Bertie & the Crime of Passion

New York: Mysterious Press. Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. 1995. First US Edition. Hardcover. Two lower corners bumped; rubbing to d j . 244 pages. It is 1891, the year Bertie, Prince of Wales, saves the Surete from sending an innocent man to the guillotine. Although a quintessential Englishman, Bertie is in Paris because he unabashedly loves it - the food, the frolics, the divine Sarah Bernhardt, the joie de vivre - just as he adores investigating the murder at the Moulin Rouge. Playing detective seems partly noblesse oblige, since the victim was to become the son-in-law of Bertie's old friend, Jules d'Agincourt. But it is also a chance to show off his talent for snooping, especially with the beautiful stage star Bernhardt acting as his assistant. From the sketching of the crime scene by Toulouse-Lautree to the demimonde inhabited by the ladies of the night, Bertie finds himself out of his element and tripping over red herrings instead of caviar. He is not, however, to be fooled. His masterful retrieval of the murder weapon, his acute assessment of the victim's pale fiancee, and his dazzling deductions expose the killing as a crime of passion. And suggest that the Paris police have arrested the wrong man. Pursuing the real culprit may plunge the prince into peril. But his association with Sarah is sure to entangle him in a true liaison dangereuse - if the Princess Alexandra finds out. The surprising denouement may shock the City of Light, and it's all bound to teach even a worldly wise prince a new and deadly lesson about love. .