The Romanov Brooch Affair

A Russian gem – a Royal secret – Has a member of the Imperial family escaped a horrifying fate?

It’s August 1919, and while scanning the Sunday papers at his Belgravia flat, thirty-five-year-old retired naval officer Lancelot Donaldson-Gilks reads of a fabulous piece of Russian jewellery sold by an anonymous vendor.

The brooch, a pair of Imperial Eagles encrusted with diamonds set in platinum around a six-carat ruby, is one of several priceless artefacts missing from the personal jewellery collection of the assassinated Tsar Nicholas II.

A few days later, staying at Braemuir Castle with his cousin Angela for the annual Grouse Shoot, a body is discovered on the shore of Loch Ness.

Veronica, who has been sent by her newspaper to report on recent sightings of the monster, witnesses the discovery and believing the scoop will enhance her career collaborates with Lance to investigate the mysterious death.

Almost immediately the pair stumble upon a vital clue propelling them along a perilous path, in the process uncovering a web of intrigue and deceit involving powerful foreign dignitaries and shadowy secret agents all of whom will stop at nothing in pursuit of the missing Romanov jewels.