Kate Parker and the Detecting Duchess - Guest Post

I'm happy to let Kate Parker take over the blog today. Kate writes the Victorian Bookshop Mystery series. The Detecting Duchess is the fifth book in the series.

A few years ago, I wrote a mystery set in Cairo in the late Victorian period. While no one will ever read this manuscript, I loved the plot. It was based on the history of that time, and it didn’t take long looking through my notes and source books to find it would work well as Georgia’s last case.

In The Detecting Duchess, Georgia begins to search for a missing man in England and goes on to investigate a murder in Cairo a few weeks before. All the Europeans of that time, whether tourists or government officials, left Cairo and the upcoming summer heat at the end of May and didn’t return until October. This meant all the suspects in a murder in Cairo would now be present in London for Georgia to question.

Egypt at that time, although officially a part of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, was controlled by the British with an assist by the French. Egypt had nearly gone bankrupt twenty years before due to the cost of building the Suez Canal. The British and French, who were their biggest creditors, reorganized Egypt’s finances and had Egypt pay about one million pounds sterling twice a year toward their debt. One of the payment dates was May first.

What if that one million pounds sterling, in the form of gold, disappeared between the Egyptian treasury and the European bankers?

There would be a treasure hunt of epic proportions. Murder, mayhem, and spying would involve more and more people as those who have the gold try to keep it and those who don’t have the gold try to find and steal it. How will Georgia survive among these ruthless thieves? And will she make it to her wedding on time?

I hope you enjoy The Detecting Duchess, available now in print and ebook from all major retailers.

Kate Parker grew up reading her mother's collection of mystery books by Christie, Sayers, and others. Now she can't write a story without someone being murdered, and everyday items are studied for their lethal potential. It's taken her years to convince her husband that she hasn't poisoned dinner; that funny taste is because she just can't cook. The five books in her Victorian Bookshop Mystery series are currently available, as are the first two books in her Deadly series. She may be found at www.KateParkerbooks.com and www.Facebook.com/Author.Kate.Parker/