The Adventures of Ginger Black: The Head on the Mantlepiece

This extract comes from the beginning of S.D.S' 2019 novel The Adventures of Ginger Black: The Head on the Mantelpiece, set on a huge country estate, in a large 21 bedroomed manor in Hampshire in 1937. The war is imminent. Mrs Shirley West has just arrived back from a shopping trip, and is greeted by a bloodcurdling scream from her lady-in-waiting, Clara Crawford. Her businessman husband Walter West's severed head has been discovered on the mantelpiece in the Drawing Room. Traces of deadly poison seem to have contributed to his death, told by his coagulating blood at the foot of the fire pit. Just an hour earlier, Walter's estranged daughter Esther had arrived, demanding more money, and threatening her father when he refused her. Shirley, and Walter's business partner Burt Ballinger, was planning on poisoning Walter that very night and eloping. At this point, Detective Ginger Black and her assistant, Professor Solomon et Stultus, have only just been called. All the suspects, other than Esther West (who, by this point, is halfway to London), are gathered in the Drawing Room, waiting for her arrival.