The Invisible Case
A shocking death turns a homecoming into a nightmare.
It's Easter 1970 in the seaside town of Tamarisk Bay, and for one family the first Easter of a new decade brings a shocking tragedy. Amateur sleuth and professional librarian, Janie Juke, is settling into motherhood and looking forward to spending time with her family. When her Aunt Jessica is due back from Rome after nine years travelling around Europe, she arrives back in town with a new Italian friend, Luigi, and the whole family soon get embroiled in a tangle of mystery and suspicion, with death and passion at the heart of the story.
As time runs out on Luigi as prime suspect for murder, Janie has to use all of her powers of deduction in the footsteps of her hero, Hercule Poirot, to uncover the facts. Why did Luigi come to Tamarisk Bay? What is the truth about his family?
As Luigi's story unfolds, tragedy seems to haunt the past, present and unless Janie acts fast, possibly what is yet to come.
It's Easter 1970 in the seaside town of Tamarisk Bay, and for one family the first Easter of a new decade brings a shocking tragedy. Amateur sleuth and professional librarian, Janie Juke, is settling into motherhood and looking forward to spending time with her family. When her Aunt Jessica is due back from Rome after nine years travelling around Europe, she arrives back in town with a new Italian friend, Luigi, and the whole family soon get embroiled in a tangle of mystery and suspicion, with death and passion at the heart of the story.
As time runs out on Luigi as prime suspect for murder, Janie has to use all of her powers of deduction in the footsteps of her hero, Hercule Poirot, to uncover the facts. Why did Luigi come to Tamarisk Bay? What is the truth about his family?
As Luigi's story unfolds, tragedy seems to haunt the past, present and unless Janie acts fast, possibly what is yet to come.
Amazon US - https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Case-heartbreaking-tragedy-cold-blooded-ebook/dp/B07D5BLMG6/
Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invisible-Case-heartbreaking-tragedy-cold-blooded-ebook/dp/B07D5BLMG6/
It’s Easter 1970 and Janie Juke is looking
forward to her aunt’s homecoming.
Jessica has been travelling around
Europe for the last nine years and is
now returning to Tamarisk Bay from Italy, with a friend in tow.
Here, in the first chapter of The Invisible
Case we meet Jessica and Luigi on their long train journey from Rome
to Calais…
In the corridor she slotted herself into a space
between a young woman and a burly man.
The man was resting his head against the window. The woman reminded Jessica of herself years
ago,
when she first set off on her European adventure. Leaving Philip and Janie had been a wrench,
but it was the right time for them and for her.
Now she was heading back to them.
Once the dawn
started to break, the milky light filled the carriage.
The man beside her looked up from the window
and turned his head from left to right,
trying to ease out the stiffness in his
neck. Jessica caught the gaze of the
young woman and
they both spoke simultaneously, causing a quiet laugh from each
of them.
The girl introduced herself as
Cinzia, going on to explain she was travelling to England;
it would be her
first time outside Italy. Friends had
told her it was bitterly cold in England
and it rained every day. Jessica went to reassure her, but the door to
the compartment slid
open, interrupting their chatter.
‘Breakfast?’ Luigi asked.
‘Good idea,’ Jessica replied, ‘but let me
freshen up first.’ Moving back into the compartment
she took her holdall down
from the luggage rack. The family had
also started to stir,
the children asking for food, the father grumbling that
it was too early to be thinking of their
stomachs. Jessica rifled through her holdall, pulling
out her washbag and a sweater,
before making her way to the small toilet at the
end of the carriage. Once she had
washed,
brushed her teeth and put on a sweater, she studied herself in the
small mirror above the
washbasin.
Sweeping her dark auburn waves away from her face she ran her fingers
across the
fine lines circling her eyes. She had always been freckly, but after
nine years in southern
climes the freckles had taken over. ‘More
speckled hen than elegant swan,’ she thought, laughing
at her
reflection. She applied a lick of
mascara and a smear of lipstick. ‘You’ll do,’ she said,
stuffing everything back
into her washbag and returning to the compartment.
The train
seemed to speed up as they made their way along the corridor to the dining
car.
A couple of times Jessica bumped
her shoulder against one of the compartments, feeling guilty
in case she
disturbed travellers who were still sleeping.
With the blinds down on most of
the doors and windows it was a guessing
game as to whether the occupants were awake.
As the train swayed around a tight bend Luigi, who was ahead of her, stumbled,
brushing up against one of the doors.
The blinds on the door were pulled up,
revealing two travellers, a man
and a woman, sitting opposite each other by the far window.
The man’s face with partly covered by his hat, which he
had pulled forwards over his eyes,
perhaps finding it more conducive to
sleep. Luigi stopped so suddenly that
Jessica
walked into him.
‘Watch out,’ Jessica said, ‘we nearly ended up
on the floor.’
There was no
reply, instead Luigi focused on the two people in the compartment.
‘Move along, we’re creating a hold up,’ Jessica
said, as two more passengers came along the
corridor behind her.
A few minutes
later they were seated in the dining car. There were three other tables in use,
nevertheless the waiter seemed to be preoccupied with polishing the cutlery on
the vacant tables.
After a short wait he
took their order and returned with a pot of freshly brewed coffee and a
basket
of warm croissants; the smells arriving at their table before the waiter placed
them down
in front of them.
Jessica broke
the silence. ‘You look as though
you’ve seen a ghost.’
Luigi took a
croissant from the basket and tore it into pieces, grabbing a paper serviette
from
the container in the centre of the table to wipe his hands. ‘I thought I recognised the man in
the compartment back there.’
‘You should have said, we could have
stopped. Catch him on the way back
maybe.’
She poured herself a coffee and
offered the pot to Luigi. ‘That’s a
coincidence, bumping into
someone you know.’
‘I’m probably imagining things.’
‘I thought I was the one who hadn’t slept.’
Luigi emptied
his coffee cup and looked up, hoping to catch the attention of the waiter for a
fresh pot. ‘Have you told your
family about me?’
‘They know I’m bringing a friend.’
‘What else do they know?’
‘What else is there?’
The train
swerved a little. The coffee slopped
about, spilling into the saucers.
‘Another croissant?’ Jessica handed the basket
to her companion.
‘No, I’ve had enough. We should return to our carriage soon. I’m uncomfortable leaving
our things
unattended.’
‘I wouldn’t have thought anyone would be
interested in my bits and pieces.’
She
drained the last remnants of coffee and pushed the cup away, mildly irritated
by Luigi’s
fingers drumming on the tablecloth.
‘Tell me again what your brother is like,’ Luigi
said.
‘He’s kind, clever and…’
‘He’s older than you, isn’t he?’
‘Yes, a few years.’
The finger
drumming stopped for a moment, only to start again as he asked,
‘Has his blindness changed him?’
‘He’s resilient, tenacious. It wasn’t just the accident. He had to deal with his wife walking out
and
then having to look after Janie. He is a
force to be reckoned with.’
‘Sounds as though your memory of your brother is
coloured?’
Jessica
looked askance at Luigi, surprised by what sounded like an accusation.
‘Rose-tinted is the phrase, isn’t it?’ he
continued. ‘A younger sister looking up
to her
big brother.’
‘I lived with him for several years as an adult,
there was nothing childlike about those times.
He was a good man. He is a good
man.’
‘But it’s years since you last saw him. He may have changed.’
Author Bio –
Isabella Muir is the author of Janie Juke series of crime mysteries - all set in Sussex.
'The Tapestry Bag' is the first in the series, followed by ‘Lost Property’. Now - 'The Invisible Case' - the latest in the series is available for pre-order from Amazon.
The 'Janie Juke mysteries' are set in Sussex in the sixties and seventies and feature a young librarian with a passion for Agatha Christie. All that Janie has learned from her hero, Hercule Poirot, she is able to put into action as she sets off to solve a series of crimes and mysteries.
Isabella has also published 'Ivory Vellum' - a collection of short stories.
She has been surrounded by books her whole life and – after working for twenty years as a technical editor and having successfully completed her MA in Professional Writing - she was inspired to focus on fiction writing.
'The Tapestry Bag' is the first in the series, followed by ‘Lost Property’. Now - 'The Invisible Case' - the latest in the series is available for pre-order from Amazon.
The 'Janie Juke mysteries' are set in Sussex in the sixties and seventies and feature a young librarian with a passion for Agatha Christie. All that Janie has learned from her hero, Hercule Poirot, she is able to put into action as she sets off to solve a series of crimes and mysteries.
Isabella has also published 'Ivory Vellum' - a collection of short stories.
She has been surrounded by books her whole life and – after working for twenty years as a technical editor and having successfully completed her MA in Professional Writing - she was inspired to focus on fiction writing.
Aside from books, Isabella has a love of all things caravan-like. She has spent many winters caravanning in Europe and now, together with her husband, she runs a small caravan site in Sussex. They are ably assisted by their much-loved Scottie, Hamish.
Social Media Links –
Social Media Links –
TWITTER @SussexMysteries
WEBSITE: www.isabellamuir.com
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