The Paperback Sleuth - Like a Bullet

Humorous cosy-crime caper from the author of the beloved, bestselling Vinyl Detective series in which a feisty, amoral book dealer uses her unique skills to solve fiendish crimes. A love letter to Agatha Christie murder mysteries and classic whodunnits.

When rock musician and World War Two nut Erik Make Loud hires Cordelia, the Paperback Sleuth, to track down a series of rare and highly sought-after Commando novels by the blatantly pseudonymous Butch Raider, it seems like a routine job. But Cordelia soon discovers that the series, and in particular the incredibly rare Commando Gold paperback, are all but impossible to track down.

The books' creator—real name Monty Hanington, once a promising young poet and now an embittered drunk—proves easier to find. When he reveals to Cordelia that all his stories came from a real ex-commando he'd met on a pub crawl, a man who was only too happy to provide authentic colour to Monty's tales for a pint or two, she realises the stories might just be a little too authentic.

For Commando Gold details a 1944 operation in Greece, where commandos stumbled on a cache of Nazi gold and decided to bring it home with them. The operation was real, the gold is definitely real, and the hoard still exists, hidden away in England.

And some people are willing to kill to get it.