In Jeopardy

A New York lawyer inherits a Virginia manor from a cousin he never met, and finds that the house came with a legend, a locked chamber and someone already in residence. Sutphen edited at Harper's and wrote across the map — mysteries, golf, and a post-apocalyptic romance about New York in ruins. This one is his country-house puzzle. Sixty plates by George Bellows and Thomas Moran, among others, carry the eye from New York streets to Monhegan shore and Venice, the wide American world this manor mystery keeps just outside its gates.