Part of Lady Darby Mysteries, book 12
First published 2024
October 1832. Kiera Darby is relieved to be in the English countryside, moving at a slower pace. She, her husband Sebastian Gage, and their infant daughter have come to help his father, Lord Gage, recover from wounds he suffered when someone tried to kill him. The family expects quiet. They do not get it. A summons arrives from Cornwall. Lord Gage's estranged uncle, a Roscarrock, has been murdered. The family wants answers. Lord Gage resists going. Kiera and Sebastian go anyway. The Roscarrocks live at an isolated cove, and almost nothing about them is what it first appears. Kiera and Sebastian learn quickly that they were brought there under false pretenses. The family is hiding something. There are rumors of a lost treasure. There are older, darker stories too, whispers of murders stretching back decades that connect directly to people Kiera and Sebastian care about. The investigation stops being professional. It becomes personal. Kiera has solved difficult cases before, but here the past keeps reaching forward, and the danger is not only to strangers. She and Sebastian must find the truth before the Roscarrocks' long-buried secrets pull their own family apart.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, adult-fiction, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, intricate, mysterious, suspenseful
Tropes: married-couple-detectives, past-reaching-forward, personal-stakes, secrets-and-lies
Setting: England, English countryside, Cornwall, Roscarrock
Period: October 1832, 19th century
374 pages · Paperback · Penguin Publishing Group
Content warnings: murder, violence