Murder at the White Palace

"In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture: The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous--and never discussed--past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a genteel war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Looking to throw a New Year's Eve soirâee for their clients, Sparks and Bainbridge scout an empty building--only to find a body contained in the walls. What they initially assume is a victim of the recent Blitz is uncovered instead to be a murder victim. ... To make matters worse, the owner of the building is Sparks' beau, Archie Spelling, who has ties to a variety of enterprises on the right and wrong sides of the law, and the main investigator for the police is her ex-fiancâee"--