In 1936, Dorothy L. Sayers abandoned the last Lord Peter Wimsey detective story. Sixty years later, a brown paper parcel containing a copy of the manuscript was discovered in her agent’s safe in London, and award-winning novelist Jill Paton Walsh was commissioned to complete it. The result of the pairing of Dorothy L. Sayers with Walsh was the international bestseller Thrones, Dominations. Now, following A Presumption of Death , set during World War II, comes a new Sayers-inspired mystery featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, revisiting his very first case. . . . It was 1921 when Lord Peter Wimsey first encountered the Attenbury Emeralds. The recovery of the gems in Lord Attenbury’s dazzling heirloom collection made headlines—and launched a shell-shocked young aristocrat on his career as a detective. Thirty years later, a happily married Lord Peter has just shared the secrets of that mystery with his wife, the detective novelist Harriet Vane. Suddenly, the new Lord Attenbury—grandson of Lord Peter’s first client—seeks his help to prove who owns the emeralds. As Harriet and Peter contemplate the changes that the war has wrought on English society—and Peter, who always cherished the liberties of a younger son, faces the unwanted prospect of ending up the Duke of Denver after all—Jill Paton Walsh brings us a masterful new chapter in the annals of one of the greatest detectives of all time. *Starred Review* It is a dangerous thing to bring characters so distinctive and beloved as Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane into a new age, but Walsh manages it as she did in A Presumption of Death (2002), with delicacy and precision. Post-WWII England remains under rationing and economically troubled. Wimsey, at 60, is settled comfortably. Harriet is writing. Their three boys are at school along with Bunter and his photographer wife’s boy. Peter and Bunter recount to Harriet the tale of Peter’s very first case, the (missing) emeralds of the title, a rich and exotic story. What this allows Walsh to do is show how the characters have moved into a postwar and modern sensibility, elegantly extrapolating how Peter and Harriet would think and act. She marries this with the ping-pong of quotations and kernels of fact to which fans are accustomed. Just when one might think the tale will be elegiac and ruminating, it ramps up deliciously when the current Attenbury again seeks Wimsey’s aid in tracking an elusive emerald, one of three. There are murders, intrigue, and a family tragedy, and Peter and Harriet find themselves in a very different place in 1952. Small delights include glimpses of the three Wimsey sons, all bright and beautiful, and the loyal Bunter moving with changing mores but steadfast affection. --GraceAnne A. DeCandido Praise for THE ATTENBURY EMERALDS: "Hundreds of Sherlock Holmes stories have been written by authors other than Conan Doyle. Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler are others whose deaths did not prevent their fictional creations from continuing to live. Occasionally, such pastiches and homages succeed, but not too often. It’s not simply a question of imitating a style of writing. Just as important are a sense of time and place, the language (and slang) of the period, and its social backdrop. And, of course, a hero acceptable to lovers of the original. Jill Paton Walsh, assuming the mantle of Dorothy L. Sayers, convinces on all counts....Sayers would not have recognised that [THE ATTENBURY EMERALDS] wasn’t her own work." -- The London Times "Luckily, Wimsey has Jill Paton Walsh to continue his life, cunningly framing his first case as a remembrance that serves as an origin and an encapsulation….A pitch-perfect Golden Age mystery; not a pastiche but a gem of a period puzzle that belongs on the shelf beside the Wimsey originals." -- The Financial Times (UK) "If you're a Dorothy L Sayers fan who has been obliged to feed your habit by reading and re-reading the books featuring her aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey help is at hand....Fans will be pleased that it is an absolute treat: civilised, intelligent and spellbinding…. Channelling the authority Sayers employed right up to her final book, Walsh shows that she has the full measure of the imperishable Lord Peter and the hyper-intelligent Harriet Vane." -- The Express (UK) Jill Paton Walsh is the author of books for adults, young adults and children. Her novel Knowledge of Angels was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Her crime novels and mystery novels include A Presumption of Death , The Wyndham Case and A Piece of Justice , which was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. With Dorothy L. Sayers, she was co-author of Thrones, Dominations . Her novels for children and young adults include The Green Book and A Parcel of Patterns . She lives in Cambridge, England. Chapter 1 ‘Peter?’ said Lady Peter Wimsey to her lord. ‘What were the Attenbury emeralds?’ Lord Peter Wimsey lowered The Times , and contem­