Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery

Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery
Francis Durbridge

Paul and Steve are called upon to crack a case involving Carl Milbourne, the brother-in-law of wealthy financier Maurice Lonsdale. After the news that Carl has perished in a fatal car accident, rumours begin to stir that despite all odds, Carl is alive and well.When Maurice’s widowed Sister Margaret pleads for the crime-fighting duos help, Paul and Steve find themselves on a trail of deception stretching from London to Switzerland. Their lives are in grave danger as everything is done in an attempt to stall their search – anonymous gunmen, exploding cars, ransom demands, and a mysterious rendezvous that may prove to be the end of Paul and Steve…

FRANCIS DURBRIDGE

Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by

Hodder & Stoughton 1971

Copyright © Francis Durbridge 1971

All rights reserved

Francis Durbridge has asserted his right under the Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

Cover image © Shutterstock.com

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008125721

Ebook Edition © June 2015 ISBN: 9780008125738

Version: 2015-07-24

Contents

Cover (#u51050edb-92bb-54f9-b101-21ebfaf69fd0)

Title Page (#u100066a8-6727-52a5-99dc-5253967baaeb)

Copyright (#u2de59b46-368f-5048-9420-80c63955a6b3)

Chapter One (#ue0f02a28-49e8-58da-b56e-f279ef4fbf58)

Chapter Two (#u722d6a8d-bb7d-56ae-b60b-30b82c635f3c)

Chapter Three (#u0c86751c-d7c1-51c9-a11e-51c6c592e44e)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also in This Series (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#uf9c28b5e-fa00-5665-8276-22811f0e10ef)

Paul Temple had returned to the real world after ten long weeks of concentration on death, disruption and deduction. He found to his relief that the world was not at war, he wasn’t being sued for libel and his wife was still radiantly attractive. All good reasons for a celebration.

‘Darling, how nice,’ Steve murmured as they went into L’Hachoire, ‘I haven’t been here before.’

‘They do the best pigs’ trotters in London,’ said Paul. ‘They were recommended to me by my publisher.’

‘Ah, Scott Reed. Was he pleased with the new novel?’

It was one of those exclusive little restaurants that achieve rustic simplicity at conspicuous expense, with genuine décor and furnishings from Provence and genuine Provençal chefs and waiters. There was a lot of unvarnished wood, an oven range squandered space that could have been occupied by three tables and a dog replaced three possible diners. The place was crowded with rather trendy Londoners and a few slightly surprised French tourists. The head waiter showed them to a table in the corner marked ‘Reserved’.

‘No no, we haven’t booked –’ Paul began.