Paul Somers – författare

It began with the Night News Editor of the Record, in a foul temper, sending Hugh Curtis out on a time-wasting chase to confirm a totally uninteresting rumour. It developed into the biggest scoop the paper had ever known and one of the most unusual and dangerous stories which Hugh had ever covered. The tip-off, which might have rated three lines in an early edition, concerned a bogus telephone message which sent a certain Mrs. Ward hurrying to a London suburban hospital. The pay-off was a disappearance which sent Hugh to a desolate rendezvous with men who were holding a nation to ransom. For once he was one step ahead of Mollie Bourne of the Courier and it was not in Mollie’s nature to play second fiddle to anyone. Pursuing her own line of investigation she too was swept into the weird and thrilling climax to Paul Somers’ absorbing new story which is a fast-moving and exciting successor to Beginner’s Luck.

When a cannon ball is reported missing from the historic caste of Lodden in Sussex, Hugh Curtis – a very new reporter on the Daily Record – is sent to cover the trivial episode by way of a punishment, because he had “fallen down” badly on a story the previous day. Digruntled, he makes up his mind to find the wretched cannon ball at any cost.In fact, it nearly costs him his life—and Mollie Bourne hers, too. Mollie is the beautiful girl reporter of the rival paper—“the Courier’s spoiled darling,” according to Hugh. But she proves to be a good companion in a tight spot, for finding the cannon ball is only a prelude to a series of terrifying experiences. Luck, however, is on their side—“beginner’s luck,” Hugh modesty calls it, when he lands the scoop of the year.