{"product_id":"the-malady-in-madeira-9781448204335","title":"The Malady in Madeira","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe last thing recently widowed Julia Probyn expects to find on the lush and charming island of Madeira is a clue to her husband's mysterious death, for Colonel Jamieson perished somewhere in the wilds of Central Asia while on a top-secret mission for British Intelligence. No sooner does Julia arrive at Madeira with her infant son and his devoted Nanny, however, than a series of strange, sinister, but apparently unconnected events begins thrusting itself upon her. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDisplaying her usual intuitive flair for deduction, Julia soon concludes that, for some reason, the Russians are experimenting with a powerful new chemical on Madeira's wild sheep. But why? And why was she told that her husband died \"because he went out without wearing his respirator\"? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA small Madeiran peasant boy shows the same lethargic symptoms as the sheep, and-Julia suddenly realizes-as her husband had himself displayed shortly before walking into a Soviet ambush half a world away. Has she stumbled upon a testing ground for nerve gas in Madeira? And is that what her husband's last mission was all about? Keeping a firm grip on her nerves and her imagination, Julia forces herself to learn the exact and painful details surrounding the abortive mission and her husband's death. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOnce in possession of the few tenuous facts that anyone in London knows and can tell about Colonel Jamieson's death, Julia summons her cousin, Colin Monro, to Madeira and, together, they blow the entire Russian plot wide open. Here is high adventure interwoven with all the sights, sounds and scenes of fecund Madeira in a story as exotic and spellbinding as Ann Bridge's many readers have come to expect from her gifted pen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnn Bridge (1889-1974), or Lady Mary Dolling (Sanders) O'Malley was born in Hertfordshire. Bridge's novels concern her experiences of the British Foreign Office community in Peking in China, where she lived for two years with her diplomat husband. Her novels combine courtship plots with vividly-realized settings and demure social satire. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBridge went on to write novels around a serious investigation of modern historical developments. In the 1970s Bridge began to write thrillers centered on a female amateur detective, Julia Probyn, as well writing travel books and family memoirs. Her books were praised for their faithful representation of foreign countries which was down to personal experience and thorough research.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Reader","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50337315717394,"sku":"9781448204335","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c81699c5-7502-412a-809b-276fa5b7241c.jpg?v=1727959400","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-malady-in-madeira-9781448204335","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}