Publisher Marketing:
#1 NYT-bestselling author Stephanie Laurens returns with a
puzzling case in which her favorite sleuths must untangle a slew of secrets to
expose a coldblooded murderer.
When a middle-aged spinster is found strangled in her
country cottage and scurrilous gossip implicates Henry, Lord Glossup, he
appeals to Barnaby and Penelope Adair along with Inspector Stokes to unravel
the mystery of who killed Viola Huntingdon.
Henry, Lord Glossup, arrives on Barnaby and Penelope Adairs'
doorstep and begs their aid-and that of Stokes-in identifying the murderer of
Viola Huntingdon, a middle-aged spinster who lived a largely blameless life in
a country cottage in a tiny village close to Henry's home. As Stokes has
already been tapped to take the case, the investigators travel to Salisbury and
thence to Ashmore village and throw themselves into the case.
While initially Henry was touted as a suspect, he is quickly
eliminated, and with the help of the victim's sister, Madeline, the
investigators set out to discover all they can about the victim and who might
have wished her ill. In such a small village, with a commensurately small
population, the list of possible suspects is short, but the existence of
Viola's 'secret admirer, H' has everyone stumped. First, how could Viola,
living in such a small community, have had a secret visitor, a man no one saw
except at a distance? And who on earth is he, this H?
As the investigators piece together the clues of missing
jewelry and sightings of H and follow the leads generated by opportunistic
thieves, dodgy jewelers, and local moneylenders, a picture emerges that points
to only one conclusion. But in small villages, things are rarely as they seem.
Have the investigators got the right man in their sights, or have they been led
astray?