The Enterprising Burglar

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. On a bleak November night, Detective-Inspector Jack Strickland is summoned to Westminster Bridge by Spike Moseley, a notorious crook with a final warning about a dangerous gang. Before Spike can name the man behind it all, he collapses and dies, leaving Strickland with a chilling clue, no proof, and a growing fury at official indifference. In the fog and suspicion that follow, a mysterious navvy seems to know more than he should, and Jack's frustration deepens as the real threat slips further into shadow. At home, Jack finds steadiness in his practical twin sister Jill, just as an unexpected message arrives from Nick, his old friend and professional burglar, promising a late-night visit. Their reunion is warm, teasing, and full of moral complication: Nick has become a gentleman thief who targets profiteers and funds anti-Bolshevik efforts, while Jack worries that Jill may have already caught his eye. But Nick's past is over. He now wants back into respectable society so he can infiltrate a shadowy all-British revolutionary movement and uncover its elusive Chief before the conspiracy comes to a head. As Jack is sent off to Russia, Nick sets out on his own dangerous mission, only for a train journey through fog to erupt into disaster. Meanwhile, Michael Doone is drawn into another web of intrigue, beginning with a reluctant trip to Adele Lancaster's smoke-filled party, where fashionable talk masks hidden motives. There he meets Stephen Nicholson, an eccentric, self-mocking wit whose false identities and criminal mischief suggest he is far more than he seems. In a world of disguises, loyalties, and double lives, everyone is hiding something—and danger is never far from the joke.