bridge. What they don't realize is an unscrupulous antique dealer, who has been searching for this lost hoard for decades, is shadowing their every move.
Along Came A Fifer
Ernie Bisquets is a London pickpocket who was quite content with his station in life, until he put his hand in a pocket and pulled out a murder. It was this action that introduced him to the East London Adventurers Club. Murder and villainy seem to tug at the coattails of this unusual group. It's an ugly but acceptable byproduct of their business, but not something Ernie Bisquets was accustomed to. He just stepped off the bus on Conduit Street, after a short stay at Edmunds Hill Prison, and it was the last thing he imagined getting involved with. What confused him even more was why this group of Mayfair swells would require the services of a common pickpocket?
In Along Came A Fifer this question quickly leads Ernie Bisquets, Patterson Coats and the East London Adventurers Club on a dangerous adventure through the streets of London and Paris, exposing the darker side of the art world. Phynley Paine is the beautiful but treacherous antagonist in the story. With ruthless determination she manages to stay one step ahead of the police in her efforts to locate her accomplice, a known London forger. He’s double-crossed her and Phynley Paine has made it very clear that she intends to locate him and retrieve her property at any cost. What she didn’t count on was the intervention of the East London Adventurers Club.
Book 2
Rook, Rhyme & Sinker
A hoard of ivory chessmen discovered on the Isle of Lewis in 1831 still commands the attention of scholars and museum patrons in modern-day London, but the police are more concerned with the connection a newly discovered rook has with a body that just bobbed up in the Regents Canal. Just when Ernie Bisquets, a reformed London pickpocket, was settling into his new life with the East London Adventurers Club, his daily routine is interrupted by the apparent suicide of an old school mate. What surprises him even more is the bequeath left to him by the deceased—an old nursery rhyme and one of the lost Lewis Chessmen.
Intrigued over the connection, the group investigates the circumstances surrounding the death. They soon find it was murder, and that leads to the discovery of a lost hoard of these priceless artifacts hidden in a St. Ives bridge. What they don't realize is an unscrupulous antique dealer, who has been searching for this lost hoard for decades, is shadowing their every move.
Praise for R. Michael Phillips-
Rook, Rhyme & Sinker ... The storyline involving the mystery of a carved ivory rook's origin -- and of its owner's death -- is cleverly devised, and uses as its foundation the real Lewis Chessmen. There is also a considerable amount of good humor included. This is a series that definitely deserves a wider audience.
©2011 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books
©2011 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books
Along Came A Fifer ... is an utterly charming book. It is written in such a way that, if not for modern references like the cell phone and the Eurostar, it seems to take place in late 19th century England. The characters and their manner of speaking, the description of buildings and locations, even the cadence of the narrative, all evoke a Victorian, at times Holmesian, style. It's really quite remarkable.
©2009 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books
Also available for:
Murder and Mayhem English Style
Official site of mystery author R. Michael Phillips
