A Death in Chelsea

This is the 2nd book in the Mayfair 100 series - Mayfair 100 is the phone number for a small specially-formed crime investigation team - set up at the behest of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Edward Henry and based in a house in London's upmarket Mayfair in 1915. What makes this team unique is that it includes two women - Caroline Allardyce, a pharmacist and a legal professional, Victoria Ellingham who adopt a forensic approach to crime, a new procedure in the early part of the 20th Century. Chief Inspector Peter Beech heads the unit with his deputy, Detective Arthur Tollman and Police Constable Billy Rigsby who - similarly to Beech - was invalided out of the trenches at the battlefront of The Great War.

This time, the Mayfair 100 team is called on to investigate the death of a young woman at a block of flats in Chelsea. It turns out that she came from an upper class family which has fallen on hard times. Her death is originally thought to be a suicide, but Caroline and Victoria - with the aid of Billy Rigsby's redoubtable Aunt Sissy - soon establish that the victim, Adeline Treborne, was murdered.
Adeline was a much hated society gossip columnist who, as a result, had been disowned by her family and friends. It also seems that she had turned her hand to blackmail. The team splits in two with the women carrying out an autopsy and checking the flat for clues while Beech's deputy, Detective Arthur Tollman, aided by PC Billy Rigsby, visit some of London's seedier districts as well as some upmarket areas as the list of suspects widens. Among them are a hardened confidence trickster, a member of Parliament, a Queen's Counsel and Adeline's brother who is trying to restore the family's good name. Even more shocking is the discovery that a "baby farmer" was also the being blackmailed. A baby farmer was a woman who bought and sold illegitimate babies, a practise which was not illegal in Britain at this time. Since it was more profitable for the baby farmer if the child she adopted died, many babies died of neglect or were murdered.

Given that some of the murder suspects are part of Britain's aristocracy, Commissioner Henry wishes them to be treated with kid gloves, but the ongoing war is gradually changing people's attitudes and class divisons matter less and less. The author, Lynn Brittney, gives us constant reminders that this story is taking place during the 2nd year of the First World War. One example is the Suffragist movement which has faded away somewhat due to women working to aid the war effort. It transpires that a suffragette is another blackmail victim. Everywhere there are soldiers who have returned from the battlefront, broken in mind as much as in body.
Meanwhile, the females in the team turn their attention to a seemingly innocent sewing bee attended by servants from the capital city's most notable households. In this they are helped out by another member of Billy's family - his mum, Mabel!
This is a fine mystery thriller incorporating well researched historical details which perfectly capture the mood of the time and reflects Britain's class divide, particularly the breaking down of many barriers as women moved from the kitchen to the workplace. Although this is the 2nd in a series, it can easily be read on its own and I look forward to reading more about the Mayfair 100 team. My thanks to Mirror Books and NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.