The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits Volume 1 (The Mammoth Book Series) by Mike Ashley

Author:Mike Ashley [Ashley, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781472117083
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2015-02-27T06:00:00+00:00

PART III

Regency and Gaslight

THE CHRISTMAS MASQUE

S. S. Rafferty

S. S. Rafferty is the pen name of former reporter and advertising executive, Jack J. Hurley (b. 1930). He has been the author of scores of short stories in the mystery magazines but has only published one book, Fatal Flourishes (1979), which features the adventures of Captain Cork in colonial America.

The series started in 1974, in the years leading up to the American bicentennial celebrations, when Rafferty determined to write a detective mystery set in each of the original thirteen states. As continuity between these stories he used businessman Captain Cork, who delights in “social puzzles”, and who is accompanied everywhere by his associate, Oaks, who serves as his Watson in recording his cases. The series spans forty years from the earliest case, “The Rhode Island Lights”, to the grand finale, “The Pennsylvania Thimblerig”, set at the outset of the War of Independence. The following tantalizing crime is set in the year 1754.

As much as I prefer the steady ways of New England, I have to agree with Captain Jeremy Cork that the Puritans certainly know how to avoid a good time. They just ignore it. That’s why every 23rd of December we come to the New York colony from our home base in Connecticut to celebrate the midwinter holidays.

I am often critical of my employer’s inattention to his many business enterprises and his preoccupation with the solution of crime – but I give him credit for the way he keeps Christmas. That is, as long as I can stop him from keeping it clear into February.

In our travels about these colonies, I have witnessed many merry parties, from the lush gentility of the Carolinas to the roughshod ribaldry of the New Hampshire tree line; but nothing can match the excitement of the Port of New York. The place teems with prosperous men who ply their fortunes in furs, potash, naval timber, and other prime goods. And the populace is drawn from everywhere: Sephardim from Brazil, Huguenots from France, visitors from London, expatriates from Naples, Irishmen running to or from something. I once counted 18 different languages being spoken here.

And so it was in the Christmas week of 1754 that we took our usual rooms at Marshall’s in John Street, a few steps from the Histrionic Academy, and let the yuletide roll over us. Cork’s celebrity opens many doors to us, and there was the expected flood of invitations for one frivolity after another.

I was seated at a small work table in our rooms on December 23, attempting to arrange our social obligations into a reasonable program. My primary task was to sort out those invitations which begged our presence on Christmas Eve itself, for that would be our highpoint. Little did I realize that a knock on our door would not only decide the issue, but plunge us into one of the most bizarre of those damnable social puzzles Cork so thoroughly enjoys.

The messenger was a small lad, no more than seven or eight, and he was bundled against the elements from head to toe.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.