The Black Hoard. A Remedy Rumstry Case File by Carole Tempest.

The Black Hoard. A Remedy Rumstry Caseload by Carole Tempest.


"The thrill of the chase and the mystery of solving a puzzle is one thing, but being the object of the chase and evading police and things alike was more adventure than I craved."

Some of the characters have quirky names along with the places where this detective and murder story is set. For instance, Remedy Rumstry, Private Investigator who may sometimes show his droll sense of humour or reveal his sexual fantasies towards Detective Vi Bradley, one of his clients although he does take his work a bit more seriously, in fact a bit too seriously. His trademark is a fedora named after the 1882 drama by Victorien Sardou.

Vi Bradley is trying to track down her boss, officially her ex-boss, Chief Inspector Vanaheim known simply as Van, a master of disguises and probably one of the smartest coppers around. So what is the problem? Her ex-husband, Shirley "Krow" Cankrow, owner of The Daily Mayhem and ace reporter has been murdered and Van has confessed to the murder. Rumstry knows she didn't do it. Even Detective Vi knows she didn't do it so the killer is still on the loose. Vi had a personal interest in all of this because she had had a brief affair with Krow and has been well-trained by her ex-boss, Van although she has ambivalent feelings towards her." She lied and deceived me. She killed the love of my life and left me holding the bucket of shit that was her legacy of lies."
If you think it's already complicated hold on. It hasn't even started. Van had apparently 

disappeared into thin air and Rumstry was supposed to be trying to track her down for Vi who was paying for his services. Three months down the line and our investigator is suggesting the case be closed. He knows something Vi doesn't know. "You never really wanted to help me did you?" Answer, no, of course not! He is secretly working with Van as a confidential informant doing unofficial, off the record background checks on people like Vi.

The story moves on when Rachel Porter, late 20s, out of desperation seeks his help in finding Priam's Treasure, the jewels connected to Troy. She has an interesting story to tell involving seeing the treasure dating back 3,500 years around the time of the Trojan war. She knew that this remarkable find would boost her career and give her credibility. She had met a Robert Parker on the Isle of Wight, photographed the collection-or some of it and then published an article on it. As expected her boss was excited by this and they both chased up Parker hoping to find out more information.

They travelled to the Isle of Wight but there was no trace of Parker. Where were the jewels and why had Parker disappeared? Yes Rumstry takes on the case out of pity for Rachel Porter whose work was discredited in the media and she was humiliatingly sacked. When he starts making enquiries, the next thing he knows he is taken down to the police station and questioned. His secretary, Dolly is the one to inform him that the jeweller he visited, Henry Bedford, in Chaos had been robbed and then murdered. It seemed that Rumstry was the prime suspect because he was the last person to see him alive.

When he tries reaching his client, she  has also disappeared into thin air. Where do we go from here? Rumstry gets a bad feeling about all of this and wants to drop the case. When he talks to the editor of the Chronicle this guy has already decided that Rumstry was the murderer, a criminal mastermind he calls him. Rumstry had  demanded a ring from the jeweller for his client Porter. Henry had refused to give it to him so he was stabbed with a letter opener. Rumstry had been recognised by his trademark "old man" hat. The story ran like this: "I was concealing my face and had my coat pulled tight about me to hide the blood stains on my clothes underneath." Rumstry decides to lay low for a while and does a disappearing act also, this time with his life-long friend, the one and only Chief Inspector Van.

It involves the two of them tracking down Rachel Porter and Robert Parker, locating the jewels and for Rumstry trying to prove his innocence when he becomes a fugitive and staying alive. More murders, this is dangerous detective work and a bit too hot to handle for the investigator. Who are the Blacks and what have they hoarded?

"The only way to stop these people is to expose them, and the only way to do that is to bring their hoard into the light."

First they have to be one step ahead of these bad guys and that's another story. Within 13 days it is resolved. But what is resolved?? I leave that up to you folks.

Publisher: Kindle available from Amazon.

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

Copyright 2014. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this article review is reproduced.

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