Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder

‘Cleverly told … brilliant character work and plotting up to the usual Symons standard.’ -Observer ‘An intriguing puzzle centered on identity…’ -Publishers Weekly

Lady Wainwright presides over the gothic gloom at Belting, in mourning for her two sons lost in the Second World War. Long afterwards a stranger arrives at Belting, claiming to be the missing David Wainwright-who was not killed after all, but held captive for years in a Russian prison camp. With Lady Wainwright’s health fading, her inheritance is at stake, and the family is torn apart by doubts over its mysterious long-lost son. Belting is shadowed by suspicion and intrigue-and then the first body is found.

This atmospheric novel of family secrets, first published in 1964, is by a winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger.