The Hellfire Papers: A Tim Lacy Artworld Mystery(No. 3 Tim Lacy Series)

When the Master of St Mary's House, Cambridge, hires Tim Lacy to fetch from Australia a collection of eighteenth-century documents willed to it by a wealthy past member of the college, he is economical with the truth. He omits to mention that these manuscripts have a possible connection with the 'suicide' of the late Dean of St Mary's, or that there are interested parties determined to ensure they are never safely lodged in the College library. Supposedly penned by a scandal-mongering member of the notorious Hellfire Club, these papers, if genuine, could be of enormous historical significance and monetary value. Is that why there are two attempts to steal them while they are in Tim's possession? Is that why an academic friend assessing the material is murdered? Failing to convince the police of a connection between these occurrences, Lacy decides to play things his own way. Studying carefully the 200-year-old documents and his dead friend's recent activities, he discovers that the baneful influence of the Hellfire Club has repercussions into the twentieth century and that prominent members of the contemporary establishment have very good reasons for trying to silence him. Interwoven with this unfolding mystery are the extracts from the "Hellfire Papers" themselves, which hold the clues to a devilishly cunning concoction of revenge.

About the Author :
Three decades ago, at the end of a seven year stint teaching, travelling, broadcasting and writing text books in Kenya, Derek bundled his wife and three small children into a car, journeyed by ship to Karachi and then drove overland back to England and a new life as a full-time author. Since then he has devoted himself, as he says, to 'telling stories'. There have been several kinds of stories and several kinds of telling. Some have been factual - biographies and studies of intriguing past events. Some have been fictional - for the most part crime stories. Some have been tales told on radio or television in the form of plays and documentaries. Others have been presented to live audiences - narratives that have kept hearers enthralled and often challenged their preconceived ideas. In whatever medium Derek works his objective is always the same: 'My attitude is "Hey, folks, I've discovered something fascinating. May I tell you about it?"' Because Derek's interests and enthusiasms are wide the subject matter of his stories is diverse - the sagas of fabulously wealthy families, 18th century witchcraft, the building of the Channel Tunnel, murder in Renaissance Florence, the love affair of Robert Dudley and Queen Elizabeth I. His varied projects have given him and continue to give him a great deal of fun. He has interviewed the Prince of Wales (for a programme on adventure training), sailed on a tall ship (for a book on Drake's circumnavigation), wined and dined at Bordeaux chateaux and Parisian mansions (for his study of the Rothschilds) and been admitted to the secret archives of Interpol. Today he lives in Devon and makes frequent forays to a secluded retreat in Normandy. These locations enable him to indulge his sundry passions - collecting art and antiques, French food and wine, helping new writers ('because I've been there and I know how tough it is'), speaking at literary events, travelling, and full involvement in the life of his church. Derek Wilson has scripted and presented scores of dramas and documentaries for BBC Radio 4. He has also contributed to several television programmes including "Drake's Last Voyage" (BBC2, Timewatch) and "Pirates" (Discovery Channel). Paul Mould Publishing will be releasing paperback editions of Derek's "Tim Lacy" series of artworld mystery titles, which were previously published by Headline Books and are now out of print. Tim Lacy is a security expert and denizen of the art world which teems with dubious dealers, unscrupulous collectors, fraudsters, crime bosses and bona fide connoisseurs, all in pursuit of the rare, the beautiful and the valuable.