Welcome to my Readers Club page. This is where you’ll find links to all the short stories and extra information about the Marjorie Swallow books that I write exclusively for my Readers Club members. I’ll be adding to the page over time, so do check back and see if there’s anything new! Download links lead to the Bookfunnel website where all my books are hosted. You can download stories and books to your e-reader, or read on your phone or laptop.
Murder At The Ritz: the prequel to Blackmail In Bloomsbury
This is where it all began for Marjorie and Mrs Jameson! Read about Marjorie’s interview for the post of private secretary to Mrs Jameson, which takes place at The Ritz hotel over afternoon tea. The novella also introduces Marjorie’s friend Freddie the pianist, and Graham Hargreaves, who later becomes butler at Mrs Jameson’s Bedford Square house.
Marjorie is desperate for a job that will take her out of her father’s drapers shop and give full rein to her talents. She’s excited and nervous about the interview with Mrs Iris Jameson, an American lady recently arrived in London. But she doesn’t expect to be launched straight into solving a murder… until one of the guests at a nearby table collapses and dies.
Tea, cake and a sprinkle of cyanide… Murder At The Ritz is a perfect introduction to the Marjorie Swallow murder mysteries.
Download it here. https://dl.bookfunnel.com/vpgwrx87ux
Diamonds Are For Christmas: a short story that follows Blackmail In Bloomsbury
Mrs Jameson shares a story from her younger days: a glittering Christmas Eve ball in the Palazzo del Fiori in Rome, 1892. The young Iris Hunter, newly arrived from Boston, is a slightly gauche wallflower, mortified that none of the young Italian men want to dance with her. But her powers of observation mean she is perfectly positioned to see what is happening when priceless jewels start to disappear.
This short story, told to Marjorie after a Christmas Eve party at Bedford Square, gives a little of Mrs Jameson’s background and explains some of her complicated views about crime and punishment.
Download it here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/j6jgvcwnh7
Jackdaw Jubilee: a short story that follows The Soho Jazz Murders
Marjorie and Mrs Jameson are on their way to Hawkshill Manor in Kent, at the behest of a client. But this is not Mrs Jameson’s first visit to Hawkshill.
On the drive, she tells Marjorie about visiting Hawkshill at the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, in the summer of 1897. The village is full of excited school children preparing for their jubilee pageant, to be held in the church. It’s possible that some of them are even more excited about the promised Jubilee Tea on the village green, to be held afterwards.
When a valuable chalice, presented to the church to mark the jubilee, goes missing, the eye of suspicion falls on the village children. But are they the true culprits – or is the thief closer to home? Iris Hunter, as she still is, figures out the truth.
Jackdaw Jubilee is both a self-contained story and whets the appetite for the next novel in the series, Death At Chelsea, which opens back at Hawkshill Manor, 25 years later. Download it here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/8c12iz1laz
A Venetian Masquerade, a short story that follows The Riviera Mystery
Marjorie and Mrs Jameson are preparing for Christmas when a Venetian glass bauble reminds Mrs Jameson of her first Christmas in Venice, as a newly-married woman. She tells Marjorie of their visit to a masked Ridotto, held in a crumbling palazzo, where a mysterious Romanian countess is winning a suspiciously large amount of card games.
Mrs Jameson’s investigations reveal more than she had expected – but sometimes the only way to learn the truth is to don a mask.
A Venetian Masquerade is a self-contained story and sets up the next novel in the series, Death On Fleet Street, which will be published in 2025. Download it here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/vse55u74as