The Fifth Christmas: An Edwardian Christmas Mystery

Gilbert always was a little peevish -- bothered by this and that -- and now he's dying. Well, at least Gilbert -- Lord Hadley -- believes he is dying. He was cursed, you see, by that angry Holy Man in India, in 1882. The old Sadhu condemned poor Gilbert to suffer hellish sicknesses -- torments of body and mind -- for four years and then, in the last year, to die in his agony. It is 1909, and for the past four Christmases Gilbert has suffered those vary afflictions and with increasing intensity. And now, the curse is once more upon him. Perhaps too late, he calls upon Gerard de Montclaire to sort curse from crime, cruelty from cowardice, in one of the great French detective's most challenging investigations. In the end, Montclaire and his associate, Colonel Sir Francis FitzMaurice, will discover unspeakable murders and an insatiable appetite for revenge. But, he and Fitz must work fast. After all, this is The Fifth Christmas.