Mystery Lady: Episode One (audio story)

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***Episode One*** was the first release in the *Mystery Lady series* written by Paul Magrs and prominently featuring the character of Dodie Golightly originated in the 2013 *Iris Wildthyme* story *The Ninnies on Putney Common*.

## Publisher's summary

Dodie Golightly is a writer of stories, creating characters in order to do dreadful things to them. Dodie, with her assistant, Cassandra, and her best friend, TV personality, Timothy Bold is about to embark on a phantasmagorical journey beyond her wildest dreams. They’ve got a mystery, a road map, and a paisley-painted-mini. They’re caught in a love triangle. Clues discovered in a mysterious manuscript lead their investigation into a series of literary murders; who are the authors listed in the book and why does Dodie’s name have a skull scrawled next to it?

## Plot

Having been roped into appearing on her friend Timothy Bold's new TV pop show Smashing Tunes, Dodie Golightly is distracted when her personal assistant Cassandra presents her with a letter from esteemed book publisher Mephistopheles and Company's editorial director Henry Duke who informs her that her work will appear in The Horrible Book of Terror.

Invited for a meeting with Mephistopheles, Dodie and Cassandra headed to Bloomsbury alongside Timothy who was filming another television show in London. While on the train Cassandra witnessed an intense encounter between freelance copyeditor Helen Spedding and a man who attempted to grab the manuscript that she was working on before Helen throttled him into submission. Later, Helen caught up with the trio as they attended a meal at the Knightsbridge and revealed that she was the copyeditor for *The Horrible Book of Terror* and her attacker had been an agent hoping to get his hands on the book. As Dodie and her friends were visiting Mephistopheles themselves, Helen requested that they take them the manuscript to which Dodie agreed.

Upon their return to Timothy's flat Cassandra excused herself for an early night, in an attempt to avoid the tension between Dodie and Timothy after she rejected his marriage proposal. In her sleep Cassandra had a dream about Helen Spedding being attacked by a moth-like being as she returned home, and she alerted Dodie about this when she awoke. Soon after a blizzard burst through the apartment and ripped open the manuscript tossing pages across the room - Dodie, Cassandra and Timothy found that several pages of the work was missing. Fortunately, the contents page was found by Timothy, but Dodie was shocked to discover strange markings next to the thirteen contributors' names and that her name had a skull written beside it.

## Characters

* Dodie Golightly
* Timothy Bold
* Cassandra
* Director
* Helen Spedding
* Man

## References

* Dodie investigated poisonings at the Cheadle Hulme Women's Institute where strychnine had been added to raspberry jam.
* An incident in the revolving restaurant at the Post Office Tower in London had changed Cassandra.
* Dodie lives in the leafy suburbs of Heaton Moor in Manchester.
* Dodie has two cats Agatha and Edgar.
* Dodie and Timothy attended Betty Street school together.
* Appearing on Smashing Tunes are Mervin and his Mop-heads, Gary and the Gonks, Brenda Soobie and Peter and Penelope.
* Mephistopheles and Company is the name of a book publisher in Bloomsbury. In the 1920s they published the mystery tales of Lady Lucrezia Noggins, and by the 60s were having success with the strange adventures of Oswald Arthur.
* The Taj Mahal was a Chinese takeaway owned by Uncle Sayeed.
* The Horrible Book of Terror is volume 27 of an anthology series edited by Fox Soames.
* Knightsbridge was a French restaurant in London.
* Helen Spedding had been a spy in France during the war working for the Resistance, but now lived at her sister Edna Spedding's cottage in Ramificashun.

## Continuity

* Brenda Soobie is an incarnation of Iris Wildthyme. (PROSE: *Bafflement and Devotion*, et al.)
* Fox Soames was editor of the Book of Mayhem anthology series. (PROSE: *To the Devil — a Diva!*, et al.)