Murder at the Lake Pavilion

At a lakeside hotel, the most dangerous thing in the room may be what a witness thinks he saw.
When art collector Étienne Vautrin asks Julian Ashcombe and Clara Bennett to check the credentials of a prospective buyer, their commission seems discreet. Then Leonard Bell is found dead in the hotel's Pavilion, and an honest witness insists he saw a figure where no one could have stood.
The Pavilion's glass and screens turn reflections into apparent routes, while private letters and carefully guarded promises complicate the lives of those near Bell. Each concealed truth threatens to look like evidence—and each explanation shifts when Clara tests what the witness could actually see. As Julian weighs loyalty against proof, the pair must separate inflated credentials, a misleading sighting and private deceptions from the one account that cannot survive scrutiny.
Set against the brilliant waters of Lake Geneva, this is a Golden Age puzzle of fractured reflections, divided loyalties and the peril of trusting appearances. A truthful witness can still be quite wrong about what the light revealed.