Bedford Green Mystery

A Jazz Age rake investigates an utterly divine art-world mystery Everyone who's anyone knows Bedford Green. Once a merciless gossip columnist, he has given up the life of sleaze and secrets and decamped for the Village to open a gritty little art gallery showcasing the most shocking European artists imaginable. The gallery is a money pit, and Green is in debt to some of the roughest loan sharks south of 14th Street, but that doesn't stop him from looking fabulous or having a good time. He's the happiest in New York society-at least until his assistant starts to cry.   Sloane is a modern woman, a flapper with a razor-sharp bob and a bulletproof heart, but she's convinced that her friend Polly Swanscott is in danger. From the speakeasies of the Village to the finest cafes in Paris, Green will do his best to save Polly-and he'll do it with a cocktail in hand.   The Weeping Woman is the 1st book in the Bedford Green Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Bedford Green finds that Newport's rich and powerful work hard, play hard, and die easy Gossip columnist, gallery owner, amateur sleuth-Bedford Green has been a lot of things, but he's never been respectable. So on a blistering hot afternoon in 1925, the impeccably dressed man-about-town is shocked to receive an invitation from the Vanderbilts requesting he spend a few days in their cottage at Newport. By "cottage," of course, the Vanderbilts mean the Breakers-a 70-room mansion lavish enough to make King Midas blush. Desperate to escape the rising mercury level, Green accepts, and brings along his invaluable assistant, Sloane. But out at the Breakers, he'll find there are more dangerous things than a heat wave.   The Vanderbilts have hired Green to investigate the mysterious Countess Zala, an interloper whose arrival has been the talk of the season. But when Green lands at Newport, the Countess is found murdered on the beach-and the party is just getting started.   The Uninvited Countess is the 2nd book in the Bedford Green Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Journey from Jazz Age New York to Kenya, with a novel by an author who "successfully combines the genre of historical novel and murder mystery" (Booklist). It's a beautiful day in Greenwich Village, and business is booming for art dealer Bedford Green. The former gossip owes it all to his invaluable assistant, Sloane-who then goes and spoils the fun by announcing that she's leaving on safari. Sloane is a Midwestern girl and has never laid eyes on any animal more exotic than a housecat, but she can't resist her uncle's invitation to visit Kenya to hobnob with everyone from the department-store king of Chicago to the Prince of Wales. Green thinks it sounds dreadfully dangerous-which means he has no choice but to go with her. The safari is cut short, however, when Sloane's aunt is found dead in the arms of a married man and her uncle is arrested for murder. Freeing him will take every ounce of Green's charm . . . A Sinful Safari is the third book in the Bedford Green Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.