First published 2023
Lady Anne Coke receives an urgent call while on business in Scunthorpe in January 1950. Her grandfather, whom she adored, has been found dead at the bottom of stairs at Holkham Hall with valuable jewelry in his pocket. No clear cause of death emerges, and some blame the ghost that reportedly roams the ancestral home. Anne refuses to accept supernatural explanations or accidental death. During World War II, when army units occupied much of Holkham Hall, eleven-year-old Anne lived there under the supervision of a governess she despised and distrusted. Forbidden from entering certain sections of the house, Anne secretly used hidden passages and cellars to move through the estate undetected. She witnessed something during those war years that may explain her grandfather's death a decade later. Anne must connect her childhood observations to present circumstances to uncover the truth about the man who cared for her during the conflict.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Holkham Hall, Scunthorpe
Period: 1950, World War II
352 pages · Paperback · Hachette Mobius