Cozily ensconced in his eighteenth-century Cambridgeshire manor, bestselling mystery writer Sir Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk delights in tormenting his four grown children with threats of disinheritance. Then he announces his latest blow-he's engaged to Violet, a beautiful widow with a dubious past.
Money-driven panic soon sets in among the backstabbing brood when eldest son and appointed heir, Ruthven, turns up dead in the wine cellar. Who will win the inheritance sweepstakes? It's a house full of suspicion, greed, vengeful malice-and ample motives for murder. Can Detective Chief Inspector St. Just nab the killer before another heir lands in the family burial plot?
Winner of the 2008 Agatha Award
Nominated for the 2009 Anthony and Macavity Awards
Chosen by Kirkus Reviews as a Best Book of 2008
"Fans of stylish English detective work will welcome Malliet's droll debut."-Publishers Weekly
"Wicked, witty and full of treats . . . More, please!"-Peter Lovesey, recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Crime Writers' Association and Malice Domestic
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