Checkmate

Crime in Cannes! A young, naïve lady's companion is about to discover the dark side of the French Riviera's seaside playground for the rich and famous.

For the last seven years, twenty-four-year-old Mary Mallory has led a sheltered existence caring for her aunt. Now that her aunt has passed, Mary decides it's time for independence and adventure. To that end, she answers an ad in the paper for a lady's companion needed in the south of France. Ignoring her own feeling of foreboding—and her worldly best friend's advice—Mary accepts the position.

Unknown to Mary, her employer, the Comtesse Zamoyski, is one of the most dangerous crooks preying on the wealthy tourists of the Cȏte d'Azur. Her latest target is Lady Isobel Wentworth, an English aristocrat and frequent gambler at Cannes's most opulent casino, who carelessly wears her world-renowned pearls nearly everywhere she goes. Luckily for the Comtesse, she has a useful new pawn in her cunning plot to steal the jewelry: the unsuspecting Mary.

In the clutches of a dangerous gang of thieves, Mary will learn once and for all to look before she leaps . . .

Praise for Golden Age mystery author Sydney Horler

"Sydney Horler has the secret of the thriller at his finger tips." —The Daily Telegraph

"Horler writes with extreme zest; his stories brim over with adventure." —Punch

"Gusto is uncommon in modern authors. Sydney Horler has it in full measure and running over." —Truth

"Prolific invention and profuse incident have put Horler where he is—on top of the thriller writers." —Star