“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

Iris is hiding something from me.

I shouldn’t be surprised by this. In the eighteen months since we started up The Right Sort Marriage Bureau, working side by side in the same office five days a week without a break (not to mention the odd extracurricular excursions prompted by the rather surprising amount of murder investigations we’ve been dragged into), there have been any number of revelations of wartime secrets by this woman who has become not only my business partner but my best friend. Indeed, I have learned or guessed so much about her that I ended up becoming a signatory to the Official Secrets Act myself to protect her.

I should have realised that would eventually get me roped into doing some dirty work for Iris’s old boss, the Brigadier, but I hardly expected that we would be accosted by one of his subordinates while walking home and diverted to a clandestine meeting in the backroom of an out-of-the-way pub. Before I knew it, we had agreed to use The Right Sort to help him find out if someone returning from the Far East to work for the Foreign Secretary is actually in the employ of the Soviets. Tony Danforth, someone Iris knew years ago, back at Cambridge in the thirties.

I can read most people, but when Iris and the Brigadier go at it as they did in this meeting, the layers of deception, both self and otherwise, are dizzying to behold. From his viewpoint, it’s understandable. He needs to know that her loyalty to the Crown, or in any case to him, will be unwavering. She has hinted before that her youthful university existence tilted towards the left, but she’s rarely spoken about it. And although the secrets she’s kept have so far involved matters of national or wartime security, this time is different.

This one seems to be personal.

And she won’t discuss it with me. I wouldn’t pry, normally, but if she is concealing something about her friendship with Tony (and was it only friendship? Words like “friend” or “lover” are difficult to pin down with her), then it may turn out to be something that could jeopardise our new mission.

And that could make things dangerous for all concerned.

FIRE MUST BURN
Series Name: A Sparks and Bainbridge Mystery, Book 8
Genre: Historical Mystery (1940s)
Release: January 2026
Format: Print, Digital
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The owners of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau are back, and more determined than ever to bring love matches to the residents of Post-WWII London . . . so something as trivial as being dragged into a spy mission isn’t going to stop them!

Sparks fly when an old friend comes to town . . .

London, 1947. After recent events have left the normally steadfast Iris Sparks thoroughly shaken, she’s looking forward to some peace. With The Right Sort doing well, she and business partner Gwen Bainbridge are due a holiday. Until Iris’s former boss enlists their help for a secret mission.

Iris, who left British intelligence after the war, is being recruited for her Cambridge connection to one Anthony Danforth. She hasn’t seen Tony in almost ten years, yet she and Gwen must manipulate him into hiring their marriage service.

Tony’s suspected of being a Soviet operative, and an undercover agent posing as his perfect match could discover the truth. Despite her reluctance at being dragged back into the world of espionage, Iris agrees. After all, Tony was once a very good friend. If he’s innocent, she’ll happily prove it. If not? Well, no one ever said being a spy was easy . . .

Those who enjoy reading Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher Mysteries and Dorothy Sayers will adore this warm and witty historical mystery!

About the author
Writing as Allison Montclair, Alan Gordon has written the Sparks and Bainbridge series: The Right Sort of Man [ALA Reading List Council’s Best Mystery of 2019], A Royal Affair, A Rogue’s Company, The Unkept Woman, The Lady From Burma, Murder at the White Palace (DorothyL’s Favorite Mystery of 2024), An Excellent Thing In a Woman, Fire Must Burn, and more to come. As himself: The Fools’ Guild mysteries, starting with Thirteenth Night; as well as the Southern paranormal Where Werewolves Fear To Tread; and numerous short stories. He is also a Kleban Prize-winning lyricist-librettist for several musicals, most recently CRIME SCENES, an evening of six murderous one-acts written with six different composers. Alan is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Chicago School of Law. He finished up nearly forty years as a public defender with the NYC Legal Aid Society and now writes full-time, or at least until lunch. He lives in NYC with his wife, Judy Downer.