The first thing I must impress upon you is that any information I provide is covered by the official secrets act. For that reason, my replies may appear evasive or even contradictory. However, there is a war on. Loose lips sink ships, Careless talk costs lives and all that jazz.

My name is Jane Treen, I am thirty-four, single and live alone in a small London flat with my cat Marmaduke. I recused Marmaduke near the start of the war when he was a kitten. I found him injured on a bombsite. Although the vet saved his life Marmaduke has only one eye. He is the most handsome orange tabby and an excellent mouser.

I am employed at Whitehall where I manage a small department. I report directly to Brigadier Remmington-Blythe. I am not, despite my mother’s assertions to the contrary, a typist. I am not at liberty to disclose anything in detail about my work. I think you may infer that it is sensitive and pertinent to the war effort.

I often get to travel throughout Great Britain although with the war, petrol rationing and the blackout can cause difficulties. Also, please do not get me started on the trains. They are always so crowded. Or rationing generally. I live in fear of running out of decent coffee and being stuck with that ghastly stuff with the chickory in it. Ugh, just too awful to contemplate.

I often work closely with the police, the army and government inspectors. My job can often place me in danger something that I prefer my mother to remain unaware of. You will know my mother of course, she is quite famous. Not that she likes anyone to know that she has a daughter my age. Miss Elsa MacIntyre, is an American singer and actress and prefers it if people think I am her sister rather than her child.

Her mission in life is to see me married off to someone she considers suitable. Usually some wealthy, chinless crashing bore like that idiot Stephen, the brigadier’s secretary. He happens to also be the son of her dearest friend. Elsa chose to remain in England at the start of the war and is one of the forces sweethearts.

I work quite closely with Mr Arthur Cilento who is a member of my team. Arthur is medically unfit for call up since he suffers from severe asthma. His manservant, Benson assists him with this and other tasks which are sometimes a little outside the usual servant’s remit.

Arthur is very academic and has a talent for mathematics and coding. A useful skill at this moment in time. My mother has quite the wrong end of the stick about mine and Arthur’s relationship and she doesn’t approve. What makes it amusing to me is that dear Benson is besotted by my mother, and it seems she has added him to her coterie of admirers.

A typical day for Arthur and I is that he will have various documents to study. I shall be left to run around all over the place and Benson will beaver away ensuring neither of us starve whilst sorting out various problems.

My mother will no doubt impede us every step of the way and Arthur will moan about my darling Marmaduke. It’s not my fault he is allergic to my cat. Unfortunately, due to the dangerous nature of our work we are often caught up in murders. Our remit is to solve these for our country’s security.

The Secret Detective Agency ~ A Secret Detective Agency Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Historical Cozy Mystery (1940s)
Release: March 2025
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Meet Miss Jane Treen – the coffee-drinking cat lover dressed head to toe in tweed, who just happens to be a secret super sleuth!

London, 1941: Miss Jane Treen is at her desk, strong black coffee in hand and fluffy ginger cat by her side, when her top-secret government work is interrupted by an urgent call to Devon. A woman has been found dead in a lake in a place where she shouldn’t have been. Jane needs to gather the clues and find the killer before someone else from the agency gets hurt…

Shy and handsome code-breaker Arthur Cilento is bewildered by the arrival of the efficient Miss Treen and her cat Marmaduke. She bursts into his life unexpectedly, forcing him out of his comfort zone. The reluctant colleagues huddle near the warmth of a crackling fire in Arthur’s country home, working to piece together the murderous puzzle at hand.

In the sleepy Devon village, someone is hiding something: but is it the busybody vicar and his sister, the dutiful housekeeper and her secretive son, the stern librarian, or someone else altogether? And who were the people with the woman in the lake on the day she died?

No sooner have Arthur and Jane have drawn up a list of suspects, than a parcel reveals a clue that sends them in hot pursuit of a coded diary stashed in a village church. But as the heavy wooden door slams behind them and a key turns in the lock, one thing is sure: they need to unravel the truth and crack this code before the killer decides their number is up…

But if they can catch the culprit in time, might this unusual pair become the finest crime-solving partnership since Holmes and Watson hung up their hats…?

If you love twisty crime novels, top-secret intrigue and the very best of Golden Age mysteries, then you will adore Helena Dixon’s totally gripping cozy novel, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T E Kinsey and Verity Bright!

Meet the author
Helena Dixon is a Black Country wench living in Devon. Married to the same man for forty years she has three daughters, two grandsons, a cactus called Spike, and a crazy cockapoo. She was winner of The Romance Prize in 2007 and Love Story of the Year 2010 as Nell Dixon. She now writes historical 1930’s and 40’s set cozy crime.