Riviera Gold

About the book

Summer has arrived on the Riviera, bringing with it the lively atmosphere of the Jazz Age to France's once-sleepy beaches. American expatriates gather on music-filled terraces, gazing out at the lights of Monte Carlo, where fortunes are made, lost, stolen, and hidden away.

Upon their arrival, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes find themselves torn between youthful pleasures and old sins, hot sun and cool jazz, new affections and enduring loyalties.

Russell forms a close friendship with a captivating American couple, Sara and Gerald Murphy, whose glamorous life on the Riviera is attracting famous writers, artists, and even some shady characters from Monte Carlo's underworld. The Murphy set would go on to inspire the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Pablo Picasso, but for Russell, their significance in the summer of 1925 lies in the recent appearance of Mrs. Hudson, the Holmeses' former housekeeper who had disappeared under false murder accusations.

When a young man is found dead in Mrs. Hudson's home, she becomes the prime suspect in yet another murder. Russell is adamant about Mrs. Hudson's innocence, but Holmes is skeptical. The old woman's mysterious past has been a point of contention between them, and now the powerful figures controlling Monte Carlo's prestigious casinos are determined to keep Russell and Holmes from uncovering what Mrs. Hudson's past may reveal.

On the Riviera, treasures can be deceiving, love can be destructive, and life, as Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are about to learn, can be cheap - even when it appears to be solid gold.