The Strange Case of the Missing Thong

Cast in the style of the classic English detective novel but set in the present day 21st Century, "The Strange Case of the Missing Thong" explores the modus operandi of three of the world's greatest contemporary detectives, Chief Inspector Mark Ogilvie, Ex-RCMP Mountie Monsieur Philippe Dubois and Ms Janet Hardy and their close associates. Set against an ancestral family background of the Barringtons of Shrivenham Oxfordshire UK and Dusseldorf Germany, action takes place in the rural Sydney villages of Silverdale, Wallacia and Mulgoa, the nearby town of Picton and the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. Interwoven is the story of the determined Barrington women and men who have been auspicious in serving their King, Country and community for over four hundred years.The theft of a single thong from Robert and Ursula Barrington's Silverdale residence precedes the disappearance of their next door neighbours, Matthias and Nairda Grossman. An international Police Officer exchange sees Chief Inspector Mark Ogilvie, his Detective Inspector Robert Brown and Ogilvie's iconic Lexus, turn up at Picton's George IV Inn. Ursula shares details of the mystery with her friend Hillary Nelson, as a consequence of which Hardy and Dr Sven & Mrs Hillary Nelson take up temporary residence in Mulgoa. Meanwhile Robert Barrington contacts an old army colleague, Major Neville Cairns who, with Philippe Dubois and Miss Deanne, book into the Wallacia Pub & Hotel. Ogilvie's team investigate the history of Lord Barrington and his son Viscount Patrick Barrington of Beckett Hall, Shrivenham, Oxfordshire. They learn that the young Erika Grossman, adopted daughter of their head gardener, seduced Patrick Barrington. The lovers marry but are separated when Erika is sent back to Dusseldorf for the birth of identical twins, Matthias and Friedrich who adopts the name Ian Ramirez. The police investigate Erika Grossman, her family history and her twin sons in Dusseldorf. Patrick Barrington fathers another son by the Hon. Miss Penelope Taylor, who of course he cannot marry. She flees to Cape Town, South Africa, where Robert Barrington is born. Janet Hardy allows herself to be kidnapped by Ramirez, in place of Ursula Barrington. Ogilvie discovers the location of the kidnapped couple and Hardy. They are secretly freed by the Police Special Response Group in a raid on the Southern Highlands Parkside Private Nursing Home, where they are being held incommunicado. The story reaches its climax in London before the High Court. Ramirez and Princess Yavtushenko, posing as American heirs of Lord Barrington, a Mr Hiram T Barrington the Third and his mother Evelyn Barrington are seeking compensation from the Crown. The Government, the Treasury, the War Office and the Aristocracy itself, are alleged to be guilty of gross misconduct in their dealings with the intestate Barrington family estates and their peerage and be in breach of a lease contract. The final dramatic courtroom confrontation is between Ms Janet Hardy, lead barrister on behalf of the Crown and Professor Ian Ramirez, impersonating his own QC. Final summing up is an erudite masterpiece of precedents presented by Ramirez. Hardy's response focuses on the legal principle that plaintiffs cannot benefit from claims arising out of their own illegal acts. She unmasks the plaintiffs as Prof Ian Ramirez and Princess Natasha Yavtushenko. His Honours retire to consider their decision. Things are not looking good for the plaintiffs who are nowhere to be seen. The family fortune is at stake for the last remaining descendants of the Barrington family, as well as the extinct peerage.No one notices a man and an elegantly dressed woman board a motor launch moments before it edges away from a quay near the High Court, heads down the Thames and out to sea. Has Prof. Ian Ramirez eluded the law and outwitted the world's greatest detectives again?