Sara Sheridan

In post-World War II England, former Secret Service operative Mirabelle Bevan takes a job at a debt collection agency, but when she discovers that a pregnant Hungarian refugee who had taken out a routine loan has been reported dead, she decides to investigate.

Set during the summer heatwave of 1953, England Expects finds Mirabelle and Vesta investigating the seemingly unrelated murders of a racing journalist and a cleaning woman. Their searches lead them through Brighton Pavilion's crumbling passageways to the quad of a Cambridge college and finally into the shady underworld of Brighton freemasonry. And, while not on the murder trail, Vesta has to make some difficult decisions about her personal life.