DAncing with Dusty Fossils
June 1940
As the battle for supremacy in Europe rages in France, York’s beleaguered police are baffled by a series of crimes at the city’s museums.
A bungled break-in at the prestigious Yorkshire Museum is quickly followed by the murder of Lance Richards, a sub-curator at the neighbouring Castle Museum, who is bludgeoned to death.
The main suspect for the murder is the dead man’s co-worker, Anthony Gill, a quiet and unprepossessing clerk. But he doesn’t have an alibi and is stubbornly uncooperative with the police. His desperate lawyer employs Jemma and Bobbie, from Smoke & Cracked Mirrors, The York Ladies Detective Agency, to investigate the crime on Gill’s behalf and prove his innocence.
Meanwhile, the women join forces with King’s Detective Agency to find evidence for a high-profile divorce case between wealthy aristocrat, Baron Stokesley, and Jodie, his Hollywood starlet wife.
In a twisting series of events, Jemma starts to suspect that their cases are entwined.
Vengeful passions and a dark crime lie beneath the civilised, genteel, and slightly dusty veneer of those elders who preserve our history.
But which of the thousands of antiquities owned by the museum is the murder weapon?
And if Anthony Gill didn’t murder Lance Richards, who did – and why?
As the battle for supremacy in Europe rages in France, York’s beleaguered police are baffled by a series of crimes at the city’s museums.
A bungled break-in at the prestigious Yorkshire Museum is quickly followed by the murder of Lance Richards, a sub-curator at the neighbouring Castle Museum, who is bludgeoned to death.
The main suspect for the murder is the dead man’s co-worker, Anthony Gill, a quiet and unprepossessing clerk. But he doesn’t have an alibi and is stubbornly uncooperative with the police. His desperate lawyer employs Jemma and Bobbie, from Smoke & Cracked Mirrors, The York Ladies Detective Agency, to investigate the crime on Gill’s behalf and prove his innocence.
Meanwhile, the women join forces with King’s Detective Agency to find evidence for a high-profile divorce case between wealthy aristocrat, Baron Stokesley, and Jodie, his Hollywood starlet wife.
In a twisting series of events, Jemma starts to suspect that their cases are entwined.
Vengeful passions and a dark crime lie beneath the civilised, genteel, and slightly dusty veneer of those elders who preserve our history.
But which of the thousands of antiquities owned by the museum is the murder weapon?
And if Anthony Gill didn’t murder Lance Richards, who did – and why?
Dancing With Dusty Fossils, will be available on November 15th 2022 and is available to pre-order.