Lionel Black Book order (chronological)

Dial "B" for Bomb. A prankster calls out the fire brigade, empties a theater, and stops a train with his phony phone calls. Then comes a bomb scare that proves to be in very dead earnest...Unflappable London reporter Kate Theobald and her barrister husband Henry lay bare a nest of shifting sex, bitter blackmail and mounting murder--all leading to an explosive secret from a long-simmering past.

Johnny Trott is commissioned to write a biography about the indecent life of Peter Wade, a film star, which ended in his accidental death and left a litter of women, obscene letters, and films of atrocities taking place in one of those emergent little countries in Africa behind him. Suddenly, diplomats, financiers, and criminals take a murderous interest in Johnny Trott.