Death at the Emerald: A Frances Ffolkes Mystery

Once more Lady Frances Fflolkes finds herself in the midst of a mystery in R.J. Koreto’s Death at the Emerald. After a chance meeting at a party in London, Lady Beatrice Torrence, recently returned from abroad, contacts Lady Frances to investigate the 30-year-old disappearance of her daughter, Louise. They begin their search at the Emerald Theatre, the place Louise first ran off to, and quickly discover that she changed her name to Helen immediately after arriving, that she was wooed by just about every male in the company, and that she married and left after only a short time. The trail soon leads away from London, and, in typical Lady Frances manner, things soon become complicated and convoluted.

Lady Frances, with her trusty Watson, Miss Mallow, must sort out the clues and bring the mystery to a tidy end. On the way, they sort through the suitors, fend off attackers with newly acquired martial arts skills, and even find time to appear in a motion picture! But it is the ending in which Lady Frances lays out all the suspects and dissects the crime in true Sherlock Holmes fashion with a staging of her own play that truly captures the reader’s attention.

R. J. Koreto does not disappoint in the third novel in this series, and we look forward to many more adventures with Lady Frances and Miss Mallow.