Descrizione dell’editore
Stranded at a house party - when a murderer strikes!
May 1861, Victorian England. When Matthew and Harriet Rowsley are invited to a house party at Clunston Park by Matthew’s cousin, Colonel Barrington Rowsley and his wife Lady Hortensia, Harriet is nervous - surely the aristocratic guests will snub her? After all, they are but mere servants in their eyes! Her fears are realised on their first evening when the only person who deigns to speak to her is the spiteful Gräfin Weiser and confirmed when she commits a major faux-pas at the cricket match the following day.
But there’s no escape! The cricket match is abandoned due to a storm, and flooding leaves the house guests stranded. Things worsen when Gräfin Weiser is found murdered and the finger is quickly pointed at Clara, an eleven-year-old maid as the culprit. Convinced that she cannot be guilty, Harriet and Matthew agree to investigate.
The aristocratic façade begins to crumble under their scrutiny, and they start to unlock the secrets of Clunston Park. Why does the Colonel allow his bullying friend Major Jameson so much leeway? Is there more to the befuddled Lord Pidgeon than meets the eye? Harriet and Matthew must uncover the truth, before they find themselves in deadly danger…
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Set in 1861 England, Cutler's solid if unspectacular fourth whodunit featuring husband-and-wife Matthew and Harriet Rowsley (after 2021's Death's Long Shadow) finds the couple with mixed feelings about having accepted an invitation to visit Clunston Park, the home of a well-to-do cousin of Matthew's that he isn't close to. Harriet, a former housekeeper who's risen in the world, fears the disapprobation of the snobby guests she expects to be in attendance. Her expectations are met, and she's even chastised for interfering with a cricket match after making a diving catch of a ball that was about to hit several infants playing near the cricket pitch. The stakes rise after flooding cuts off Clunston Park from the outside world, and one of the guests, whose jewels have gone missing, is found throttled to death. Though the Rowsleys instantly dismiss the notion that the victim's young maid is guilty, they have a plethora of suspects and motives to sort through. A second death ups the ante. Cutler is better at creating sympathetic leads, particularly Harriet, a sexual violence survivor, than in resolving the murder mystery. Fans of other married sleuths, such as Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt, may want to check this out.
