The Locked Chandlery

A locked chandlery, a dead proprietor—and a crime scene built from the wrong instructions.

Penmorrow is preparing for its summer regatta when chandler Silas Trenoweth stays behind after closing for a private appointment. Soon afterward he is found dead inside his secured shop. A handcart, coiled line and marked parcel suggest that an authorised collection was interrupted by murder—but the arrangement is too neat, and the business records refuse to agree.

Hotel owner Edmund Trewin and his niece Katherine compare the Bay Hotel's messages with corrected orders, disputed invoices and a berth allocation that changed before the killing. Harbourmaster Amos Jago helps them test what competent chandlery work should look like, while Silas's niece, storeman, customer and committee clerks each conceal a damaging truth.

Someone copied an obsolete instruction and turned it into a convincing scene. To identify the killer, Edmund and Katherine must discover who knew the old version—and who needed the corrected one to disappear.