Praise for the Dead Man series:

“Sheer fun.”—The Times (London)

“An unfailingly amusing historical series.”—Booklist

“The steady pace, atmospheric design, and detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series.”—Library Journal

“Picking up a new book by Michael Pearce reminds you why people enjoy reading mysteries.”—The Denver Post

“Pearce again demonstrates his skill at making the past come alive and at seamlessly weaving actual political intrigues into his plot.”—Publishers Weekly

“The whodunit is clever and well written, as is the case in all of Michael Pearce’s tales . . . the sense of time and place is outstanding.”—Mystery Gazette

Lionel Scampion, British consul in Naples, has been stabbed to death while bicycling through the piazza of the Porta Carmine. According to his sister, he had no enemies. The Neapolitan police suggest he was murdered by a bicycle-racing rival. In Naples, every mystery is attributed to the Camorra, a powerful criminal society; could its members be involved? Scampion enthusiastically backed the Italian invasion of Libya and befriended army officers of the newly formed Italian Bicycle Brigade. Now the Foreign Office in London has heard that international politics emanating from Rome might have been involved. Seymour of the Special Branch is sent to find out the motive for the murder and, incidentally, to identify the culprit.

Michael Pearce was raised in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, trained as a Russian interpreter, and had an academic career in England. He now lives in London.