First published 2018
Dandy Gilver arrives at Castle Bewer in the summer of 1934. The aristocratic detective faces three mysteries at once: a man who has disappeared, a valuable ruby that has gone missing, and an ancient family curse that plagues the Bewers. The castle has become an unlikely theater where actors rehearse Macbeth while the Bewer family struggles to save their estate from financial ruin. They have transformed their ancestral home into a tourist attraction complete with lectures, a servant-run tearoom, and guest quarters filled with wealthy American visitors. Dandy works alongside her partner Alec Osborne to dig into the Bewer family secrets. The stage production brings witches, murders, and supernatural elements to life each night, but the real danger lurks away from the spotlight. As Dandy peels back layers of deception, she discovers that the most sinister acts happen behind the theatrical facade. The investigation forces her to navigate between performance and reality in a place where both the living and the dead seem to hold grudges.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, suspense, mystery, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-detective, historical-setting, performance-and-reality
Setting: Castle Bewer
Period: 1934
400 pages · Paperback · Hodder & Stoughton