I am writing this from the sofa in our secretary/receptionist’s office because Gwen has kicked me out of ours. Something about our newest client triggered something she needed to explore privately, so what else could I do? I love Gwen to death, but she has this irritating habit of reading people which verges on the mystical, although it isn’t. I keep telling her we should put together a cold-reading act and travel with circuses.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. My name is Iris Sparks. Cambridge educated, followed by wartime service that I am not allowed to talk about doing things that I’d rather not remember, although they tend to crop up in my current life more than I would prefer. Earlier this year, I met Gwendolyn Bainbridge at a wedding. It turned out we both had something to do with bringing the happy couple together, and after a long and, let’s be honest, liquid lunch together, we came up with the idea of starting The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. After a great deal of effort trying to find a bank willing to loan money to a pair of women running a business in London, we opened our office on the top storey of a building in Mayfair in June of ‘46, the only one on the block to survive the Blitz.

It was a very hand to mouth existence at first, although Gwen comes from money, but it’s been taking off. The publicity from the murder investigations helped more than it hurt. I think. We didn’t set about investigating murders as part of our business, but they keep finding us somehow. Early on, one of our clients was murdered, and Scotland Yard was convinced that the man with whom we had set her up was the culprit. We had to prove they were wrong. Which we did, although not without risk to our reputations. And our lives, as it turned out. Fortunately, we came through that experience alive, if not unscathed.

But more of these investigations arose, no matter how hard we tried to avoid them. I got Gwen to start taking martial arts lessons with my old Army instructor. She in turn has dragged me to her psychotherapist, although I confess that he’s been helping me. Gwen started with him because she’s been a ward of the Crown since her husband was killed at Monte Cassino and she cracked up and — well, I really shouldn’t be going into detail about that. Suffice it to say, she’s recovered to the point where she’s finally having her petition to regain her independence heard before the Court of Lunacy (can you believe they call it that?) next week.

In the meantime, she’s in with our newest client. The Lady From Burma, I’m calling her. Sad, interesting situation. She’s come to us to find her husband a new wife, because she’s dying. I could see that almost immediately, although Gwen missed it. (That’s why we’re such a good team. Each sees things the other doesn’t.) I’m trying to figure out how that’s going to work, since he technically isn’t going to be our client after she passes, but we’ll give it a try. He’s an entomologist! Explored the Burmese jungles looking for undiscovered beetles, then went back to them during the war leading a commando squad.

A scientist. And a killer. He’ll be quite a challenge to match.

But that’s what we do. At least, there won’t be any murders involved this time.

I hope.

The Lady from Burma, A Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery Book #5
Genre: Historical
Release: July 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

In Allison Montclair’s The Lady from Burma, murder once again stalks the proprietors of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau in the surprisingly dangerous landscape of post-World War II London…

In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture – The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous – and never discussed – past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Mostly their clients are people trying to start (or restart) their lives in this much-changed world, but their new client is something different. A happily married woman has come to them to find a new wife for her husband. Dying of cancer, she wants the two to make sure her entomologist, academic husband finds someone new once she passes.

Shortly thereafter, she’s found dead in Epping Forest, in what appears to be a suicide. But that doesn’t make sense to either Sparks or Bainbridge. At the same time, Bainbridge is attempting to regain legal control of her life, opposed by the conservator who has been managing her assets – perhaps not always in her best interest. When that conservator is found dead, Bainbridge herself is one of the prime suspects. Attempting to make sense of two deaths at once, to protect themselves and their clients, the redoubtable owners of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau are once again on the case.

Meet the author
Allison Montclair grew up devouring hand-me-down Agatha Christie paperbacks and James Bond movies. As a result of this deplorable upbringing, Montclair became addicted to tales of crime, intrigue, and espionage. She now spends her spare time poking through the corners, nooks, and crannies of history, searching for the odd mysterious bits and transforming them into novels of her own. She is the author of the Sparks & Bainbridge historical mystery series, which begins with The Right Sort of Man. The Lady From Burma, the fifth book in the series, comes out on July 25, 2023.

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