The Temptress

An account of the fascinating life of a Chicago heiress and femme fatale that offers a solution to the decades-old murder of her lover, Lord Erroll—the story at the center of James Fox’s acclaimed book and movie White Mischief.

“A true story of glamour, scandal, and murder in colonial Africa.” —The Daily Beast

A glamorous American multimillionairess, Alice de Janzé scandalized 1920s Paris when she left her aristocratic French husband for an English lover—whom she later tried to kill in a failed murder-suicide in the Gare du Nord. Abandoning Paris for the moneyed British colonial society known as Kenya’s Happy Valley, she became the lover of womanizer, Joss Hay, Lord Erroll. In 1941, Erroll was shot in his car on an isolated road. The crime remained unsolved.

Paul Spicer, whose mother was a confidante of Alice’s, used personal letters and his own extensive research to piece together what really happened that fateful evening. He brings to life an era of unimaginable wealth and indulgence, where people changed bed partners as easily as they would order a cocktail, and where jealousy and hidden passions brewed. At the heart of The Temptress is Alice, whose seductive charms no man could resist, and whose unfulfilled quest for love ended in her own suicide at age forty-two.

Please note: this eBook edition does not include photos that originally appeared in the printed book

“Spicer has brought an extraordinary character out of the shadows.” ―James Fox, author of White Mischief

“In Paul Spicer the notorious American expatriate and radiant beauty Alice de Janzé has finally met her match.” —Michael Holroyd, author of A Strange Eventful History

“Fans of Frances Osborne’s The Bolter will enjoy Paul Spicer’s The Temptress.” —The Wall Street Journal