St. Cuthbert’s Tower

Rishton Hall Farm has stood empty for years, its shutters closed, its chimneys cold, its rent lowered again and again. Now, on a bitter January afternoon in the West Riding of Yorkshire, a cab carrying two young women overturns at its very gate. So begins St. Cuthbert’s Tower, a gripping Victorian mystery by Florence Warden.
Olivia Denison, a spirited, athletic and fearless young woman, has been sent ahead with her loyal, sharp-tongued maid Lucy to ready a decaying Tudor farmhouse for her family’s new life in the country. But nothing is ready. The furniture has not arrived, the villagers are wary, and the surly farmer John Oldshaw, who had set his heart on the property, makes no secret of his resentment.
Then Olivia forces open a locked door in a forgotten wing of the house and finds a bedroom left almost untouched for years: faded valentines pinned to the wall, a dream book, a prayer book with a name written on the flyleaf. Who was the girl who lived here? Why does the old key-keeper tremble at the question? And why do the villagers speak of the unconventional, kindly vicar of St. Cuthbert’s in such dark whispers?
Part Gothic mystery, part village drama, with a touch of romance, this atmospheric 1889 novel sets a brave heroine’s common sense and loyalty against gossip, prejudice and a secret a decade old. Warden, a prolific Victorian novelist and former actress, keeps the suspense simmering as Olivia learns that deciding whom to trust may cost her dearly.
Perfect for fans of Victorian sensation fiction, atmospheric English country mysteries and old-fashioned page-turners. Settle in, and let the shadow of St. Cuthbert’s fall across your evening.