Le Grande Mystérieux and the Case of the Spider People — Chapter One

The Story So Far: The Case of the Cat with Wings

A quick catch-up for readers joining the Mystérieux series

Journalist Silas Tredwell first crosses paths with the reclusive, disgraced magician known as Le Grande Mystérieux while investigating a case brought to him by Miss Charlotte Fenwick. Her uncle, Lord Fenwick, has fallen into an unshakeable trance after receiving a grotesque gift: a taxidermy cat fitted with bat-like wings, an object that seems to hold him in its thrall and is slowly killing him.

Silas and Charlotte's search for answers pulls them into London's foggy underworld of séances, esoteric societies, and one very unco-operative magician who refuses to let them past his front door. A summons to a murder scene at St Bartholomew the Great — complete with ritual overtones and an eerie half-familiar melody — deepens the mystery, hinting that whatever plagues Lord Fenwick is part of something far larger.

At the heart of it all sits Mystérieux himself: guarded, evasive, and clearly hiding more than he admits about his past and his rivalry with a powerful figure named Aldous Ashlock, grandmaster of the Society of Esoteric Studies. By the story's end, the immediate threat to Lord Fenwick is dealt with — but Charlotte is certain the magician isn't telling them the whole truth, and Silas is left convinced this is only the beginning of his entanglement with Le Grande Mystérieux.

New readers can pick up the next instalment without trouble — but those who enjoy a good mystery may want to go back and see how it all began.

Le Grande Mystérieux and the Case of the Spider People
Chapter One

The summer of 1888 saw the City of London transformed into a boiling cauldron. The days were spent attempting to hide from the scorching sun, and the nights thrashing in bed, the sheets sodden with sweat.

And through that damnable heat, down alleys stinking with bodies packed into slums, and drains blocked with rotting offal, stalked that twisted, evil creature Mr Stitcher, dispensing death with his blade and disfigurement with his needles.

As the number of his victims climbed, five at the last count, and the police investigation floundered with ineptitude and corruption, a pervasive fear threaded its way through the city as the temperature climbed ever higher.