An Unexpected Arrival Complicates 'The Madame Blanc Mysteries'

Jean White is the last patron at the Sainte-Vincent library as this week’s episode of The Madame Blanc Mysteries opens, chatting with the guard, Thomas (Henry Zammit Cordina), as she’s packing up. An exhibit of Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of intoxication, is closing this week, as the priceless statue at its heart will return to Paris. The exhibit includes the tale of Ra ordering the goddess Hathor to destroy all people on earth, only to change his mind. Instead, he flooded a field with red water, on which she consequently got drunk. Consequently, all statues of her are considered to be cursed. Dom arrives to pick Jean up, ending the exposition, and Thomas, as a canny Parisian, recognizes they are a couple.

Thomas is now the only person in the library when an alarm rings. Somewhere in the dark, a thief breaks into Hathor’s glass case and hits Thomas on the head with the statue. The thief leaves empty-handed, leaving the statue in pieces.

The next morning, Jean, Dom, and Gloria accompany Judith to an auction. Jeremy’s birthday is coming up, and Judith has her eye on a box of Victorian ephemera for him as a birthday present, which will fit nicely into his phantasmagoria room (did you think he didn’t have one? Of course he does!). But Judith is outbid by gangster John Marsden (British stand-up comedian and TV personality Stephen Bailey), a sinister black-clad figure Jean has encountered before. His two minions crowd Judith out of the bidding, and he leaves with his prize.