The Adventure of the Vatican Cameos

By Dan Andriacco

Fresh from almost getting killed helping Sebastian McCabe solve The 1895 Murder, Jeff Cody and Lynda Teal are enjoying their honeymoon alone in Rome when mystery and murder intrude. The disappearance of a young American’s Roman boyfriend seems like a familiar tale of a summer romance leading to heartbreak . . . until a cameo necklace purchased at the Vatican is stolen right off of Lynda’s neck. The feisty young journalist finds a connection between the two events as she solves her own case for the first time. In a departure from the McCabe – Cody mystery novels, she also narrates the story. The many fans of Jeff and Lynda will be delighted to read this short story bridge to the next novel in the series, The Disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MX Publishing
• Release date: May 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781780924595

Book preview

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Introduction

Lynda Teal’s Own Case

The story you are about to read is different from any other in the Sebastian McCabe-Jeff Cody saga. The subtitle, reminiscent of the classic mystery novels Trent’s Own Case and Inspector Queen’s Own Case, tells the tale: Lynda, not Jeff, narrates the story and she, not Mac, solves the mystery.

When I wrote the first Mac and Jeff book, No Police Like Holmes, the subtitle was Introducing Sebastian McCabe because I thought he was the hero. He’s the genius, the amateur sleuth, mystery writer, linguist, magician, and bagpipe player - the ultimate Renaissance man. Thomas Jefferson Cody, by contrast, is Everyman. Well, not exactly. He’s more like Every Neurotic Man.

But readers and reviewers loved the more comic character of Jeff Cody, either because of or in spite of his health obsession, his stinginess, and his sarcastic side comments to the reader. Or maybe they just loved the fact that he loved Lynda Teal.

So from Holmes Sweet Holmes onward, each adventure until this one has been called A Sebastian McCabe-Jeff Cody Mystery. Maybe someday Jeff actually will get to solve the mystery, as some readers have urged, but this time it’s Lynda’s turn.

Followers of the series know that when we first meet Jeff, his jealousy and bossiness have cost him his relationship with his true love, Lynda. By the end of No Police Like Holmes, they have reconnected in an ambiguous way. Jeff’s relationship status on Facebook is now It’s Complicated. They aren’t exactly dating, but at least they are talking. Over the next two books, between helping Mac solve mysteries, all ambiguity is removed. By the end of The 1895 Murder, Lynda Teal has become Mrs. Lynda Cody in private life.

The Adventure of the Vatican Cameos follows immediately after The 1895 Murder and before the next novel in the series, The Disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore. It could be considered somewhat in the tradition of Busman’s Honeymoon, the final Lord Peter