Fire-Tongue

Paul Harley is the sort of private investigator whose reputation extends far beyond the modest offices on Chancery Lane. A former wartime operative with deep ties to the Near East, he now spends his evenings in clubs and theatres, yet his mind never truly switches off. When the clock strikes six, his day may be over, but the quiet of his study is often broken by a new, unexpected thread that leads him into the hidden corners of London’s criminal world.

One such thread arrives in the form of Sir Charles Abingdon, an elderly osteologist who drifts into Harley’s office with a hesitant, almost embarrassed manner. The senior man carries a mystery that hints at a dangerous secret—perhaps a murder concealed beneath the veneer of respectable society. As Harley listens, the strange Burmese cabinet in his room seems to whisper of far‑away lands, suggesting that the case may draw him into an international labyrinth that only his unique blend of legal acumen and field experience can untangle.