It is 1923 and Sandilands is called to Paris to help both an old friend and his government.  George Jardine recently retired from the diplomatic corps was enjoying the gyrations of Josephine Baker and her entourage when an odious acquaintance in the opposite box was brutally stabbed and Jardine’s evening clothes are covered with blood.  His exasperating reticence to discuss the crime forces the Parisian police force to call on Scotland Yard, which brings Joe Sandilands to the rescue.

Joe’s plane lands just as Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight touches down and the two briefly meet. Then he is off to help his old friend who has been ill-treated by the local gendarmerie. Luckily, he finds a like minded chap in Jean-Phillipe Bonnefaye, a rising young French police officer who joins Joe in finding the true culprit.

Their search takes them backstage with Josephine Baker and her banana skirt and into some unsavory jazz clubs frequented by a definite criminal element. There Joe meets someone from his past, a lovely someone who murdered once before and now is implicated in yet another death. Does she still have a hold on Joe and will he bring her to justice this time? Is she guilty or innocent of this recent crime?

This is where the uncertainty comes in rating this book. Those who have knowledge of the characters and their shared past will delight in learning more and judge just what can be believed and what is pure fantasy. When the final dénouement comes at last it may stretch your credibility that a chase can happen in this way but you will be caught up in the action and breathe a sigh when it is over. Or is it? 

--Jane Davis