The Little Victim

It promised to be the perfect holiday every modern convenience, exotic terraced gardens complete with an ‘English’ folly, thirty-eight varieties of ice-cream, cocktails with names like ‘Widow’s Wink’ and ‘Mumbay Mule’. Antonia and Hugh Payne never seriously imagined they would encounter anything worse than extravagance in this idyllic setting…

But an uninvited guest at the garden party given in their honour makes Antonia Darcy his confidante. Not only does he claim to have witnessed the strangling of beautiful, wayward Marigold Leighton, he also insists it was their host Roman Songhera, the ‘uncrowned king of Goa’, who had committed the murder. ‘You are the kind of woman who lets her imagination run riot’, the Hon. Mrs Depleche warns Antonia – but then the murder witness mysteriously disappears and later turns up dead.

And so, rather reluctantly, Antonia and Major Payne decide to set aside their pleasure-filled days, and investigate.

Praise for R.T. Raichev’s Previous Novels

‘Fascinating and surreal.’ Lady Antonia Fraser

‘Clever and complex.’ Francis Wyndham

‘Splendidly oldfashioned sleuthery … skilfully probes the surface smoothness of country houses …couldn’t put it down.’ Hugh Massingberd

‘This auspicious first in a new mystery series from Raichev… Agatha Christie fans will find much to like in this traditional whodunit.’ Publishers Weekly